If you want to get in and out of the kitchen fast and serve your family wholesome, nutritious, home cooked meals, then use a modern pressure cooker. No more junk food, no expensive fast food or prepackaged "dinners" with their high fat, salt, chemicals and other unwanted additives. Pressure cooking uses superheated steam under pressure to force the flavor into foods, so steaming will always be better than the destructive effects of boiling which is constantly washing the flavor out.

Cook nutritious meals in record time and preserve vitamins and essential nutrients because foods cook quickly in an almost airless environment with very little liquid. Pressure cooking is virtually fat-free cooking, as foods are cooked in a steam atmosphere, so fats can be cooked out and drained away. This super-heated steam actually intensifies natural flavors, so you can use less salt and still get great taste. This preserves the most vitamins and minerals and preserves the color of vegetables and its great for cooking low-fat and vegetarian recipes.

Ecological Friendly

A good quality pressure cooker can be used on ALL heat sources, natural gas, propane, electric, including magnetic, heat induction stoves and even solar, wood or charcoal fires. The decreased cooking time required for foods cooked in a pressure cooker results in proportionally reduced consumption of energy. A pressure cooker is energy efficient and can save up to 70 % of the fuel used for cooking purposes. A good quality pressure cooker pays for itself in energy savings, which is not only good for the environment but your wallet too.

The new generation pressure cookers help cut pollution and minimize the greenhouse gas emissions from your gas stove, and reduce electric power consumption when using electric stoves, and that means electric plants use less energy to generate power.

Economical

Super fast cooking means lower fuel bills and more for your money at the supermarket. Whatever type of fuel you use for cooking it is costing you money. The difference can add up quickly when you compare the savings between 8-10 hours in a slow cooker or 1-2 hours in the oven or using a regular cooking pot.

Increase your buying power at the supermarket with the cheapest cuts of meat and serve it tender , moist and delicious. An additional benefit, especially on hot summer days, is that the kitchen doesn't heat or steam up when a pressure cooker is used as it does in conventional cooking methods, so you don't waste more money in cooling bills.

Safe and Dependable

The old style pressure cookers like this, the ones we all remember from visiting grandma's house, are a thing of the past. The noisy, rattling and hissing 'jiggler' on top, the thing that scared everyone out of the kitchen... is gone. This type of flimsy, underperforming pressure cooker is harder to use and more apt to scorch your food... all the while spitting hot water at you and puffing out clouds of steam while you labored to keep the thing chugging at the proper rate.

Today, we have the new, sleek and totally re-engineered, state of the art, modern pressure cookers that are silent and 100% safe, and very user friendly. All the guesswork of operating a pressure cooker is gone. The modern pressure cooker with its improved valve systems and advanced features is very easy to use with an easy-to-read pressure indicators and well-written instructions. Using just 1/2 cup liquid and emitting very little steam, the new pressure cookers require just one heat adjustment, compared to the clunky old fashioned cookers that needed constant fiddling around with the stove. With as many as 6 safety systems, the modern pressure cookers are totally goof-proof, dependable and reliable.

Fast - Time Saving

The pressure cooker is the original 'fast food' machine. The fast cooking action of pressure cooker can cut the cooking time to just 1/3 of the cooking time of conventional cooking methods, and that's time you can spend on other activities. You can do a beef stew in 15 minutes. Imagine a hearty bean soup in less than 10 minutes, that's faster than you can set the table. Cheaper cuts of meat will be more tender and flavorful, and there is almost no loss of e nutrients.

Money Saving

Save 70% of energy normally used when cooking with a pressure cooker. A good quality pressure cooker pays for itself in energy saved! And your summertime kitchen stays cooler and less humid and that cuts down cooling bills. You can buy inexpensive cuts of meat, beans and legumes that would take hours and hours to cook by ordinary cooking methods, and have dinner on the table in just 15 minutes. Buy food in bulk sizes and take advantage of sales and cook up a weeks worth of main dishes in just a couple of hours with a pressure cooker. Because cooking times are so fast, even the busiest cook can serve a wholesome meal in minutes and avoid the expense of fast food.

Saves Space & Other Cookware

Your pressure cooker is very versatile in whatever size kitchen you have. Whether your kitchen is in a house, an RV, a boat or a makeshift camp stove, you can use a pressure cooker for simmering, braising, steaming, baking, boiling, poaching, sautéing, frying, canning, and warming. Cook everything from grains, meats, chicken, vegetables, casseroles, soups, make a hot drink and even serve desserts. Many cookers come with accessory pans to cook a wide variety of foods so you can cook one dish or an entire meal all at the same time without intermingling the flavors.

Use the bottom of your cooker as a heavy saucepan to avoid scorching stews and sauces. It can also serve as a deep fryer without the lid. Use it to bake bread, with or without an oven. Use the cooker as a boiling water water bath canner for small batches of jams and fruit butters or pie filling. It can be used as a regular Dutch oven without pressure. Use the cooker as a steamer for crisp-tender veggies, and as a rice/risotto cooker for quick side dishes. Use your cooker instead of the microwave, while it takes only a few minutes to cook one potato in the microwave, but eight potatoes takes a long time. In the pressure cooker it takes only minutes whether you cook one potato or eight.

