Pressure Cooking Yields Tasty, Fast and Economical Meals

Reader Contribution by Rebecca Martin
article image

Pressure cooking was my mother’s go-to culinary technique. As a full-time student and a part-time farmer, she had no patience for complicated cookery. Using a pressure cooker meant she could load the dining table with tasty, fuss-free meals that she’d thrown together quickly. In short, the pressure cooker was my mother’s best kitchen friend.

Eventually, mom turned over most of the cooking chores to her only daughter — me. I’d always been interested in cooking anyway, toddling around the kitchen with my nose dusted in flour at a young age, and she understood that I was ripe for culinary picking. Our pressure cooker was one of the first implements she taught me to use.

Mom’s cooker dated from the 1950s. Unlike quiet modern models, its jiggle-top pressure regulator rocked and hissed during operation. Despite the noise, that old aluminum pot produced many tender and flavorful beef stews. My personal favorite was chicken and noodles, made with a free-range bird from grandma’s farm and dough mixed of pastured eggs and wheat flour. Our farm-fresh ingredients produced a nutritious dish, but the pressure cooker got credit for the amazingly short cooking time — less than 15 minutes from start to finish.

Resembling heavy, lidded stockpots, pressure cookers are designed to seal tightly so that their contents can cook under pressure—about 15 psi (pounds per square inch). Because water under pressure boils at 250 degrees Fahrenheit rather than the standard 212 degrees, food inside a pressure cooker cooks rapidly. Most dishes cook in just one-third of the normal time.

Comments (0) Join others in the discussion!
    Online Store Logo
    Need Help? Call 1-800-234-3368