I have two Shteby, I adore them, but just like many, I read and think about the Element.
Tell me, what can the Element do that Shteba cannot?
About the Element ... I guess the hype started solely because of the sharp price drop
As a longtime user of the cuckoo (Cuckoo-1055), can I give you my opinion on this kind of device?
I will make a reservation right away, the element is simpler than a cuckoo, it has fewer modes, but the principle of operation is the same.
Strictly speaking, Korean multi with solenoid valve: Cuckoo, Bork, Element, are not pressure cookers. Manufacturers themselves in the operating instructions call them - "multicooker with pressure cooking function".
They are made on the basis of Korean induction rice cookers and the pressure there was originally used to steam rice, and not to speed up the cooking of soup. Therefore, the technology is different: they need to close the valve for a strictly defined time, process the rice with steam, and then quickly release this steam. For this, the solenoid valve is used - the cartoon controls it independently.
And then the Koreans began to add modes for cooking other dishes to the rice programs and adapt the existing design for them. But physics has not been canceled - the forced release of pressure causes a sharp boiling and splashing of liquid ... Therefore, only 95 * C is laid on the Soup, we actually languish it with a little excess pressure and do not gain anything much in time. And with milk porridge the same story.
By the way, if you go to the Cuckoo home site, you can see induction models similar to ours in the Rice Cooker and Multicooker sections, and next to it there will be a section called the Pressure Cooker, and there are pictures with typical pressure cookers for us with a mechanical valve of the Shteba type (only regular round shape). That is, they themselves divide these devices into different categories.
So it makes no sense to compare Shteba and Element, they are different devices.
Element and Kuku are cooked slowly but quickly fried and steamed.
Now, about the benefits:
- first of all, rice because this is their main purpose,
- meat of a slightly different taste,
- the ability to very quickly fry something (induction heats up in seconds) and for 10-15 minutes under high pressure. It's really fast, she will relieve pressure 3 minutes before the end.
- fry and steam under pressure at the same time, without adding a drop of water to the bowl.
In Shteba, this is impossible - the float simply will not rise until there is sufficiently strong steam generation, but here the magnet will forcibly close the valve immediately and the product will be fried and steamed with its own emitted steam, gradually gaining pressure, and then the sensor program will turn off, preventing burning. I do this in Cuckoo-1055 using Rice and Buckwheat programs. But, in Element, it seems, there are no boil-off programs - this is a minus. You will have to choose the time yourself.
- in the bowl with a pot, crumbly and all sorts of finely chopped dishes are better obtained, I do not poke around in the bowl with a silicone spatula when Frying, but simply take out the bowl by the handles and shake it with turning. It's more comfortable for me and the bowl is less scratched.Yes, and the chicken fits snugly in the pot. I cook it on Fry or Pastry, without pressure, it tastes better for me.
By the way, the induction bowl itself warms up more evenly - equally from the bottom to the very top, which is good for languishing different dishes or roasting meat in a large piece, and the pilaf is good.
For baking cakes, frying cutlets, yogurt in jars, the shape of the bowl is not very small - the bottom area is too small.
Well, individual taste preferences are different for people, I now can not stand the stewed aftertaste of potatoes and milk porridge cooked under high pressure. Therefore, I am not very upset that soups and liquid cereals in cakes are boiled at low temperatures.
But, at the same time, I will put beets or fish on steam to cook only in a mechanical pressure cooker, and until it unlocks, I will not open so that there is no smell around the house ..
At the moment, such a symbiosis of technology has developed in my kitchen - they constantly live on the work surface: an induction cuckoo (Cuckoo 1055) for daily daily cooking, a redmond-381 pressure cooker with a mechanical valve and manual temperature setting
for certain operations: yogurt, steaming (because there is absolutely no steam and smell around the apartment), sous-vide, jellied meat, beans, vegetable preparations.
and 2 small ones (Redmond-01 and Philips 3060) for night cooking on the delay of 2 different cereals, and all sorts of small needs.
They also stand in plain sight: a bread maker, an espresso machine, a microwave combi, an air fryer and an old Brown food processor. Everything else is crammed into the closets.
