Cooking with a Pressure Cooker is Cheap and EasyIf you have not cooked with a modern pressure cooker before, you are in for a treat. Cooking with a pressure cooker is easy, fast and cost-effective. This page gives some of the advantages of pressure cookery from a green living perspective and explores some of the types of cookery for which pressure cookers are suitable. There's also a recipe for delicious Lancashire Hot Pot! Savings!Incredibly, you can save as much as a two-thirds of your normal cooking fuel and you can save a similar amount of time for each dish cooked.Using a pressure cooker for your cooking is a very green option because of the fuel savings you will achieve. Gas and electric cookers alike contribute significant carbon-dioxide emissions. These are emitted during combustion for gas and during production for electricity. And of course you will shave your fuel money down considerably. Pity you cannot use them to grill! If you haven't yet bought a pressure cooker, there are some good options. Click here for a look. See also pressure cookers for tips on what's best to buy. Some advantages of pressure cooker cookeryModern pressure cookers are user-friendly and don't require constant attention. Set them up correctly and you can go and get on with other things, for the most part. Using cheap cuts of meatYou can also make stocks for use in other recipes. Use the bones from cuts of meat or chicken to produce wonderful stocks which can be added to soups and other dishes to provide more nutrition and flavour. Another way to use your pressure cooker to good effect is to make puddings which would otherwise require steaming for a long time. See here for a selection of good books for cooking with a pressure cooker. Nutritional benefits and advantages of pressure cookersWhen cooking with a pressure cooker you retain more of the natural vitamin content of the food. This is because the food cooks for a shorter length of time, though at higher temperatures. This is especially useful when cooking vegetables, as in conventional boiling a lot of the vitamin content is destroyed. Your pressure cooker can be used to steam vegetables which preserves more of the vitamin and mineral content. This high temperature but fast cooking is one of the main advantages of pressure cookers. Most pressure cookers have trivets for steaming as part of the equipment. Pressure cooker recipesHere is a recipe for Lancashire Hot-Pot to get you started. Lancashire Hot-PotTimes: about 15 minutes on high pressure (15lbs weight)
2 lbs potatoes 1 or two onions 2 or 3 sticks of celery 1/2 a pound of carrots 1 1/2 pounds of neck of lamb or mutton 1/2 pint of stock salt and pepper bay leaf MethodSlice or cube all the vegetables. Put the ingredients into the pressure cooker with potatoes at the bottom. Add the stock and seasoning. Fit the lid and heat until it is at pressure. After 15 minutes cool quickly under a running tap to stop the cooking. (If water use is an issue, use a bowl of water which can then be kept for other uses.) Release the pressure. Check that everything is properly cooked and tender. Serve. Bon appetit!
 This is one of the very best books available on using a pressure cooker. It gives you all the basics of using modern pressure cookers and lots of inventive ways to adapt recipes. Highly recommended! Great Vegetarian Cooking Under Pressure Miss Vickie's Big Book of Pressure Cooker Recipes This book contains all kinds of different recipes, including many for meat. There are also charts for timings and pressures and lots of techniques to get the best from your pressure cooking.
Presto 23-Quart Pressure Cooker and Canner Cooking with a pressure cooker may be a realistic choice for some only if the cooker is electric. Personally I don't favour them as I think there is more to go wrong - but then I've never yet used one. A slow cooker is one option. These devices are essentially simple; see Buy a slow cooker for cheap, easy dinners for further information. This one Cuisinart CPC-600 1000-Watt 6-Quart Electric Pressure Cooker
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is also by Lorna J Sass and brings culinary expertise and flair to using a pressure cooker for vegetarian fare.
gets rave reviews. It is the real deal - especially if you want to can your own food. As a pressure cooker it's good choice for people who have large families.
is probably the best of the breed!
