Breville The Fast Slow Pro Pressure Cooker

Breville The Fast Slow Pro Pressure Cooker / Multi Cooker is one of the more expensive electric pressure cookers on the market. It’s a well built pressure cooker and has features that other pressure cookers don’t have.

Breville is an Australian company that manufactures and sells small kitchen appliances. In 2002, they expanded their business to the United States and Canada. They sell high quality small kitchen appliances that are typically a bit more expensive than other brands.

I have several Breville small kitchen appliances, their toaster oven and immersion blender, which I’ve had for years and couldn’t love more. Recently, I purchased their stand mixer and the Breville The Fast Slow Pro pressure cooker. 

The Breville pressure cooker looks a little different than most electric pressure cookers. It reminds me of something you’d see in a medical lab. I’ve had the Breville pressure cooker for about a month now and while there’s lots to love about it, there are things I don’t like. I’ll start with the pros.

PROS

• Automatic Steam Release
  • One of the features the Breville has that no other pressure cooker I’ve tested has is the automatic steam release. While you’re setting the pressure cook time, you also select the pressure release method.
    • Auto quick release – when the pressure cooking time is finished the pressure release valve is pushed up (see the little pin underneath the notch in the pressure release valve below) and the pressure is automatically released.
    • Auto pulse release – when the pressure cooking time is finished the pressure is released in bursts.
    • Natural release – you can also specify you’ll use a natural release at the end of cooking time.
    • The pressure release button is on the front of the pressure cooker not the pressure release valve. So you don’t have to be frightened by having  your hand by the hot steam when the pressure is released.

• Color Changing LCD Screen
  • The LCD screen is blue when it’s not cooking and changes to orange when it’s preheating, cooking, and on the Keep Warm setting.
  • The screen gives you lots of information about what is going on inside the pot. It shows you the psi (pressure setting),  the time, and the release method you’ve selected. It also shows if the Keep Warm setting is on or off.
  • The bars on the left side of the screen scroll up and down as the pressure cooker is coming to pressure. When it’s almost reached pressure, only the top few bars scroll. Which is nice to know when you’re cooking a big pot of soup and are wondering how much longer it will take to reach pressure.

• 6 “Smart” Settings
  • Pressure Cook – the pressure cook pre-settings are vegetables, rice, risotto, soup, stock, beans, poultry, meat, bone-in meat, chili & stew, dessert and a custom setting (similar to the manual or pressure cook setting on the Instant Pot).The Breville user manual has a good reference guide that lists the pre-set time, psi, and release method for each of the settings. The guide also gives examples of when you should use that setting for example use the poultry button for whole chicken, bone-in chicken pieces, duck legs, cornish hens.
  • Slow Cook – the  slow cook pre-sets, soup, stock, beans, poultry, meat, bone-in-meat, chili & stew, dessert, custom are pre-set to low, except custom which is pre-set to high.
  • Steam – for steaming vegetables and dumplings
  • Sear – for browning meats
  • Saute – for sautéing aromatics
  • Reduce – for reducing sauces

CONS

• The lid does not remove all the way. The lid arm is permanently attached. I like to store my lids upside down on the pot which doesn’t work very well with the Breville. Make sure you have a space on your counter so the lid can open without hitting your cabinets.
• I had trouble with the lid having to be closed when using the saute, searing, and reduce settings. It beeped at me until I closed the lid. After comments from other owners, this is something unique to my unit or user error.
• The lid has to be in the perfect position to close. I was often frustrated getting it to close, but perhaps it gets easier with time.
• You may have to press the release button repeatedly to get all the pressure to release.
• The float valve is inside a hole in the handle so it’s hard to see when it drops and the pressure is released so you can open the lid.
• As it’s coming to pressure occasionally it releases a burst of steam, which at first is startling.
• The inner pressure cooking pot is non-stick ceramic. It browns well, and makes clean up a breeze, but you can’t scrub it like you can a stainless steel pot.

The pros definitely outweigh the cons on this top of the line pressure cooker. Breville owners often tell me how much they love it.

The Breville The Fast Slow Pro comes with a stainless steel steamer basket and rack, a well-written manual, and recipe booklet. It is available on Amazon, Williams and Sonoma, and other high end kitchen stores.

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