The Cuisinart Electric Pressure Cooker Is a Trusted Friend in the Kitchen

Item: Cuisinart CPC-600 Electric Pressure Cooker
Price: $99.95
Overall Impression: With a bright red pressure indicator and easy-to-understand menu options, this pressure cooker is a no-fuss way to make great food fast.

Cuisinart is a big name in small electric appliances, including electric pressure cookers. This is their standard electric pressure cooker. It promises to cut cooking times by up to 70%, but is this machine intuitive enough for a newbie to pressure cooking? How will the food actually taste?

• Dimensions: 12.20″ x 12.20″ x 13.19″
• Weight: 12.57 pounds
• PSI: Low pressure 6PSI, high pressure 10PSI
• Quart capacity: 6-quart capacity
• Construction: Stainless steel exterior, with nonstick pot
• Settings: Low and High Pressure, Browning, Simmer, Sauté, and automatic Keep Warm setting
• Accessories: Pressure limit valve, power cord, trivet, lid, sealing ring, coking pot, condensation collector, sealing ring cover, rubber grommet
• Warranty: Limited three-year warranty

Favorite details: This Cuisinart pressure cooker did an excellent job with the eggs and chicken. I found the tiny red pressure indicator extremely helpful for telling when the cooker had reached pressure. The control panel is easy to understand, and for the most part it was a quiet machine.

Potential problems: I noticed in the chickpea test that the beans were a little harder when compared with other cookers.

The pressure release valve is very loose on this cooker, which can be a little concerning for a first-time user, but should generally not be a problem.

Who would love this? Anyone who wants a no-fuss pressure cooker that delivers great results, and doesn’t mind a little experimenting with cooking times.

I put the Cuisinart through three different tests, and here’s how it did:

• The test: 1 pound of dried, un-soaked chickpeas, minimum amount of liquid required (1 cup), 1 tablespoon oil, 1 teaspoon salt, 1/4 yellow onion, 1 clove garlic. Cooked on high pressure for 40 minutes with a natural release.
• Result: The Cusinart was the first to come to pressure, compared to the other two pressure cookers I was testing. This took about 5 minutes. It was virtually silent on high pressure. The beans were cooked throughly after 40 minutes, but were on the harder side. I was easily able to tell when pressure was normalized, thanks to the red pressure indicator.

• The test: 4 eggs with minimum amount of water required (1 cup). Cooked on low pressure for six minutes with a quick release.
• Result: After six minutes I pushed the pressure release valve with a wooden spoon and the pressure was quickly released (about 1 minute). The eggs were perfectly hard-boiled and were relatively easy to peel.

• The test: Sautéed onions and garlic, browned two chicken thighs, covered in two cups of chicken stock, and cooked for 10 minutes on high pressure with a quick release.
• Result: I had no problem sautéing the onions and garlic in the cooker. They became a little too brown after also adding and browning the chicken, but the overall dish was still delicious. The cooker took 5 minutes to come to pressure. After 10 minutes, the meat was super moist.

The pressure cooker settings were very easy to understand. You simply press “menu” to move around the various settings, and then “time” to select the numbers of minutes you want to cook for. The time increases by one-minute increments up to 40 minutes, and then in five-minute increments up to 99 minutes.

I was impressed by the speed at which the Cuisinart was able to come to pressure. It was quiet for the most part, making only a little noise during the chicken test.

With the help of a spoon to move the pressure release valve, I had little problem with the quick release function. When testing the natural release function on this model, I was also very impressed by how easy it was to tell when the pressure had dropped, thanks to the red pressure indicator. It took some of my worry away from using it for the first time.

The pressure release valve itself sits very loosely on the lid of the cooker, which can be a little concerning as a first-time user. This, however, is normal and just takes some getting used to as you learn the correct position for it.

The eggs from the Cuisinart electric pressure cooker were perfectly hard-boiled, and the chicken was moist and tender.

Cooked at high pressure, the dried chickpeas were a little harder than I would have desired (but still cooked through). This is easily fixed by having a longer cooking time.

According to the manual and Cuisinart website, the interior pot and trivet are dishwasher-safe. I cleaned the pot and trivet by hand and found it to be incredibly easy to clean – no dishwasher necessary. This lid comes apart easily and is also simple to wash.

Other Reviews
The Kitchn’s Executive Editor, Faith Durand, also reviewed the Cuisinart electric pressure cooker a couple years ago. I felt like it was good to review again against the other pressure cookers in this test to fairly compare.

→ Cuisinart Electric Pressure Cooker by Faith Durand

• $99.95

Apartment Therapy Media makes every effort to test and review products fairly and transparently. The views expressed in this review are the personal views of the reviewer and this particular product review was not sponsored or paid for in any way by the manufacturer or an agent working on their behalf. However, the manufacturer did give us the product for testing and review purposes.