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How Do Pressure Cookers Work

February 9, 2016 by Rose Atwater 1 Comment

How Do Pressure Cookers Work?

If you like to save time in the kitchen, but still put a great meal on the table for your family, a pressure cooker is a great option for you.  Cooking with pressure allows you to cook all kinds of foods up to two-thirds faster than other cooking methods.  Plus, it will leave your food more tender and full of nutrients. Did you get that part? “two-thirds FASTER”.  Check out how I made homemade applesauce in one minute.

How do pressure cookers work

As a mom of 3, my slow cooker was my savior.  A busy day for us was spending a couple hours taking kids to and from school, cleaning house AND working from home.  Not to mention, making sure there was a meal available for the boys (who eat EVERYTHING.)  It was nice to know that I could throw some things in the slow cooker and 8 hours later have a meal. Oh, wait… but I forgot to turn it on. …or I might have gotten so busy that I forgot the food needed 8 hours to cook and it’s already 1pm!  Has that ever happened to you?  Thankfully, my electric pressure cooker can make those meals in about an hour.

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So you might be wondering, How Do Pressure Cookers Work?  A pressure cooker works with steam pressure.  When cooking, you use a pot that is sealed tight.  Heat is used along with the liquid in the pot to build up steam.  You trap the steam inside so that it builds up a high pressure to make food cook faster.  It is amazing how much quicker you can cook all types of food.  It also traps all of the flavor, moisture, and nutrients leaving you with tender and flavorful food. 

A pressure cooker is an aluminum or stainless steel cookware item that has a lid that locks on tight, and a vent or some sort of pressure relief valve.  You can buy pressure cookers that are used on a stove or electric models, like the Instant Pot. My personal favorite! 

How Do Pressure Cookers Work?

  1. Using a valve to control the steam pressure, the pot will heat up and steam will form from the liquid inside the pot. When the steam forms the pressure inside the pot increases. The pressure inside the pot actually forces the steam through the food to cook it evenly.
  2. To create the pressure needed to cook at this speed, you will need to boil a liquid in the pot to create steam. This liquid can be water, a broth or other liquids used in cooking. Using the steam’s pressure, you can now cook with a boiling point of up to 250° F versus 212° F using the stove. The higher heat allows the food to cook a lot quicker.
  3.  The pressure created within the pot also will force liquid into the food you have inside the pot. This not only allows the food to cook faster, it makes it very tender a lot quicker as well. The moisture trapped inside will keep everything from getting dry and tough, and will keep it moist and tender.
  4. Most foods cooked in a pressure cooker require you to heat up the cooker, add the food you are cooking, put on the lid, adjust the pressure level and cook for a certain amount of time. Once that time is up you need to let the pressure release. This can be done quickly or slowly, depending on what you are cooking.
  5.  A pressure cooker can speed up cooking times by up to two-thirds the normal cooking times, plus it will use about 70% less energy because you are cooking the food for a shorter length of time. What a great way to save time and money in the kitchen!

You can also save money by using a pressure cooker by using cheaper cuts of meat and dry beans instead of canned.  The way the pressure cooker cooks the food will give you fast and tasty results with cuts of meat that are normally tough and dry bean that normally take much longer to cook.

Pressure cooking is a great way for busy people to be able to cook a great meal in a short amount of time, and for cooking a large variety of foods from vegetables to meat.

Happy Cooking,

Josie

Shop my Favorite Instant Pot Tools & Accessories…

Filed Under: One Pot Meals Tagged With: How Do Pressure Cookers Work, updated recipe

One Minute Pressure Cooker Applesauce

February 6, 2016 by Rose Atwater Leave a Comment

I didn’t know how easy it was to make homemade Pressure Cooker Applesauce until I decided to try it in my Instant Pot. I’m telling you, once you make your own One Minute Pressure Cooker Applesauce, you will never want to buy it at the grocery store ever again!

Pressure Cooker Applesauce

 

I have also been using this to trick my brain into getting rid of sugar altogether.  We use Braeburn apples and they taste so sweet!  We don’t add any sweetener to this recipe, but if you’d like it a little sweeter, try honey or Stevia.

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You can use as many apples as you want.  I usually do 6-7 at a time, and that gives me about a quart of applesauce once it is cooked. Peel, core, and cut the apples into fours.

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Put everything into the pot and top with ground cinnamon (to taste).  If you want to add a sweetener, use honey (1 tablespoon) or Stevia.

