KITCHEN appliances that speed up cooking are more popular than ever for people with busy lives, and one gadget that certainly takes off the time pressure is the good old pressure cooker.
The best pressure cookers today combine functions to present an all-in-one solution for varied mealtimes and the Crock-Pot CSC051 is one of those – as far removed from the high-pitched whistling pot of old as you can get.
I put the CSC051 through its paces to find out if it did save time and effort, and more importantly, if it was worthy of a permanent place on the kitchen counter.
Crock-Pot Express Pressure Cooker, £95.49 £74.20
Pressure cookers have come a long way since the rattling devices of yesteryear which seemed like they were ready to take off when they got up to temperature.
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Nowadays, for well under £100 you can pick up a pressure cooker that not only does a great job of cooking your food but also sits silently in the corner for the duration of your cook.
Not only that, some models (including the Crock-Pot CSC051 I tested) also double as a slow cooker, if you want to prepare your meals in the morning and have them ready to eat when you return from work.
After a few months of testing, I give you the down low on the Crock-Pot CSC051.
Pros
- Multi-function (slow cooker also)
- Fasy to use
- Food cooks quicker
- Sealed pan stops food from drying out
- Cooking smells stay inside pan
Cons
- Takes up a lot of space
Rating: 3.5/5
Crock-Pot pressure cooker review: first impressions on size
There’s no getting around it, the Crock-Pot CSC051 is a hefty beast. I measured it at 35cm x 35cm if you include the handles (and about 30cm x 30cm if you don’t).
The extra size made me more determined to use the cooker to justify the counter space it took up, which was easier than expected, as I found most meals could have at least one component cooked in the Crock-Pot.
That’s because it not only has numerous settings for pressure cooking but slow cooking and sauteing as well. As a result, it wasn’t a struggle to find a use for the Crock-Pot most days, especially since I was cooking more often thanks to the lockdown.
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How easy is the Crock-Pot CSC051 to use?
The Crock-Pot CSC051 is pretty intuitive: simply select the meal you’re looking to cook and the Crock-Pot will present you with a recommended cooking time that you can tweak if you’re cooking smaller or larger portions.
Settings include rice, stew, poultry, soup, steam and slow cook, so it’s not difficult to get to grips with out of the box.
Crock-Pot Express Pressure Cooker, £95.49 £74.20
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How does the Crock-Pot CSC051 perform?
In my testing, I got the ball rolling by making a variety of slow cooker/pressure cooker staples: chilli, curry, stew and rice.
All were an absolute doddle to make as I simply browned what needed to be browned on the saute setting, before chucking in the remaining ingredients, selecting the correct programme and leaving the cooker to do its work.
After closing the lid it required nothing else from me until the cooking was done. And, because pressure cooking allows the steam to reach higher temperatures, the cooking is done faster than you might expect; you can even cook a whole chicken in under an hour.
As a bonus, because the container is sealed, there’s little risk of your meal drying out, so never again will you have to break out the wire wool to clean a neglected chilli off your pan.
In terms of performance, I couldn’t have asked for more from the Crock-Pot CSC051. I felt confident using it by day two and it has never disappointed in its results.
I’ve even taken to cooking the Sunday roast chicken in the pot (before crisping it up in the oven), as the meat comes out much more tender than I’ve managed with a standard oven cook.
Another perk: if you sling in some water and veg with your whole chicken, you'll get an amazing stock left over that will give your next meal a boost.
How much does the Crock-Pot CSC051 cost?
The Crock-Pot CSC051 is priced at around £82, which is about mid-range in the automated pressure cooker market.
You can buy a manual pressure cooker for much less, but for our money, pressure cookers (and slow cookers) should be about making your life easier and saving you time, which the Crock-Pot does with aplomb.
If £82 seems like a stretch, it could be worth waiting for Black Friday to roll around, as there’s usually a good number of pressure cookers on sale at that time of year from big retailers, including John Lewis, Amazon and Argos.
Crock-Pot express pressure cooker review: final verdict
I quickly grew to love the Crock-Pot CSC051 in testing.
I thought that, given its size, it would be a fun experiment, for which my enthusiasm would eventually fizzle out, but in reality, I've got no plans to remove the cooker from my kitchen counter any time soon.
It’s a massive time saver as it takes so much of the faff out of cooking and helps you reduce your washing up time if you combine everything in one bowl.
On hotter days, it became my go-to cooking method, as it didn’t contribute any additional heat to my stuffy kitchen, and it meant that all cooking odours were confined inside the sealed pan.
If you’ve got the kitchen space (or you can make some) I can’t see any drawbacks to buying this pressure cooker.
Where can I buy the Crock-Pot CSC051 pressure cooker in the UK?
The Crockpot CSC051 pressure cooker is widely available online in the UK. We found the one featured in our review at Amazon but you’ll find it offered by a variety of other retailers also, including:
- AO
- B&Q
- John Lewis
- Lakeland
- Very
Is there an alternative to the Crock-Pot CSC051 pressure cooker?
There are lots of alternatives to the Crock-Pot CSC051 pressure cooker available in the UK. Crock-Pot offers several alternative models, such as the Turbo Express, which reduces cooking times by 40% and the Digital Multi Cooker with five functions, including roasting and baking.
If you’re solely after a pressure cooker with no other functions, take a look at Prestige, which offers a range of options including one for induction hobs, Tower, or Argos, which offers a variety of brands.
For a multi-function model where pressure cooking is just one of several handy cooking options, then you might like the Ninja Foodi 9-in-1, which can air fry, steam, roast, grill, slow cook and make yoghurt, as well as pressure cook! There’s also Instant Pot, which raised the bar for pressure cookers when it was introduced in the UK in 2015 and now offers several models of varying size and functions.
Other places to look for multi-cookers include Lakeland, Amazon, Currys and John Lewis.