Pressure Cookers- how do you double recipes

[sablevulpe]

I have been using my pressure cooker for canning purposes, and that is an absolute delight... so now I made the jump to cooking meals in the pressure cooker. I made some fabulous ribs last weekend, and want to make them again, but double the recipe. (My cooker will hold double capacity of the recipe, I did check). So how do I adjust cooking time?
I can't seem to find any good info out there that touches on this, and I've got a dinner party comiing up that is just begging for these ribs!

Thanks for any hints or resources you can provide!

 

[peeplessinNC]

First off, what size pressure canner do you own? I have a large canner (that I haven't used in years) and I have the guide book. Do you have an instruction book for your canner/cooker? Read it through a couple of times to completely understand how to use a pressure cooker.

My booklet has a separate section for cooking in my Presto cooker-canner. There are two major rules to follow:

1. never fill the cooker/canner over 2/3 full

2. when cooking a solid mass of food (soup, stew, chili, stock/broth, etc.) never fill the pot over half full; it is possible that if the pot is too full, the food may clog the vent opening and prevent the pressure regulator from operating properly.

My booklet has a recipe for short ribs of beef using 6-8 lbs. of beef ribs, brown them in the canner in 3 TB fat - (add onions, peppers, celery, tomatoes, s&p, 1/2 cup water and pressure cook 40 minutes, letting pressure drop of its own accord (not a quick release under a stream of water in the sink).

I think that if you were cooking 12 lbs. of ribs, the procedure and timing would be the same as for 8 lbs. but......you need to be sure that you have enough liquid (tomatoes/water/broth or whatever) to generate enough steam for the length of time it takes to cook. If there is not enough liquid, the pot could boil dry and your meat could burn.

One way to insure that loss of liquid does not happen is this method: when all the ingredients and liquids are in the pot, bring everything to a boil over high heat, THEN put on the lid and the pressure regulator (if there is one) and bring the contents up to pressure under high heat. When pressure is reached, lower the heat just as low as possible to still maintain pressure and start a timer (always use a timer!) for the cooking time. Do not wander far from the pot but stay close by to keep an eye out for the pressure being maintained but not blasting steam out because the burner heat is too high! Lots of steam coming from the vent means loss of liquid in the pot.

My booklet has cooking times for meats, soups, and combination dishes if you need help with that. Hope this information helps!

 

[sablevulpe]

Yes that was VERY helpful. I've successfully done a double batch of my ribs, and they were as yummy as the single batch. Thanks so much!