How to Use a Pressure Cooker – Beginners Guide

Intro:

Today, we’re going to teach you how to use a pressure cooker, so without any further delay let’s begin…

How To Use A Pressure Cooker

I really like using the pressure cooker. They vary from model to model, you should always refer to the instructions that come with your pressure cooker. but I want to tell you the basics of how these work, and why you should be using them.

No 01: Cooks Food Faster

The cool thing about pressure cookers is, they cook foods faster than if you were, just say, to put some beans in a pot and cover it and take whatever time. It cooks at a higher pressure, it’s highly regulated and controlled, and kind of boom, done, you’re out. People say oh, I cook beans in five minutes, it’s not quite that fast, but it does save you a lot of time.

No 02: Excellent For Short Ribs And Brisket

It also softens tough meats. You can cook squash in this, quickly and it really can save you, when you’re in a crunch, and you want to cook fast, so you can cook by Pressure Cooker. It cooks any food very quickly.

No 03: Parts Of A Pressure Cooker

Let’s talk about the parts of a pressure cooker. If you have a Pressure Cooker, it usually has a thick base, and then it has a lid that usually has a locking mechanism, (lid clicks). All the pressure cookers are different but have similar features. You have usually an adjustment for high and low pressure, plus a release, a quick-release setting. It usually has a lock knob of some sort.

No 04: Important To Keep Pressure Cooker Clean

I want to tell you that the interior of the cooker has a gasket, you have to keep that clean, and you have to generally keep this clean. Well, it’s like any pot, you have to keep it clean, but pressure cookers it’s especially important, they’re fairly easy to clean, but the top, gasket, it’s difficult to clean.

No 05: Safety Relief Valve

It has also a kind of double system pressure relief valve, in an emergency, which does not happen, so that’s all usually in the top. I suggest you that avoid that kind of pressure cookers that are called jiggle-top ones, it usually has a weight that sits on top of a small thing sticking out there and it’s just my opinion.

If you want to make beans, so put those beans in your pressure cooker and then cover them with enough water that when the beans are soaked or wet and cooked, you know they always get bigger, you still want them covered with some liquid.

No 06: Don’t Overfill It

The other thing you need to pay attention to is, you don’t want to overfill your pressure cooker with water, it needs a certain amount of headspace just for air or steam. Most cookers have a line on the right side, and in almost all pressure cookers I’ve seen, there’s some sort of a liquid fill line, don’t go above that.

So, put whatever food it is you want to cook in your pressure cooker, add in your liquid, put the lid on, lock the lid, and then put it on high heat. Again, you’re following the manufacturer’s instructions here. At a certain point, you’re going to reach what’s called pressure, and there are different indicators on different pressure cookers as to what that means.

No 07: Turn Down The Burner

When a little pin pops up. At that point, turn down the burner, you want to turn the heat down and maintain that high pressure for whatever the recipe calls for. You don’t want the gas being on a full high, you don’t want a ton of steam spewing out of the thing, you want just a very slight kind of (hisses).

You’re maintaining the pressure, it’s cooking along, really nice. When you come to the end of the timed period for cooking your beans or whatever, I do what’s called a natural release.

No 08: Turn Off Heat, Let It Set

I just turn the burner off and I let the pressure cooker sit, and it will slowly come back down to normal pressure and you can unlock the lid and open it. There’s also a quick-release feature on almost all pressure cookers.

No 09: Quick Release Feature

If you want to do that as well. You can cook it a little longer and then do quick-release, it lets the steam out and you’re ready to go. Be careful when you do that, put a towel over the top of the pressure cooker is my suggestion because steam will come out, and make sure to point it away from you.

That’s it, those are the basics of how to use a pressure cooker. Again, follow the manufacturer’s instructions.

Hope so guys you liked reading this article. I tried my best as much as possible ways to make you understand everything clearly so hopefully, this article is gonna be helpful for you in how to use a pressure cooker. Keep visiting us to learn many more things. Have a nice day!