Get to Know the Wonder-Working, Timesaving Pressure Cooker
Preparing nutritious foods with whole ingredients is a snap with a pressure cooker. Here are four reasons to try it.
By Tabitha Alterman
December 2011/January 2012
 |
Pressure cooking is easy after you learn the basic features of your new favorite piece of kitchen equipment.
PHOTO: FOTOLIA/SHIRLEY HIRST
|
Most
cooks could survive with nothing but a good stockpot, a skillet and a sharp
knife. Let’s be honest: No one really needs a melon baller or an asparagus
steamer. But there is a tool that makes itself worth the money and storage
space because it helps you prepare healthier food in less time for less money:
the energy-efficient pressure cooker.
RELATED CONTENT
Learn how to cook on an open hearth, an ancient, practical and enjoyable culinary tradition....
Joining pieces of wood to create furniture or other projects can be easy. And the results will look...
Conventionally grown chocolate is one of the most pesticide-intensive crops grown today, which make...
Home energy audits are a great idea for anybody looking to save on energy costs. These audits can c...
A zero-energy home — a home that produces as much energy as it consumes — slashes or eliminates uti...
Imagine
arriving home from work at 6 p.m. and serving your family a from-scratch beef
stew for dinner at 7 p.m. From hearty soups, rice and beans to braised meats,
roasted vegetables and whole grains, the pressure cooker is to wholesome
home-cooking what the microwave is to store-bought, packaged food.
If
money, time and energy savings aren’t enough to convince you, consider that any
meal prepared with fresh, whole ingredients will taste better and offer better
nutrition than anything made from processed food. Here are four reasons to give
in to the pressure.
1. You’ll Save Time
If
anyone really knows how to cook, it’s the French, and that’s who dreamed up the
amazing apparatus known as the pressure cooker. French physician Denis Papin
invented the machine in 1679. Pressure cookers speed up cooking time by
trapping the steam that escapes from boiling water, thereby increasing the
pressure on the liquid. When the pressure is increased, it takes more energy
for the liquid molecules to escape the surface and become a gas, so the
temperature at which the liquid boils is higher. Thanks to the laws of physics,
water in a pan can never exceed the boiling point — which
is usually 212 degrees Fahrenheit but varies slightly with altitude — because
that’s when the liquid begins to evaporate. The maximum temperature in a
pressure cooker, on the other hand, is approximately 250 degrees. The end
result of this scientific wonder? All foods cook much faster in a pressure
cooker. For foods that require an hour or more of conventional cooking — brown
rice, beets and dry beans, for instance — the
pressure cooker can slash cooking time by up to 70 percent. (See Pressure Cooker Resources.)
2. You’ll Save Energy
Those
quick cooking times also mean less energy use. Pressure cookers became popular
in the United States during World War II as a means of conserving energy. What
was true then is still true today: You’ll save as much as 60 to 70 percent of
the typical cooking time, which means you’ll use about two-thirds less energy.
Unless you’re using a nifty solar cooker or woodstove, there’s almost no way to
use less energy while cooking.
Page: 1 |
2 |
3 |
Next >>
