[Evans, Marv]

I've used one since the sixties. Came in handy when I worked in the mountains at 10K+ feet altitude. I used ours last Thursday to make Sinigang (Filipino soup). I threw pork ribs in it to cook them for making the soup. I use it as a regular cooking pot also. Don't expect it to finish everything in a fraction of the time required normally, but it's faster and best for some uses as you'll lean over time. When using one, only put the amount of water needed for the time you intend to cook something plus a bit more. Since it takes 100/cc calories to get water up to boiling (from 0C/32F if I remember correctly), It takes an additional 180 calories to turn a cc into steam (you're an engineer & probably remember these things better than I). So the steam with all that heat energy is what should do the cooking. Never fill it too close to the top, or it could spew stuff out of the cooker. I start mine at high heat & when it gets up to pressure & starts emitting a good amount of steam under the weight, I turn it down where it's just barely perking along since it's full of steam at that point. To cool it down, I put it under a faucet & run cold water over it until it depressurizes and then take the weight off. They're a fairly utilitarian utensil.