Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Final Update: Timing continues to be a real problem, with most electric times way off. Another frustration is that the index is horribly organized. That's a pretty critical failing in a book of this size. I've found it hard to cook from, too, with the brick-red ingredient lists getting blurry pretty quickly. It can also be hard to keep my place in the directions because major steps aren't in bold type. Finally, the pages are very busy. I no longer use it at all. So disappointing and dropping another star. It's one grace is that it has 500 recipes. But for me, the book is essentially useless. I've since purchased Lorna Sass' book, Pressure Perfect, which is an outstanding reference book, although it's a bit like Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Italian Cooking in that the type is small and crowded for recipes. But I still refer to it frequently for the wealth of information Lorna provides. That alone is priceless and well worth the cover price. I'm also a big fan of ATK's Pressure Cooking Perfected, even though it has no timing at all for electric PCs. I use 2 websites, hippressurecooking.com and pressurecookingtoday.com for all timing instructions. They're both very good. Original review: I like this book for several reasons: it's got clear directions for both stovetop and electric pressure cookers, for every recipe. Many popular pressure cooker cookbooks barely acknowledge the existence of electric pressure cookers, others not at all. This volume is a welcome change in that it is very specific. It also offers a wide variety of recipes, for almost anything you can think of cooking in a pressure cooker. It's one failing, and it's important to me, is the timing for electric pressure cookers. Many of the recipes appear to be off in timing, calling for foods to be cooked longer than optimal. I'm not sure if the recipes were tested on an electric cooker, or if a formula was used. I understand that some early ePCs only hit 8-9psi, while the more modern ones like my Instant Pot hit 11psi. But since timing for ePCs is often hit or miss in other cookbooks and online, this isn't a fatal flaw. What I've done is look at other sources for consensus timing. If no one agrees, I make my best guess. And I keep notes, which everyone who owns a pressure cooker has advised me to do. UPDATE 6/8/2015 - This book has some interesting anomolies, rich in some recipes, deficient in others. For example, looking for Beef Stew, there are 8 recipes from around the world, using a variety of ingredients, many of them quite interesting, like Bistro Beef Stew with red wine,carrots and figs. But sadly, not one of them uses the humble potato, a very common stew ingredient. Additionally, there is flat-out contradictory information here. On page 277, the authors state that chicken fillets and tenders are too thin to cook under pressure. On the next page, we're instructed to slice chicken breasts ½-inch thick. Two pages later, they call for ¼-inch strips for stir fry. Seriously? Bottom line, they're wrong. Tenders cook in 3 minutes with QR. The 14 minutes with QR they've listed for thick boneless breasts is wrong, at that thickness they'll be tough if QR is used. Cook them for 8 minutes with 5 minutes QR. One final note, and it's a big one, is that, as suspected, Weinstein's timing, especially for ePCs, is often much too long. This problem, plus lack of timing charts, is moving me to drop this review to 3 stars. I've had good success using recipe timing from Barbara Scheiving's website, pressurecookingtoday.com. I find a recipe similar to one I'll be making and use her timing.