This is my first experience with a pressure cooker.  Coming from an asian background it's not something we normally cook with.  We normally go the "slow cooking" route instead to make our soups and broths.  This item is great in that you can make some good stock and soups etc in about 60 to 90 minutes.  I tried using this for the first time yesterday and it was great.  My wife was extremely skeptical at first, to the point of getting a backup plan for dinner but she's happy it worked out.