Pressure Cookers

While cooking under vacuum emulates mountain conditions, causing liquids to boil at lower temperatures than they would at sea level, pressure cookers make use of the opposite effect: Water boils at a higher temperature when under pressure, as when heated in an hermetically sealed vessel. Pressure cookers can cut the time required for many kitchen tasks by half.

While their advantage in fast-paced environments is indisputable, certain caveats apply. First, a pressure cooker can only be used for relatively small amounts of liquid. When a pressure cooker is used to make meat, fish, or poultry stock, the stock must not be allowed to boil or it will become cloudy and greasy. To avoid this, you must keep a close eye on the pressure cooker and modulate the heat so it doesn’t release any steam. If steam is shooting out the top or out of a valve, it means that the liquid on the inside is boiling and will easily be ruined.