PRESSURE COOKER BASICS

The pressure cooker is aptly named—in two ways. First, the ingenious airtight pot relies on a marked increase in pressure to significantly cut down on cooking times. Second, it decreases the pressure on you, the home cook, to put together a tasty meal from scratch, quickly and efficiently. There’s no need to start prepping meals hours in advance or spend long stretches hovering over a simmering pot, spoon in hand. In the pressure cooker, lamb shanks turn falling-off-the-bone tender in less than half an hour, and making risotto—a process that traditionally involves constant stirring over low heat—is entirely hands off. The concentrated steam of the cooker, rather than your own elbow grease, helps the meat, grains, or vegetables reach the perfect state of done and delicious.

There’s a lot more to pressure-cooking than the convenience, however. This method also delivers serious dishes with superior texture. High pressure extracts more flavor and gelatin from chicken or beef bones, for example, resulting in richer, fuller-bodied stocks. Cooking beans under high pressure eliminates the need for presoaking and results in a creamier texture. (It’s no surprise that the pressure cooker is considered a kitchen essential in legume-loving countries like India and Nepal.) Because the pot is sealed airtight, precious moisture and flavoring agents can’t escape, which adds up to juicier pork shoulder, umami-packed short ribs, and gorgeously fragrant lamb curry.

So why isn’t the pressure cooker more of a staple in American kitchens? The answer lies in that story you probably heard about your grandmother’s old-school cooker with the weighted pressure regulator spewing soup all over her ceiling—and causing her to swear off pressure-cooking for life. Scary accidents like that branded the cooker as dangerous, but these days its bad rap is thoroughly unwarranted. Modern pressure cookers are safe, armed with multiple backup features that allow excess pressure to escape long before building up to explosive proportions. And that’s not the only reason these pots are making a comeback. Many of these new-generation cookers, such as the wildly popular Instant Pot, are practically one-stop tools—they can also be used as slow cookers, rice pots, and yogurt makers. Perhaps most important, these fast, multifunctional gadgets are nearly foolproof.

Pressure-cooking can lead to substantial savings at the supermarket, too: Once you realize that the base of a deeply delicious chicken soup can be produced from leftover bones in less time than it takes to go food shopping, you may never be tempted to buy canned or boxed stock again. In just an hour or so on a Sunday night, you can pressure-cook a host of building blocks for the week of meals ahead: batches of beans, pots of grains, quarts of soup. You can make the most of some of the more inexpensive cuts of meat at the supermarket, too, transforming them into tender pieces in less than an hour. Start cooking your way through the recipes in this book, each of which includes directions for both stovetop and electric models, and you’ll quickly see what all the fuss is about—this humble pot truly is the ultimate shortcut.