Pressure cookers were used the most in the previous times. You can just ask your your grand parents how they used to cook their meat. The pressure cookers would take anywhere from a few minutes to a great number of hours to cook and they were quite complicated to use as well. Which is why the need for pressure cookers died down after microwaves and ovens were introduced. However, with new types of electric and programmable pressure cookers being introduced, the use of pressure cookers is the rave nowadays in the culinary world. People are being encouraged to use the pressure cooker since many professional chefs are, nowadays, incorporating the use of pressure cookers when cooking.

 

How to Work a Pressure Cooker

Understanding how to work a pressure cooker is not as complicated as it seems. All you have to do is add your vegetables and meat into the pressure cooker with just the right amount of liquid, it can be water or any kind of stock. Lock the food in the airtight pot and let it heat till the boiling point of the liquid is raised and there is enough steam in the pot which builds up the pressure.  The higher the temperature, the quicker your food will cook which is why the steam is trapped inside the pot.

A valve on the pot is included to allow steam to escape so as to prevent the build up of pressure in the pot. The steam in the pot forces the moisture inside the food. Which is how meats which fall off the bone and are extremely tender made. It even creates a liquidy thick sauce with the liquid you put in and caramelizes the vegetables beautifully. The result is much better than if you had baked the meat or put it in a broiler. Once the food is done, let the pressure in the pot escape through the valve slowly.

 

Types of Pressure Cookers

There are two types of amazing pressure cookers available in the market, electric and stovetop. Electric pressure cookers are what are much preferred by cooks since they are very easy to work. The pressure cooker has the functions to control the heat and pressure on its own without any manual supervision. Many electric pressure cookers also come with other functions such as steaming rice or slow cooking. They are quite easy to use and the functions are understandable.

Stovetop pressure cooker have the added advantage that they can build more pressure inside the pot than electric pressure cookers. Good stovetop pressure cookers are usually made of stainless steel with thick bottoms. The thick bottoms allow for the heat to be distributed evenly and helps the food cook quickly. However with stovetop pressure cookers, you have to manually monitor and adjust the pressure and heat inside the pot so as not to cause an overbuild of pressure.

If you are in the market to buy a new pressure cooker, check out this website that is focused on the instapot, the instant pot pressure cooker.