Product Description
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Chef's Secret 22-Piece Element Super Set Fissler Blue Point pressure cookers combine healthy nutrition with gentle cooking, since atmospheric oxygen is expelled and the cooking periods are quite short. Vitamins and minerals, as well as nutrients and flavor, are thus preserved. You can see and taste the difference. With Blue Point, you save up to 70% of the regular cooking time and as much as 50% of the energy traditionally used in cooking. Blue Point pressure cookers have two pressure levels, a gentle pressure level for cooking delicate food like vegetables and fish without destroying nutrients, and a speed pressure level for cooking meats and stews quickly. Blue Point pressure cookers are very unique in that they are completely silent. There is no unnerving rattling or hissing while pressure is inside. Once the oxygen is expelled and the valve locks into place, hardly any steam escapes into the air during the cooking process keeping the kitchen cooler. Because there is no steam, there are no cooking odors. Blue Point pressure cookers exceed the minimum safety requirements of Europe and the United States with patented innovative features such as the Euromatic safety valve, residual pressure block, interlocking lid, and automatic steam release. The CookStar all-stove base, comprised of a pure aluminum core and high-quality 18/10 stainless steel, ensures that the base that will never separate or warp. The energy-saving base also provides quick optimal heat distribution, diffusion, and storage without any hot spots. Safe for use on induction stoves and in the dishwasher. Limited lifetime warranty. Made in Germany.
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This review is from: Fissler 021 644 12 002 Blue Point Schnellkochtopf Set (Kitchen)
I got kind of caught up in thinking a cheap pressure cooker would do. Been there, wished I hadn't done that with other stuff. But anyway purchased this set, and at the price I considered the product needed to be premium. It actually comes also with a steamer basket and stand for the steamer basket that's not mentioned. For me it's turned out to be the perfect ensemble, giving both skillet for curries and one person meals, as well as a larger stock pot for stocks and larger meals. So it's really a six piece set, 2 more than the 4 pieces shown.
In the performance category it heats up very nicely and when I brown before pressurizing it cooks evenly. It's a great fit for small burners. Once heated up, it takes very little heat to keep it pressurized. On my induction range, the skillet will stay pressurized at a setting of 2.4 of 10 (on electric dial). The larger pot will stay fully pressurized from 3.0 to 4.5 depending on what it's cooking. When cooking lentils I like to cook them so they are thick when done, rather than soupy. In a pan with a flimsy bottom they can burn quite easily. But the dal comes out nice in the skillet and it's easy to tell the heat is being evenly diffused, no hot spots. But also, because it will stay pressurized at such a low heat, there is even less likelihood of scorching.
There is a stainless steel covered aluminum disk on the bottom so it does work well with induction. But also, pan has some heft and seems to insulate well so I can use the lower heat settings as already mentioned.
In terms of making stocks, I frequently make both chicken and beef stocks, and had been using an 8 qt dutch oven that I'd keep at around 5.5 out of 10 and let run for hours (up to 8). Now for chicken in 40 minutes and beef stock with roasted bones around 80 minutes. The chicken stock in particular has a very nice yellow hue that I'd never been able to obtain with the dutch oven. The beef stock gets much more gelatin than I'd ever gotten out of the bones with the dutch oven. Both stocks are the tastiest I've made when using the dutch oven (a heavy cast iron pot). So in terms of pressure cookers for stocks, this is a big winner. But I assume any pressure cooker will make a good stock. I've made several of the recipes in the included recipe book as well as recipes from another book and just cooked various curries and spicy lentils with no particular recipe.
The instructions are written in clear English and there are two booklets included. One of them has about 30 recipes including a couple put together just for this set of cookware.
I frequently will use both at once, cooking the faster dish in the skillet, then transferring the lid and covering the skillet with the glass lid and storing in a warmer drawer until the larger pot finishes. This has been a very efficient method to cook several dishes quickly.
The blue with white ring pop up is very nice and convenient way to see the pressure level. In particular with an induction (or a gas range I'm sure), it's quite simple to get it to a pressure you like or to keep it fully pressurized with just a little blow over. Very satisfied with that. The pop us is clearly marked so you can really set it at any pressure you want through adjusting heat level. Again, on an induction range this is very simple to do.
This pressure cooker is absolutely silent when you adjust the heat right to just let it have the slightest bit of blowoff, which comes out practically silently.
Cleanup. What can I say except absolutely simple and fast. Nothing to disassemble, you just clean it. The silicon gasket pops right out and back in with no fuss or muss. The nice stainless steel surface is holding up well (I've had the set about a month now and used it almost daily). No handles to remove and reassemble.
The set comes packed very well. No worries about damage in shipping. The knob on the glass lid needs reversed (easier to pack with knob in the convex side of the glass lid), but that takes all of one minute. The box is surprisingly sturdy. I'm keeping it to use for storage.
The construction of the pans seems top notch. Though the handles are plastic. I can envision that someone will put the skillet on a large burner and scorch the handles, but with an induction range, I don't have that concern. But I can say I use both pans on the smaller burners of my range, not the largest. Induction tends to work better with proper sizing. But because of the way the bottom is tapered, this does free up the larger burner for some other pan that needs more burner.
Overall, I'm happy with this purchase and the product. Given the results I've been getting and the ease of cleanup, the price hasn't bothered me either. Seems like a good value. Can't find anything to complain about, rather I'm quite excited about the new and better outcomes I've been getting with some dishes that I'd thought were already as good as they could be, but are turning out more flavorful and cooked in a fifth the time or faster.
I considered models like Kuhn Rikon, but think Fissler has them beat on ease of cleanup, and also think at best the Kuhn Rikon cooks the same as the Fissler. I have a Kuhn Rikon sauce pan and the bottom plate for heat diffusion is very similar however the Fissler just seems to be thought through a little better (it's ever so slightly curved on purpose so that when it heats up it's perfectly flat). Fissler calls the bottom 'Cook Star' technology, for better and more even heat diffusion. I suspect it would work very nicely with gas. The Kuhn Rikon bottom plate, in comparision is just a flag plate with the company name stamped in the middle (on my sauce pan, I don't have the Kuhn Rikon pressure cooker).
Fissler seems like it's new on the US market but it's clear they didn't just start selling product here with no forethought or business planning (like Mageplus with Spanish instruction manuals). Rather it's clear they've setup a US office and division to serve this market and guarantee at least 10 year part availability from date of purchase. Though I do wish we could buy the European market models that allow higher pressures. Maybe I'll pick up a lid when I'm over there next time. Anyway, even if they do stop selling here in the US for some reason (as in no one buys their product), there's still plenty of time to stock up on gaskets. But being silicon gaskets, they look like they might last for 5 years, even though Fissler recommends replacing after 2 years or 400 pressurizations. I've probably done 50 pressurizations on lid so far, and the gasket looks like new. When well made, silicon seems to last forever.
For me this pressure cooker set has worked out well. I can and do recommend it with no reservations. If motivated, I will update in about two years to give an update.
