I was sent a Living Well With Montel pressure cooker for review. All opinions are my own.

All over Pinterest I have been seeing women raving about their timed pressure cookers. I had always been a little intimidated by pressure cookers because of the whole pressure aspect. However, with more and more people talking about how convenient they were I decided it was time to give one a try.

Living Well With Montel is a household line from Montel Williams that focuses on cooking and healthy living. The line includes small kitchen appliances and fitness gear. I was sent the 6 quart pressure cooker which retails for $99. When the pressure cooker arrived I was a little surprised at how large it was. I had kind of thought of pressure cookers as an alternative to slow cookers, so I was surprised that this was quite a bit bigger than my slow cooker.

The unit has several buttons which can be overwhelming at first. However, there is a really handy chart inside the manual that explains how each button works. All of the options can be down in three settings. For example, the stew/soup button will set for 10 minutes if pushed once, but if you push twice it will cook for 30 minutes, or if you want well done push three times for a full hour.

With all of the regular settings, the timer only begins after the pressure has been set. So if you need to cook something for 30 minutes, it will be closer to 45 or 50 minutes in total when you add in the time for pressure to build and then diminish afterwards.

I like most of our meals VERY well done. In my slow cooker I usually cook beef stew for 24 hours so that it turns into a complete mush, without any visible chunks of potato or meat. As a result, I chose to run the pressure cooker for two of the hour-long settings.

It turned out well, and I didn’t feel overwhelmed or (too) confused even on my first try. I realized after two hours of use that the water level was not going down like ti does in a slow cooker. A quick google search showed me that this is normal, because there is no way for pressure cookers to vent the steam. As a result there will be a learning curve with determining how much water to use in each recipe. It also seemed to prevent the stew pieces from getting mushy like they do in a slow cooker. I know many people dislike slow cookers because of that ‘mush’ tendency, so for them a pressure cooker might be perfect! For this particular recipe I do like it to get mushy but it tasted great as it was.

Overall I was really happy with my first experience using a pressure cooker. It will take some experimenting to get the water levels and textures exactly how I prefer them, but I am excited to try out all of the possibilities. In addition to the regular pressure cooker options, this pressure cooker has the ability to be used as a slow cooker or for canning as well.

I like how the inner cooking pot is fully removable and non-stick for easy cleaning.

Do you use a pressure cooker? What are your favorite recipes?

Emily

Hi there! I am Emily Evert, the owner of Emily Reviews. I am 28 and live in a small town in Michigan with my boyfriend Ryan and our two pugs. I have a large family and I adore my nieces and nephews. I love reading memoirs, and learning about child development and psychology. I love watching The Game of Thrones, Teen Mom, Sister Wives and Veep. I like listening to Jason Isbell, John Prine, and other alt-country or Americana music. I created Emily Reviews as a creative outlet to share my life and the products that I love with others.

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