In the good old days, which haven't really ended, there were slow cookers, often referred to as Crock-Pots (though that's actually a trademarked brand name owned by Sunbeam). With the advent of smart technology, however, you can use your slow cooker as a rapid pressure cooker as well, according to whether you remembered to start that stew cooking before you went to work or need to make a quick meal when you get back home. Of course, some foods just taste better when pressure cooked, so you might not want to slow cook them at all. The Breville Fast Slow Pro offers you not only the ability to do slow cooking but 11 different pressure cooking settings, depending on which one you think is appropriate for the meal you're planning to prepare.
The Breville is fully automated and has an on-screen menu that lets you select between vegetables, rice, risotto, soup, stock, beans, poultry, meat, bone-in meat, chili & stew or dessert. Or you can choose the custom option and take control yourself, assuming you know better than an ultra-intelligent automated appliance how your meal should be cooked. (It seems likely that a lot of experienced cooks are going to dive straight for that custom option and make their meal the way they want it -- and more power to them!) The Breville has a steam-release valve that will adjust itself according to what you're cooking and how much steam pressure you want inside the pot working on the food. Top and bottom sensors monitor the food to make sure it's pressurized and cooked all the way through. The slow cook option will work for up to 12 hours if you have a long day ahead of you.
Automated cookers aren't new to the marketplace. For a slow cooker from the original Crock-Pot inventors (or at least trademark owners), compare the Breville to the Sunbeam Crock-Pot 5-in-1, which will also saute, roast and steam but doesn't have pressure cooker options. Or for a multifunction cooker that will do everything except ice cream, look at the Instant Pot IP-Smart or the Gourmia GMC680.
I have used both slow & pressure cooking and each time the meal has been fantastic.
The slow cooker is good, but the express cooker is not as good as I expected.
Overall, it's a great pressure cooker. It's easy to operate, and its design makes it look great in the kitchen.
It takes about 10 minutes to heat the water and 3 times as long to depressurize the unit as it takes to cook the food.
Cooks well every time. The auto-steam release feature is fantastic, you can see on the monitor how the pressure gets released over a time.
I love the automatic pressure release feature that this cooker offers. You can fully program it at the beginning and there’s no need to attend to it until the food is ready.
It would be good if the estimated cooking time can also reflect the real cooking time. It takes very long to preheat and build up the pressure and also release the pressure.
The Breville Fast Slow Pro does a little bit of everything, from reducing sauces to slow-cooking pork shoulder. It would make this a good addition to your home.
The inner bowl of this pressure cooker is made of the highest quality components for your health and for the quality of your meals.