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Ok so I've read conflicting arguments on the merit of pressure cooker against others. I'm planning to buy one.

some says it's the same taste/quality but saves time, some says it gives more nuanced taste to some dish because of uniform maillard and the pressure extract more flavor (isn't that just moving one flavor component to others hence the overall flavorfullness is the same?) .

is there any kind of dish that can be improved (or at least more nuanced) with pressure cooker?

stews, soups, chili sauce(sambal), stocks, meat broth etc ?

thanks in advance.

crescent_lunar
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  • Every dish cookable in a pressure cooker, if you're hungry! :-) – SF. Jan 18 '19 at 10:47
  • The answer may be dependent upon the type of pressure cooker -- if it leaks steam as it cooks (the jiggling type regulators), you're going to lose aromatic compounds to the air, just as you would with other methods. See http://www.cookingissues.com/index.html%3Fp=2561.html – Joe Jun 17 '19 at 15:33

3 Answers3

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It works well with rice and lentil soups (Indian Daal) where uniformity is desirable. It is inferior than pots for making curries and stews.

It works wonderfully for stocks and it can dramatically reduce the cooking time. Although I have no experience with non veg cooking!

Love Bites
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  • "works wonderfully with stocks". so I take it would be better to make stocks in Pressure Cooker and then use that stock to cook stews/curry in open pots. – crescent_lunar Jan 17 '19 at 02:45
  • There has been some testing on stocks, and it turns out that the *type* of pressure cooker matters : http://www.cookingissues.com/index.html%3Fp=2561.html – Joe Jun 17 '19 at 15:31
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Pressure cooking is primarily a time-saving measure. I have never tasted anything that it actually improved.

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In my opinion, the only dish that is better, i.e. tastier, prepared in a pressure cooker are potatoes as used in a southern german potato salad. For this type of salad a low starch, waxy boiling type of potato is used and in my experience, they come out better, i.e. waxier, in a pressure cooker. I haven't done the science, but I think it has to do with the shorter cooking time.

Gretel_f
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