Emergency Preparedness

Use a pressure cooker during an emergency to cook food without wasting limited fuels, and even cook on a wood fire. If you are cooking over an open fire and don't want soot on your pot , just wipe soap all over the outside, covering the bottom and sides before putting it over the fire. Afterward the soot will wash off easily.

Use the cooker as a water distiller, or purifier, to provide safe drinking water in any emergency. With a plastic hose and copper tubing you can take sea water, swimming pool, pond, or river water and get fresh drinking water, approximate 1 Quart per hour. Use the cooker as the everything pot for washing clothes, dishes and even the baby.

Recreational Use

RV travelers and vacationers will find the pressure cooker convenient for cooking several foods at the same time, one pot does it all. A pressure cooker takes up less space, and serves as a multi-purpose all in one pot. Hikers, hunters, fishermen and campers can use a pressure cooker for high altitude cooking on wood campfires, charcoal grills, and even solar stoves. Mountain climbing enthusiasts will find a pressure cooker to be indespensible at high altitudes. Boaters will find a cooker essential galley gear for quick, hearty meals, even bake bread in the pressure cooker, and in rough weather foods can't spill.

The Benefits of Using a Pressure Cooker

Vitamins

How foods are cooked can have a big impact on their nutrient content. The best way to destroy vitamins is to cook your food in an open pot of boiling water. To retain the most nutrients possible, most experts recommend that you use as little water as possible and cook foods rapidly because many vitamins are sensitive to water, heat and air exposure (vitamin C, the B vitamins and folate in particular) and water used for cooking can dissolve and wash away water soluble vitamins, while the heat deteriorates them.

Many vitamins such as "B's" and C" are water soluble and the simple act of washing them takes away some of the vitamins. Vitamins "D" and "E" are fat soluble. Fat soluble vitamins are stored and metabolized with the fat in our bodies. Fat soluble vitamins are not as volatile as water soluble vitamins and are not as readily “cooked away.

The longer the cooking time and the higher the temperature, the worse it becomes. It is best to choose the cooking method that most optimizes and preserves the nutrients in food. In a study published by Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, researchers investigated effects of various means of cooking broccoli. Up to 97 percent of certain antioxidant compounds were destroyed by microwaving, while steaming the broccoli caused only 11 percent loss. Therefore, any cooking that minimizes the time, temperature, and water will help to preserve nutrients. Pressure cooking under steam is one of the methods best because it minimizes time and requires little water.

Choose The Best Cooking Method

The super-heated steam which is produced by high temperatures inside a pressure cooker makes the food cook quickly and intensifies the natural flavors. This allows cooks to use less salt, sugar,and use less costly herbs and seasonings and still get a better taste. Pressure cooking creates an airless environment that retains more nutrients than other cooking methods. As the foods get cooked quickly with very little liquid, more vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients are preserved and not boiled away during cooking. Since, foods are cooked in a steam atmosphere; it is virtually fat-free cooking as well.

There are a few other tricks you can employ to preserve nutrients. Minimize the surface area of food by leaving vegetables in big pieces. That way fewer vitamins are destroyed when they are exposed to air. Always cover your pot to hold in steam and heat. This will also help to reduce cooking time. Use any leftover cooking water for soups, sauces, and stews, or vegetable juice drinks. The longer food is exposed to these factors, the greater the nutrient loss.

The Best Cooking Techniques

As a rule, rapid cooking techniques are better for retaining nutrients than slower methods. Any type of cooking changes food in some ways, and more nutrients are lost when food is exposed to heat, light, moisture and air. The methods that typically preserve nutrients best can be ordered from quickest to slowest, as follows:

Pressure Cooking

Microwaving

Steaming

Stir-frying

Broiling/Grilling

Sauteing

Poaching

Braising

Roasting

Baking

Boiling

The nutrient retention achieved through these methods may vary according to the food type, size and shape and your own cooking technique. Note that boiling is not a preferred cooking method because most nutrients are lost or poured down the drain with the cooking water. A practical way to recoup the nutrients that are released into boiling water is to retain the liquid after cooking and use it as stock for soups.

What Can I Do with a Pressure Cooker?

Dutch oven: Use your pressure cooker just like a Dutch oven for cooking both on top of the stove and in the oven (under 300 degrees).

Steamer: Cook tender-crisp veggies, and fish with or without pressure. Steam breads, holiday puddings and rice under pressure

Sauce Pan: Use the cooker as a heavy bottom sauce pan to simmer sauces that don't get scorched.

Deep Fryer: It's not recommend to fry under pressure, but you can still use the bottom of your cooker (without the lid) as a deep fat fryer for fish, French fries, tempura, and donuts.

Braising Pot: Braised chops and veggies can be easily cooked with or without pressure.

Poaching Pot: Poach fish and fruit easily, and even eggs.

Baking Pan: Yes, bake bread in the cooker either in the oven or on top of the stove, using pressure or not..

Distiller: In an emergency your cooker can turn any available water into safe drinking water at the rate of a quart per hour.

Sterilizer: Use the pressure cooker to sterilize baby bottles, canning jars and even medical instruments in an emergency.

Canner: Even if you don't want the added expense of a separate pressure canner use your pressure cooker (at 15psi) for canning small batches of high-acid foods such as jam, fruits, and pickles.