The Everything Pressure Cooker Cookbook (2 page)

Pressure cookers cook food up to 70 percent faster than conventional methods. Steam trapped in the pot builds up pressure, which creates a hotter cooking temperature. The pressure bears down on the surface of the liquid, which isn't able to break down the molecules to create more steam; this produces more heat. The end result is that the pressure raises the boiling point. The tight seal on the cooker also helps seal in vitamins and minerals and prevents the cooker from boiling dry during the cooking process.

In 1679, a French physicist named Denis Papin invented what he called a steam digester by firmly securing a lid onto a cast iron pot. About 200 years after that, another Frenchman invented a way to preserve foods under high pressure. Home pressure canners were introduced in North America by National Presto Industries in 1915. By the 1940s, numerous manufacturers were selling pressure saucepans.

Large pressure cookers with the capacity to hold jars used in home canning are called pressure canners. Laboratories and hospitals sterilize materials using a type of pressure cooker known as an autoclave. Pressure cookers used in the food industry are often referred to as retorts.

Most of the recent innovations in pressure cookers were invented by European manufacturers. In the United States, pressure cooker popularity declined in the 1970s as many cooks switched to microwave ovens. Europeans tended to rely on pressure cookers as their preferred way to fix food quickly.

Today's improved pressure cookers usually feature a stationary pressure regulator that's either a fixed weight or a spring valve. The pressure regulator keeps the pressure even in the cooker by occasionally releasing a burst of steam. The pressure regulator also provides an easy way to quick release the pressure at the end of the pressure cooking time; this is usually done by pressing a button or flipping a pressure-release switch.

New pressure cookers have backup pressure release mechanisms that prevent the excess pressure accidents that were associated with older models. They also have safety features that cause the lid to remain locked into place until after all of the pressure has been released.

Your cooking equipment can make a difference in how easy it is to prepare foods. Buy the best you can afford. Better pan construction equals more even heat distribution, which translates to reduced cooking time and more even cooking.

Food will burn more easily in an inexpensive pan with a thinner pan bottom. How well your cooking pan conducts the heat will make a difference in how high you set the burner temperature. With some practice, you'll soon learn the perfect heat settings for your pressure cooker: It might take a medium-high setting to sauté food in an inexpensive pressure cooker and a lot more stirring to prevent the food from burning, but you can accomplish the same task in a heavier pan when it's over medium heat, and with less frequent stirring.

Read the instruction manual that came with your pressure cooker. Never exceed the fill line for your pressure cooker; adjust the recipe or prepare it in two batches if you need to. Overfilling the pressure cooker can cause it to explode, so be careful!

On the flipside, a heavier pan will retain the heat longer once it's removed from the burner than will an inexpensive one, so to prevent it from overcooking, food cooked to perfection in a heavier pan must be moved to a serving dish more quickly. This is especially true of foods like gravy that tend to thicken the longer they sit; gravy can turn from a succulent liquid to one big lump if it stays on the heat too long.

The ways pressure is released from the pressure cooker are:

• The natural release method
  , which refers to turning off the heat under the pressure cooker and either removing the pan from the heat or letting the pan remain on the burner, and then waiting until the pressure cooker has cooled sufficiently for all of the pressure to be released.
  

• The quick release method
  , which refers to using the valve on the pressure cooker to release the pressure.
  

• The cold water release method
  , which occurs when the pan is carried to the sink and cold water from the tap is run over the lid of the pressure cooker (but not over the valve!) until the pressure is released.
  

The cold water release method isn't suggested in any of the recipes in this book; however, if you find that your pressure cooker retains too much heat after the quick release method when you prepare foods that only require a short cooking time — like certain vegetables, risotto, or polenta — try using the cold water release method the next time you fix that food.

Cooking terms that you'll encounter in this book are:

• Bain-marie
  , or water bath, is a method used to make custards and steamed dishes by surrounding the cooking vessel with water; this helps maintain a more even cooking temperature around the food.
  

