Back to the future of speed cooking.
937783
Things sure have changed since I gave my mother a Presto Harvest Gold pressure cooker back in the last century. Fagor replaces the wobbling weight with a captive spring-loaded pressure regulator. Instead of a rubber plug that blasts out of the lid in the event of excess pressure, the Fagor's emergency release is a cutout portion of the lid that exposes part of the gasket. The gasket stretches but if it should snap, it would stay in place and the steam would escape out the side, not into the cook's face. To earn the Underwriters' Laboratories seal, Fagor pressure cookers feature a pressure-activated safety lock in addition to the manual latch. You'd have to be built like Mister Universe to force open a pressurized cooker.

In operation, the Fagor behaves a little differently than a weight-regulated pressure cooker. On the latter, you have to determine if the weight is wobbling at just the right rhythm. The weight should waggle but not bang against the vent stem. With the Fagor, all you have to see or hear is a gentle constant flow of steam. The regulator knob is also the release valve, should you wish to depressurize the cooker immediately instead of allowing the pressure to drop naturally. The steam is routed through a fan-shaped outlet, allowing it to disperse and cool quickly. At six inches from the outlet, the steam is warm but not burning hot.

So far, the cooker has performed as promised. Lentil soup with diced smoked sausage cooked up thick and flavorful in just 10 minutes under pressure. Ditto for spaghetti sauce and whole links of Italian sausage. The sauce had intense flavors of garlic and herbs, and the sausage came out juicy with a hint of snap in the casing. Three pounds of diced red potatoes and the peeled cloves from a whole bulb of garlic were ready to mash in 6 minutes.

The amazingly short cooking times omit the time required for the cooker to come up to pressure which can take about 10 minutes. Still, you save a lot of time overall.

Keeping the all-important gasket clean is a cinch because it's so easy to remove and replace. The lid and pot are made of gleaming 18/10 stainless steel with an encapsulated aluminum base that cooks over any gas or electric heat source as well as the latest induction cooktops. When it's time to clean up, you can use cleaners like Bar Keeper's Friend on the inside and out, but if the discoloration is from cooking lentils, split peas, potatoes or beans, it's iron and other minerals that are good for you. Just wash and dry the pot and put it away until you're ready to prepare spaghetti sauce or some other high acidity recipe. You'll get back a little nutrition and you won't have to scour your pressure cooker.
4817060
Very easy to use, especially with the recipes that were included.  Food is tasty, and fast to prepare, but comes out like something cooked in a slow cooker.
2713912
Great update in technology. I've been using a pressure cooker for decades and was ready to get a new one and saw this one. Multiple functions is great.
1194653
This book includes not only slow cooker recipes, but in many cases accompaniments, such as scones, muffins, salsas, salads, etc. which makes it very user friendly for busy people allowing them to put together whole meals. I know that when my children were young I loved cookbooks that laid out the whole meal for me so I could use the few brain cells I had left for everything else that was going on.  There are a variety of  recipes to suit many tastes and to get away from the whole everything tastes the same complaint that many people have regarding slow cookers.

Some of the recipes are for traditional fare or the standbys of slow cooker chefs, In the Navy Bean Soup, Sweet and Spicy Chili, and Slow Simmered Cabbage Rolls to name a few.  Others are more innovative for a change of pace such as, a Mediterranean Lasagne or Moroccan Vegetable Stew with Fragrant Orange Basmati Rice.  The recipes are vegetarian but easily adapted for  meat eating households when desired, for example replace Tofu based sausage with sausages of your choice.

The only issue I have is that I would like more pictures, however I am sure that is a cost driven issue. The book is very reasonably priced and a good value for the money.  Recommended for any slow cooker chefs!
3319279
These are not simple recipes for fast cooking. They are just recipes for a high pressure cooker that may require many ingredients and some time to prep the food.
3066066
A good, efficient cook. These are easy to prepare meals, using a variety of healthy ingredients. Her protein portions are appropriate, She uses a range of grocery store vegetables. Her use of such items as powdered ranch dressing mix in Beef Stroganoff and soup mixes is innovate and fast.
  Many of the recipes are gluten free or can be converted easily.
  A good resource for day by day cooking after work.
  My health does not require the minimal fat. I use eggs, not the substitute. I omit the butter flavoring. I made my own lite Bisquick like mix with flavorless coconut oil (Swanson's). There are a variety of recipes for baking mixes on the internet.
  Hungry, don't have all day, want to eat healthy, give this cookbook a read.
592336
In our present day of frozen foods we forget that for most of history there was no refrigeration. Foods were preserved by salting, smoking and curing. But even in our time the techniques have not gone away. Just try to imagine pizza without pepperoni, breakfast without bacon, pickles, smoked salmon.

The techniques for producing these foods go back literally a thousand years and more. Yet we rarely do them in our own kithens today. It can't be for lack of eauipment, today's most humble kitchen is far better equipped than was the kitchen of the most elegant villa in ancient Rome. It is instead, something that we've just forgotten. Quite likely we don't even think of doing these things.

