Fissler 8.5 Qt. Pressure Cooker

The Blue Point was recently replaced with an up-dated model, but according to Fissler they cook the same. The new one has a "V" shaped pot and this allows stacking them for storage if you have more than one. Owning more than one makes a lot of sense. More on that aspect ahead. Upon receipt, the first thing I noticed was that this is a very heavy-duty, carefully crafted cooker. A Mercedes Benz of cooking pots. It comes with a small owners manual, which I found helpful to get started. Fissler also has an 800 number and I found their customer service to be excellent. As far as performance goes, it is quiet and it cooks everything I have tried in the time called for in the recipes. Pressure cooking is based on time at a set pressure. The Blue Point can be used at full pressure (1 bar or 14.5 psi) or at half pressure. This is important as not many pressure cookers actually can reach the high pressure that this one can. All published recipes are based on cooking at the pressures achieved in pots like the Fissler. Lower pressure (typical of cheaper pots) lengthens the time required to cook the food. With the Blue Point you can follow the recipe time and get the desired level of doneness without experimentation. With the Blue Point cooking is fast. 15 bean soup that takes hours using a stock pot on the stove, or all day in a slow cooker, is done in 20 minutes using the Blue Point. Pot roast in under an hour start to finish. Clean-up is fast too. And I must say the heavy construction and quiet operation of the Blue Point inspires the belief that they are safe to use. This is not your grandmother's pressure cooker. So why two pots? Meat takes a different amount of time to cook than veggies and pressure cooking magnifies this difference. Some recipes take this into account by using a 2 stage cooking method. This method works but requires that the pot be de-pressurized part way through the cook, food added and then the pot must be re-pressurized to finish. This is awkward at best and can result is tougher meat if depressurization isn't handled properly. Too, this is one heavy pot, made even heavier when it is filled with food and water. Adding an extremely hot pot to the situation makes it clear that interrupting the cook part way through to accommodate the two stage cooking method is potentially fraught with peril. But cooking the whole recipe at once results in mush or under-cooking or both. At this point I would also like to add that in my experience the one minor weakness in the design of the Fissler pressure cookers is that getting the lid to seal reliably and quickly is not consistently easy every time. Sometimes the pot comes right up to pressure and sometimes you have to fiddle with it, take the lid off, clean the gasket, turn the gasket over, whatever. Two pots solves the problem to a large extent by allowing you to cook veggies in one pot and meat in the other with no interruptions. Finally, I would like to discuss size of pot. The 8.5 quart model reviewed here is a generous sized pot. Next size down is 6 quart if memory serves. The 6 quart one is too small for a lot of recipes such as pot roast or a corned beef or a chicken, stews or chile. The 8.5 quart size can handle most anything. If you buy two, it might make sense to buy one of each size. Don't buy one that is too small for the recipes you want to cook. Too big is only awkward to handle, but too small is a show stopper. After reading this review, if you are new to pressure cooking I recommend that you buy a pressure cookbook first and read the recipes to get a better idea of what you would be getting into. I find ones by Miss Vickie and Lorna (last name missing) quite good. For those who master them, pressure cookers save time and energy and yield excellent results. Of the available pressure cookers on the market, Fissler is among the best (I actually think it is THE BEST) and is highly recommended.