I know of one other person who uses a Pressure Cooker, but I rate it as an essential piece of equipment. The below is not mine, but is similar – and shows a pressure cooker doesn’t have to be expensive to be good. This one got top ratings from Cook’s Illustrated, but a few bad ones from customers:

Here’s why I’m in love with my pressure cooker:

• I’ve been a working Mom most of my life. I wanted to cook home-made meals for my kids and a pressure cooker allows me to get many dinners on the table in a fraction of time.
• I cook frugally with a mind toward health, and with the types of legumes and beans I cook, as well as greens, a pressure cooker really comes in handy.
• I love to make my own stocks, and while I often simmer them while I’m doing something else, sometimes I like the speed of a pressure cooker. If a very rich stock is desired, the pressure cooker can’t be beat.
• I have a thing for Risotto – with a pressure cooker, I can make it almost hands-off. For me, that’s almost worth the price, right there!
• Also, mine is a smaller one – sorry, it was too reflective for me to get a good photo, about 6 quarts, and the pan is sturdy and well made. It doubles as a pan for me, and is in frequent use in my kitchen as a pressure cooker and as a large pan.
• The pan is of such good quality it’s one of the few that have been in use in my kitchen for over 20 years. (About half the time as my Cast Iron Skillet – but it has outlasted many other “quality” pans, including a similar sized Calphalon which bent. Of course, no one in my family knew how that could possibly have happened!)

Mine is a Cook’s Essentials Pressure Cooker, and wasn’t terribly expensive – I couldn’t find the exact one, but seems quite a bit like the Fagor, and if I’m not mistaken was actually made by Fagor. I could be wrong, but I believe some of the literature that came with the Pressure Cooker had the Fagor name on it.

I love mine so much, I’m surprised everyone doesn’t own one…it’s old fashioned, I know, but such a huge help in the kitchen, it has earned its place, even in today’s kitchen.