What are the advantages of pressure cookers?
Charlie, Lincoln
What really sets pressure cookers apart from other bits of kitchen kit, notes food writer Catherine Phipps, is their versatility. “I don’t see them as a gadget, but just as a saucepan with a specially adapted lid,” says the author of Modern Pressure Cooking. “You can use them for everything you would a normal saucepan, and much more besides, plus you’re also cutting down 70-75% of the cooking time.”
Stefano Arturi, of the Italian Home Cooking blog, adds: “I can make dishes that would otherwise take hours [stews, chickpeas] in a fraction of the time, and with no loss of flavour – in fact, pressure cooking intensifies how things taste.” And all for a fraction of the cost, too: “It’s a great ally in reducing water and energy consumption when you’re cooking things like vegetables, because you need very little of either.”