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Cook the apples on high pressure for 1 minute.  If you are new to the Instant Pot, press the “manual” button then take the time down to 1 minute by using the “-” button. The Instant Pot will begin building pressure once you stop pressing any buttons.

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The apples should be nice and soft.  This makes an immersion blender go through them easily.  Blend until you reach your desired texture.

Happy Cooking!

Josie

Shop my Favorite Instant Pot Tools & Accessories…

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One Minute Pressure Cooker Applesauce


  • Author: Josie
  • Total Time: 25 minutes
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Description

This One Minute Pressure Cooker Applesauce is the easiest thing you’ll ever make and you’ll never want to buy applesauce again!


Ingredients

Scale

6–7 large apples, pealed, cored and cut into quarters

1 cup water

1 tsp cinnamon (or to taste)

1 Tbsp honey (optional)


Instructions

Place all ingredients in your Instant Pot.

Close Instant Pot lid and set to manual high pressure for 1 minute.

Be sure the steam vent is sealed.

Use Quick Release then use an Immersion blender (or pour into your food processor) to process the apples to a smooth consistency.

Notes

Yields about 1 quart of applesauce.

  • Prep Time: 15
  • Cook Time: 10
  • Category: Fruit
  • Method: Pressure Cooker
  • Cuisine: American

Keywords: apples, applesauce, apple sauce, sauce, homemade, Instant Pot, pressure cooker, pressure, cooker, fast

Did you make this recipe?

Tag @pressurecookermeals on Instagram and hashtag it #pressurecookermeals

Filed Under: Dessert, Side Dishes Tagged With: udpated recipe

Easy Instant Pot Beef Bone Broth

February 6, 2016 by Rose Atwater 3 Comments

Long gone are the days of taking the whole day to cook homemade broth!  Before we made Easy Instant Pot Beef Bone Broth in the Instant Pot, we occupied all the burners on the stove to make enough broth to last us a month.

Easy Instant Pot Beef Bone Broth

The Instant Pot has made this process so much faster!  We can make beef bone broth in under 90 minutes now.  Doing this multiple times a day has made it so that we can stock up for more than 2-3 months.  When choosing bones for your beef bone broth, I highly suggest using beef neck bones or oxtail.  To make the best beef broth, you want to choose cuts that are filled with cartilage so the broth will be nice and thick (and tasty!)

Easy Instant Pot Beef Bone Broth

This is so easy that you will never want to buy broth from the grocery store again.  Stick the beef bones into the pot whole, chop and add the celery and onion.  Throw in whole thyme, bay leaves, and carrots (if you use whole carrots, chop them up) and 4 whole garlic cloves.

Instant Pot Beef Broth3

When everything is in the pot, fill with water to the line right below the max line.  The water from your veggies will add more water to the broth, so avoid over filling.

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Put the top on the Instant Pot, and cook on high pressure for 90 minutes.

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Once your broth is done in the pressure cooker, strain your broth into a pot getting rid of the veggies. Freeze and save!

Ignore the little white spots in our broth, we actually let it sit for an hour because we had to leave the house. What you see is just cooked impurities from the veggies and meat that collects on the top of the broth when it sits. You can take this off the top before you freeze if it happens to you.

Happy Cooking!

Josie

Shop my Favorite Instant Pot Tools & Accessories…

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Easy Instant Pot Beef Bone Broth

Easy Instant Pot Beef Bone Broth


★★★★★

4.3 from 3 reviews

  • Author: Josie
  • Total Time: 1 hour 40 minutes
  • Yield: 64 oz 1x
Print Recipe
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Description

This hearty Beef Bone Broth is easy to make and will be a staple for so many recipes!


Ingredients

Scale
  • 3lb beef bones (neck bones or oxtail preferred)
  • 3 bay leaves
  • half head of celery (chopped)
  • 5 oz carrots
  • 4 whole garlic cloves
  • 4–5 sprigs thyme
  • 1 onion (chopped, roughly)
  • salt (to taste)
  • pepper (to taste)

Instructions

  1. Cut onion and celery, add to pot
  2. Add everything else into the pot (whole)
  3. Fill with water to the line right before the max line on your pot
  4. Cook on High Pressure for 90 minutes, quick release
  5. Strain and store in freezer
  • Prep Time: 10
  • Cook Time: 90
  • Category: Beef
  • Method: Pressure Cooker
  • Cuisine: American

Keywords: beef, bone, broth, bone broth, pressure cooker, Instant Pot

Did you make this recipe?

Tag @pressurecookermeals on Instagram and hashtag it #pressurecookermeals


Filed Under: Beef

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