Articles taggés avec ‘pressure cooker’

Tips For Saving Time In The Kitchen By Using These Two Helpers

Friday 3 July 2009

Would It Help You To Save Time In The Kitchen?

Because most people are quite busy, they often don’t have much time to spend cooking. It’s much better to prepare foods at home, hower, as they are usually much better for you than fast food or pre-prepared food.

Finding time savers in the kitchen is one way to make it easier to cook at home. It’s interesting to note that two of the best time savers in the kitchen use cooking methods at opposite ends of the speed spectrum. One cooks foods very quickly, while the other cooks foods slowly.

#1 Top Time Saver – The Slow Cooker

Slow cookers are electrical countertop appliances that come in varying sizes. Crock-Pot is actually a trademark name for a specific brand of slow cooker, although the term slow cooker and Crock-Pot are often used interchangeably.

While a slow cooker does just that – it cooks food slowly – it is a great time saver. Since you can put the ingredients for your main dish or an entire meal in the slow cooker in the morning before you start your other work for the day, and that evening you’ll have a meal ready and waiting.

Another time saving tip is to prepare the ingredients the evening before, then toss them in the slow cooker the following morning.

#2 Saver Of Time – The Pressure Cooker

Pressure cookers are back in style, and they have many more features than the old models of the 80’s. Today’s pressure cookers are much easier to use and much safer. A pressure cooker may look like other kitchen pots, but the lid makes all the difference. The lid completely seals the pot, so that the contents of the pot build up steam and boil easily. The cooking temperatures are high and the cooking time is much shorter because the steam produces high pressure. Even if it sounds somewhat complicated, it’s actually very easy to use.

Sturdy metal that conducts heat well make the best pressure cookers. Models like the Presto Stainless Steel Pressure Cooker have a durable, nice finish with a bi-metal clad base that provides great conduction for cooking. Pressure cookers are available in various sizes, from 4 to 8 quarts. The best pressure cooker may be the popular 6 quart size.

If you haven’t got anything fixed when meal time rolls around, the pressure cooker can help you cook something in a short time, sometimes even faster than a microwave. It has the added advantage of keeping the vitamins and other nutrients intact, while sealing in juices and flavors.

Why Not Save Time In YOUR Kitchen?

Make meal preparation easier. If these time savers aren’t in your kitchen, you might want to consider buying them. Choose the best slow cooker and the best pressure cooker you can find for your needs, and start saving a lot more time cooking.

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Tips On Learning To Use A Pressure Cooker

Thursday 4 June 2009

How To Use A Pressure Cooker

Would you like to save time in the kitchen?  Get a pressure cooker! Cooking under pressure allows the pressure cooker to keep flavors and nutrients intact due to the faster cooking times. In a lot quicker span of time, you’ll have healtheir food!

How To Use A Pressure Cooker

Having a pressure cooker in your kitchen gives you a really versatile piece of cookware. You can make a single food item in a pressure cooker, such as potatoes or meat, or you can cook an entire meal in the pressure cooker. That really saves time and cleanup.

Pressure cookers of a larger size can also be used for canning.  They can also be used to cook larger amounts of food at one time.

No matter how you use your pressure cooker, it’s bound to save you time and money.

Read The Manual To Learn How To Use Your Pressure Cooker

If you’ve never used a pressure cooker before, read the manual. If you’re an old hand at pressure cooking and just bought a new one, read the manual.

A new pressure cooker should come with a manual that has important information about how to use your pressure cooker. The manual explains the different parts of the cooker and how they work. How to use a pressure cooker safely will also be explained in the manual.

Even More Reasons To Read The Manual.

Since most pressure cooker manuals include charts on how long to cook different foods, so it’s important to keep your manual handy as a reference. Because of a tendency to froth and foam, some foods need different handly to prevent that foam from clogging the vent pipe. The manual will list which foods work well in a pressure cooker, and which ones you should avoid.

Some pressure cooker manuals also include recipes to help you get started with using a pressure cooker. If you’ve never used a pressure cooker before, this is especially helpful.  There are also usually tips on how to convert regular recipes to be able to make them with a pressure cooker.

Using A Pressure Cooker If Super!

Once you get the hang of which foods work well for cooking in a pressure cooker, and how to adjust your own recipes for use with a pressure cooker, you can really cook up a storm!

Pressure in the kitchen can sometimes be a good thing!

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Using A Pressure Cooker Makes Good Sense

Saturday 25 April 2009

If the budget is tight or you’re in a hurry, a pressure cooker is a great way to make meals fast. It’s ideal for preparing healthy foods because it preserves flavors and nutrients, and tenderizes leaner cuts of meat. As a bonus, it cooks foods three to ten times faster than ordinary methods. Some foods, in fact, cook even more quickly in a pressure cooker than they do in a microwave!

Cooking Under Pressure Is Safe!

If you’ve put off buying a pressure cooker because of safety concerns, take another look at the pressure cooker. Today’s models have improved designs, and have not just one, but sometimes up to three safety features that prevent accidents. Use common sense and follow the cooking and safety procedures found in the pressure cooker’s manual. That will make it more likely to burn yourself taking something out of the oven than have a problem with the pressure cooker.

Just keep in mind the main rule of pressure cooking – never, ever open the cooker while it is still under pressure!

Reasons To Buy A Pressure Cooker

For healthy cooking on a budget, a nice new pressure cooker is a great investment. It will repay you with many years of hard service in your ktichen. Some of the advantages of using a pressure cooker include:

  • Because it takes less time for foods to cook, you use less energy and save money and natural resources.
  • Pressure cookers work at all altitudes. All that’s needed is to adjsut the amount of pressure and cooking times.
  • By using a rack, you can conk a variety of foods at one time, allowing the entire meal to be cooked quickly in one pot.
  • It saves money by tenderizing budget meat cuts, and saves time by cooking food so quickly.
  • Flavors and nutrients are preseved since food cooks so quickly in an airtight environment with little liquid.

Not only is a pressure cooker great for meals, but it’s bigger cousin, the pressure canner, is absolutely essential for canning many vegetables and meats.

There’s A Pressure Cooker Just Right For You

The first decision is whether to buy an aluminum or a stainless steel cooker. The aluminum models are cheaper and more lightweight. They also are a good conductor of heat. However, unlike most other aluminum cookware, there are no pressure cookers with nonstick coatings. Nonstick finishes don’t hold up well in the high temperature environment of a pressure cooker.

Heaver than aluminum, stainless steel pressure cookers are also more expensive. The good thing is they have the same long lasting, lustrous finish common to most stainless steel cookware. Stainless steel is a poor conductor of heat however, so choose one with a bimetal base to improve cooking performance.

There’s A Pressure Cooker Just The Right Size For Your Family.

A pressure cooker is usually sold by the total liquid capacity. Depending on the food being cooked, however, in reality only one half to two thirds of the total liquid capacity can be utilized. The most commonly available models come in the following sizes:

  • 4-quart: This is a good size for a single person or couple. This size can hold an entire meal for 1-2 people, but only a single course for a larger family.
  • 6-quart: A great size for families, this is probably the most popular sized model for cooking.
  • 8-quart: For bigger families, this size works best. It can also be used for pressure canning pint and half-pint jars.

Larger pressure cookers, such as the 17 or 22 quart models, are generally referred to and used as pressure canners. It would take a large group of people to warrant pressure cooking in such a large size.

Utilizing Pressure in Your Kitchen!

A pressure cooker is a good buy for today’s kitchens. It’s a convenient and safe way to prepare healthful foods on a budget. Using a pressure cooker makes being under pressure a good thing!

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