• Baking
  involves putting the food in a preheated oven; the food cooks by being surrounded by the hot, dry air of your oven. In the pressure cooker, foods that are traditionally baked (like a cheesecake, for example) are baked in a covered container that's placed on a rack submerged in water. The water in the bottom of the pressure cooker creates the steam that builds the pressure and maintains the heat inside the pressure cooker. The cover over the pan holding the food maintains the dry environment inside.
  

• Braising
  usually starts by browning a less expensive cut of meat in a pan on top of the stove and then covering the meat with a small amount of liquid, adding a lid or covering to the pan, and slowly cooking it. Braising can take place on the stovetop, in the oven, or in a slow cooker or pressure cooker. The slow-cooking process tenderizes the meat. The cooking environment in the pressure cooker greatly reduces the braising time needed. For example, a roast that would normally take two and a half to three hours in the oven or on the stove only requires forty-five to sixty minutes in the pressure cooker.
  

• Deglazing
  refers to the process of ridding a pan of any excess remaining fat by putting it over a medium-high heat and then adding enough cooking liquid to let you scrape up any browned bits stuck to the bottom of the pan. Doing this step before you add the other ingredients for your sauce or gravy gives the end result more flavor and color.
  

• Poaching
  is accomplished by gently simmering ingredients in broth, juice, water, wine, or other flavorful liquids until they're cooked through and tender.
  

• Roasting
  , like baking, is usually done in the oven, but generally at a higher oven temperature. Roasting meat in the moist environment inside a pressure cooker requires some trial and error because you can't rely on a programmable meat thermometer to tell you when the meat has reached the desired internal temperature. The upside is that the meat will roast much quicker when browned and then placed on the rack in a pressure cooker, and, even if it's cooked beyond your preferred preference, the meat will still be more moist than it would be if you had cooked it to that point in the dry environment of an oven.
  

• Sautéing
  is the method of quickly cooking small or thin pieces of food in some oil or butter that has been brought to temperature in a sauté pan (or in the pressure cooker) over medium to medium-high heat.
  

• Steaming
  is the cooking method that uses the steam from the cooking liquid to cook the food.
  

• Stewing
  , like braising, involves slowly cooking the food in a liquid; however, stewing involves a larger liquid-to-food ratio. In other words, you use far more liquid when you're stewing food. Not surprisingly, this method is most often used to make stew.
  

• Stir-frying
  is a cooking process similar to sautéing that's used to cook larger, bite-sized pieces of meat or vegetables in oil.
  

Tempering is the act of gradually increasing the temperature of one cooking ingredient by adding small amounts of a hotter ingredient to the first. For example, tempering beaten eggs by whisking small amounts of hot liquid into them before you add the eggs to the cooking pan lets them be mixed into the dish; tempering prevents them from scrambling instead.

There will be a learning curve with each pressure cooker that you use. You also need to keep in mind that the same pressure cooker will behave differently on different stovetops. For example, electric burners usually retain heat longer than do gas burners; therefore, if you need to reduce the pressure when cooking over an electric burner, after you adjust the burner setting, you may need to lift the cooker off of the heat.

Also, as mentioned earlier in this chapter, pressure cookers are like any other pan in your kitchen: There's less chance that foods will burn or stick to the bottom of better pans with thicker pan bottoms. If burning is a problem with your pressure cooker, you can try one of these solutions:

• Add more liquid the next time you make that recipe.
  

• Begin to heat or bring liquids to a boil before you lock on the lid.
  

• Bring the cooker up to pressure over a lower heat.
  

• Use a heat diffuser.
  

There will be times when the pressure cooker will come to pressure almost immediately and other times when it can take twenty minutes or more to do so. Keep in mind that it can delay the time it takes the cooker to reach the desired pressure when you are cooking a much higher ratio of food to liquid or if the food was very cold when you began the cooking process.

After you've worked with your pressure cooker, you'll come to recognize the signs that the cooker is about to reach pressure by the sounds it makes. (The cooker will usually release some steam before the pressure gasket finally settles into place.) If the pressure cooker fails to come to pressure, chances are: