2
Pressure
Cooker
Photo by Hustyedt
Pressure Cooker. A few years ago, someone who clearly loves me gave me a $50 gift certificate to Sur La
Table. I used it to buy a pressure cooker. There were many to choose from, but I purchased the second least
expensive one they were offering - the Fagor Duo. My mom used to cook with a pressure cooker when I was
growing up, since her budget only allowed her to buy tough, but cheap cuts of meat like oxtail and stew meat.
Once in a while, the pressure valve came loose and we'd have a messy explosion. It wasn't that my mom was
inept, it was that the technology back then was rather faulty and such eruptions were common. Luckily
engineers have made advances in this area of applied science and today's pressure cookers are less likely to
detonate.
I first decided to give pressure cooking a try while watching an episode of Ming Tsai's cooking show "Simply
Ming" in which he used it to soften super tough rib meat to fall-off-the-bone suppleness in a few minutes,
instead of the several hours it takes using a slow cooker or a standard cast Le Creuset. This meant that I could
prep and cook my stews and soups quicker and with less pre-planning. As a bonus, I do think the pressure
cooker concentrates flavor better than the slow cooker.
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THE CONE - ISSUE #9 - SPRING 2016