Before we get to the benefits of a pressure cooker, you need to know why you need a pressure cooker. Simply put, a pressure cooker is the fastest cooking pot you will ever use, since they cook food in a fraction of the time than any other cooking method.
Since you can make in a pressure cooker what you can make on the stove top or in the oven, owning a pressure cooker may just allow you get rid of old pots or pots you don’t use often, and free up space in your pantry or kitchen cupboard.
As dad’s in the kitchen, we like our food cooked fast and delicious, and that’s why we need a pressure cooker.
Now, let’s learn 4 benefits of a pressure cooker every home chef should know, that might help you decide to shed unused pots in your kitchen for this popular cooking pot, that just might convince you that pressure cooking is the wave of the future.
Types of Pressure Cookers are There?
While pressure cooking in home kitchens has become popular in the last few years, this type of cooking vessel was first invented over 100 years ago. It has gone through several iterations over the decades from large and expensive pressure cookers found only in professional kitchens to affordable cookers today you can purchase between $20 and $100, that can help you prepare an entire meal in a fraction of the time as using traditional cooking pots.
There are two types of pressure cookers you can use:
- an electric pressure cooker that is plugged into a wall socket and has multiple cooking settings, based on the type of food being cooked and length of cooking time.
- A stove top pressure cooker that is placed on a gas or electric stove top burner, is a basic pressure cooker. You can cook the same types of food as in an electric pressure cooker, but you need to watch the cooking time and remove from heat source yourself.
Benefit 1 – Shorter Cooking Time
As the name implies, a pressure cooker cooks food under high pressure, and is an amazing time-saving cooking method often reducing your cooking time by 1/3. Rather than cooking a roast in an over for 2-3 hours, you can cook a roast to perfection in a pressure cooker in a little over an hour.
If you have never thought of the benefits using a pressure cooker or even how to use one, once you use one, it will quickly become your go-to cooking pot. You can make soups, rice, meat, stew, even yogurt with a pressure cooker.
But what does that mean to you as a home cook? Once the lid is locked down, heat, steam and pressure begin to build up and are unable to escape out of the sides of the lid, like with your other pots. This allows a tremendous amount of heat and pressure to build up under the lid in a short amount of time, to nearly 500 degrees Fahrenheit, which allows the food to be cooked in about one half to 1/3 the time of cooking on the stove top or in the oven.
Benefit 2 – Preserves Nutrients
Cooking in a pressure cooker helps preserve the vital nutrients and vitamins that are often lost in traditional cooking methods, since the food cooks in about a 1/3 of the time and uses less water, which is where most of the nutrients are lost. When you pour out the water, you are pouring out the vitamins and nutrients as well.
The higher pressure in the cooker raises the internal temperature, so food cooks faster, and vitamins normally cooked away are preserved.
Just a small amount of liquid is required in a pressure cooker, as compared to stove top cooking that uses more water, and thus most of the vitamins are boiled away. With a pressure cooker, the vitamins and nutrients stay locked in the food and are ready and excited to be shared with your body.
The sealed lid of the pressure cooker prevents heat and steam from escaping out of the sides of the lid.
Now you might be thinking aren’t the vitamins lost during the depressurization process after cooking? While a small amount of nutrients may escape most of what is released is super heated air and steam so you don’t burn your face off opening the lid.
Benefit 3 – What Can you Make in a Pressure Cooker
You may just be able to reduce the number of pots in your cupboard.
A pressure cooker is not just for boiling water or making rice. Any type of dish you can make on the stove top or in the oven, you can make in a pressure cooker:
Such as
- Soups
- Stews
- Chicken dishes
- Lamb shank
- Beef
- Steak
- Pot Roast
- Corned Beef
- Pasta, fettuccine, noodles
- Cheese cake
- Creme Brulee
- Rice Pudding
- Lemon Curd
- Compote
- and More!
See the Best Pressure Cookers here
Benefit 4 – save energy and uses fewer natural resources
A pressure cooker,like the Insta Pot saves energy. Whether you have a gas or electric oven, it takes a lot longer to cook food in the oven or on the stove top than with a pressure cooker. If you want to reduce your energy bills, or maybe you want to help reduce the use of the planet’s precious resources, a pressure cooker is a great way to help in that endeavor.
You will use just a small amount of water, not 6 quarts of water, and your food will be fully cooked in about 1 hour, even a pot roast.
This will help keep your kitchen cool and save energy, while you cook delicious meals for your family.
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