Howdy Marie! I'm way late here but just now found your thread.

We received one of these cookers for Christmas. So far, it's had a pretty good workout. At first, I wondered what I could do with it, it seemed redundant and we don't fry anything. I think it's the thermostat which makes it real handy. I haven't been able to get anything to stick in it yet and it washes like a dream. The first time I used it, the connection on the cord perturbed me until it dawned that it was a safety breakaway feature. Very clever!

I've made a number of soups in it; clear, cream, bisques, etc., for dinner guests and it worked beautifully! I now catch myself looking at most every raw foodstuff as potential soup material! I steamed about 5 lb. of thick winter squash and was amazed that it was plenty done in about 8 minutes. (I then peeled the squash and made a soup of it in said cooker.) I'm looking forward a couple of months when we have fresh garden veggies to steam. I would guess that a minute or two would be sufficient for most items.

In addition cooker will boil water faster than our gas range. So much for electric being slow! I haven't figured out how to steam rice in it yet, the holes in the basket are too large. Any suggestions?

Thank you for your response. How many quarts of water does it hold? I have a chicken soup recipe that calls for 8 quarts of water and would love to try it out in this.

The cooker holds 6 quarts of water. You could either make a half batch or 'a little less' than the full recipe. Most soups don't depend on exactness as, say, a pastry or the like. Let us know how it turns out!

Before you use your cooker the first time, may I suggest you give it time to air and/or boil a couple of quarts of water in it, dump it, boil more water and so on until you get rid of any smell. Ours had quite a 'plastic' smell to it and took about 4 boil cycles to totally get rid of it.

I have lowered the amount of water in the recipe before so that wouldn't be a problem.

I was watching Good Eats the other day and Alton was showing how to cook soup in a pressure cooker.

LucySue, I have never used a pressure cooker but I was wondering if I should buy the multi-cooker/steamer or a pressure cooker. Have you ever used a pressure cooker?

I guess it depends on what/how you like to cook. I haven't used a pressure cooker as much as my Mom has but it's a great way to tenderize. She made many a meal of melt-in-your-mouth beef, chicken and dumplings, corned beef, the best ham you can imagine, and so on. She also made stews, tenderized 'past prime' garden produce, that sort of thing. As a child, it seemed to take FOREVER for it to depressurize enough for me to get that lid off to sample the contents!

I really don't see the multi-cooker and pressure cooker overlapping very much. Personally, I would rather make soup (for instance) in the multi-cooker. I can add things at intervals so nothing gets overcooked. If you enjoy fall-apart pot roasts and things you can put in for a while and walk away, then a pressure cooker may serve you better.