This book brings to light the techniques for preparing food in these ways. It is suitable for the home cook as well as the restaurant chef who wants to expand his menu. It included some 140 detailed recipies -- illustrated with seventy or so step-by-step drawings illustrating the processes.

Like a lot of cookbooks, this is one that will give you ideas, something new to try, and you wind up with better food than you can buy.
1852431
I gave Tim's new book four stars because while I immensely enjoyed the unconventional, quickest routes from A to B in cooking as well as learning and surviving on a mad planet, I found myself craving more detail on learning hacks for improving one's life  in general as well as for producing awesome food with minimal effort.

Best part about the recipes? He claims only four ingredients per dish for simplicity of execution--bravo--who among us hasn't given up on 20 ingredient dishes that end up costing thrice what the resulting entree might cost in a good restaurant? Other "insider" tips from working chefs are as useful and satisfying as learning to pick locks with an inexpensive toolkit you can keepin your pocket, another life hack in Tim's smorgasbord of a book, under the Wild section on surviving. Teaching us the method of breaking chickens necks before preparing them or catching and killing city pigeons to survive is as disgusting as it is practical and I question their inclusion save for the worth of re-connecting us with how it's been done for 1000s of years and reminding us how removed we are from the coarse but necessary aspects of staying alive.

I bought the book hoping to glean some useful nuggets of applied cleverness and high efficiency methodology for both cooking and streamlining my life. There's a lot of this in there, in both very entertaining and usable kind, but you'll have to consign yourself to jumping around a lot, something Tim encourages, as the book is ostensibly organized into relevant sections, but seems to have a lot off odds and ends strewn through. I picked us a "like new" used copy for $18 bucks and was surprised to get 500 pages and almost five pounds of product in my mailbox. Thus, I have a great coffee table book that I'll likely pick up for the short, sweet and to-the-point recipes on a regular basis. Learning to make ice cream in 30 seconds with liquid nitrogen? Great dinner party pyrotechnics. Using a bit of baking soda in the pot to make soft boiled eggs peel easier? Nice to know, but more likely an Internet "how to" than a must have in a hardcover tome purporting to revolutionize one's life.

In conclusion, lots of good substance, but also an equal portion of dazzle dazzle, which while making for a fun read leaves me wanting more in hard-to-find insider info and hacks that might make one the prized life of the party as chief magician/chef/mind-reader/Bon vivant. I think this is Tim's aspiration, which he enthusiastically shares with us, but damn Tim...give me more of the "how to make a million while seducing a princess over pomegranate crime brle" info. I'd pay extra for that!
490336
The New Mediterranean table has some interesting recipes. I do find the ingredients in some recipes, like lamb's belly, to be hard to find, as in I can't find it. The recipes are nicely laid out and there are some pictures. Not every recipe has a picture. Some recipes are as simple as charred cauliflower with cumin, paprika and feta, a fast and delicious side.

In the back of the book there are recipes for items like harissa, which is used in several recipes.  I found the small plates and side dishes to be very inspiring. Mains, like the braised veal breast with preserved lemons (lemon recipe included) are excellent. Some of the spices, like sumac and za'atar can be found online or in a middle eastern market.

I am a fan of authors like Paula Wolfert and Claudia Roden and Sameh Wadi puts a very unique spin on Mediterranean food and deserves a look, some of the recipes are intricate and time consuming but I found most to be very doable once I read the instructions.
4721807
After our 20 year old Hamiliton Beach slow cooker finally bit the dust, my wife went to our local Sears store and picked up the 8-Quart Hamilton Beach 33184 Oval Slow Cooker as a replacement. Although the size was great and the price was low, that's where the similarities end. The quality of the 20 year old model that it was replacing was so much better than the new one that she ended up returning it. It seems that so many products that used to be made well are now designed to the absolute minimum acceptable standards for use. Such was the case with the new Hamilton Beach, as the quality was so poor as to be laughable. As a result, we decided to spend the extra money and purchase something that would last us more than a year or two.

The Cuisinart MSC-600 3-In-1 Cook Central 6-Quart Multi-Cooker: Slow Cooker, Brown/Saute, Steamer, while smaller in size, actually holds nearly the same amount of food, due to its rectangular design. Yes, it's expensive, but for a reason. The main reason for its expense, is that it's designed to last a lifetime. In addition, it's capable of doing so many cooking chores that the cheaper, disposable models, such as the Hamilton Beach mentioned above are incapable of doing.

This slow cooker has been put to such use in our home, that it's replaced our stove for the majority of our cooking. As you can read from the description, it incorporates a 3-in-1 Multicooker. Needless to say, this allows us to perform cooking chores that prior to owning this would have been impossible in a slow cooker. One of our favorite vegetables is steamed artichokes. It's amazing at how easy it is to prepare an item like this, using the Cuisinart slow cooker. There's no guesswork, as steamed vegetables come out perfect every time.

My wife uses this to prepare baby back ribs, turkey legs, pork dishes, vegetables, soups, and just about every conceivable meal you can think of. The technology behind this unit is wonderful and Cuisinart skimped on nothing to make sure that everything works as intended. The browning function alone is an incredible time saver. Whereas the Hamilton Beach slow cooker was a nightmare to clean, the Cuisinart is a cinch and is also dishwasher safe. Due to its nonstick surfaces, we've found that it's just as easy to clean by hand, saving a lot of space in the dishwasher.

The digital dashboard on this slow cooker is designed for ease of use and for perfection when preparing foods. It can be set for extremely slow cooking and everything else in between. The construction is solid and obviously designed to last.

The bottom line is that this Cuisinart slow cooker is far and away the best slow cooker that we've ever owned. While it's a lot more expensive than the cheap products made by Hamilton Beach, there's a reason. While their products are basically disposable, this one is designed to last a lifetime. In addition, it performs innumerable functions that the cheaper models are unable to do. In the end, since this will likely last forever, the higher price is not only justified, but ends up being a bargain compared to lesser products. Being able to use an item like this indefinitely ends up costing you less in the long run. Since it will no doubt still be functioning in 20 years, it actually ends up costing you less versus the cheaper brands that need to be discarded every year or two. The Cuisinart MSC-600 3-In-1 Cook Central 6-Quart Multi-Cooker: Slow Cooker, Brown/Saute, Steamer gets my nod as a best buy.
2002412
I am a fan of America's Test Kitchen and own several of their cookbooks, including the 2009 edition of this one, so one of the first things I did was check for duplication and sure enough, there were some duplicated recipes.  Happily, there aren't enough repeats for that to be the deciding factor, though, since there are many other advantages to this new edition.  This one is much larger, and I love that there is an entire chapter devoted to learning to cook for two, including how to shop, make emergency substitutions, put leftovers to work, and choose equipment that is handier for scaled-down results.

The index has a key that shows which recipes are rated "fast" and  which are "light."  On my way home from a tiring shopping trip right after I got this book, I passed a sign in a farmyard:  Fresh Asparagus.  When I got it home, I was happy to identify a quick recipe, pan roasted asparagus with toasted garlic and parmesan.  YUM!

I have also made the almond granola with dried fruit, which uses a simple compress and bake technique that relieves you of the need to stir the granola while baking.  It was a little too crisp for my taste, but I think I can remedy that next time by trimming a minute or so off the baking time.  The flavor was very good.

I couldn't resist trying the prime rib for two, which makes use of a rib eye steak.  It was very good and we enjoyed the novelty of creating a prime rib for two.  The accompanying pan sauce was delicious.  Honestly, though, considering the ease of simply grilling or broiling a nice rib eye, I'm not sure I'd repeat this one.  The pot roast recipe, on the other hand, was amazingly good and well worth the effort!

If you're a baker, you know that altering baking recipes can get tricky.  The dessert recipes and quick bread chapters are among my favorites, with things such as carrot cake for two and a recipe that produces four cupcakes.  The raspberry-nectarine pie is at the top of my list for the next one I'll try.

There are also chapters for slow cookers and for grilling, two things that always seem to assume you're feeding a crowd.  Again, it's nice to have lots of suggestions for using these methods with smaller quantities.

I do wish it had a table of contents that listed each recipe instead of just the chapter names, which would make browsing much easier. The index is very thorough, but it works best if you either know what recipe you're looking for or already have ingredients you want to use.  I often browse a cookbook and choose the recipe first, then buy the ingredients I'll need.  I also think they should have included nutrition info for all of the recipes, not just the "light" ones. [NOTE: Another user has mentioned that the final edition of the book does list each recipe at the beginning of the chapter, which should be very helpful.]

Whether you're just learning to scale down your cooking for one or two, or if you've done it for a long time, as I have, and need new inspiration, I think you'll like The Complete Cooking for Two Cookbook.
451825
Very fast, very accurate. You can now cook to perfection!
4531376
cant wait to start cooking using this new revolutionary kitchen device. this isn't your usual recipe book as it presents general to specific info. just found out there are a number of heartwarming dishes which other books fail to present.
1379610
It's like grilling in half the time.  Meats are cooked in minutes.
3232611
2.0 is much much better than all the previous versions. This might be ultimate form of food for humans!
77235
I've only had my IP-DUO80 for a few days, but it's already changed how I think about cooking. It's all about the speed. I made one of my favorites, Bolognese Pasta, in under 30 minutes ... while the same dish done in my dutch oven would take several hours. Not only was it fast, but it was very tasty! I had agonized about which model I should buy, but opted to get the 8 quart model, instead of waiting the 10-12 weeks for the 6 quart model to be back in stock. Now, I'm really glad I bought the larger unit. It will me to do more batch cooking.
4332690
Very good product.  It speeds up the cooking time quite a bit.  Will use it more and more.