For years, many people, including myself, remained skeptical about acquiring a pressure cooker. Well, it was not totally our fault, given the many pitfalls in the design of conventional pressure cookers. Many people can remember that conventional pressure cookers were noisy, and working with one needed several precautions, especially around children, to avoid accidents. And lest I forget, we’ve all had stories about chilling pressure cooker accidents that could discourage would-be pressure cooker owners. Nonetheless, modern electric pressure cookers are a drastic improvement from the old on various fronts. As a result, anyone who has not yet acquired one should join the bandwagon of electric pressure cooker owners to savor the benefits of electric pressure cookers. The following article presents six reasons warranting the ownership of this beautiful invention.
Benefits of Electric Pressure Cookers
1. Time-Saving
Cooking with a pressure cooker, unlike without one, leads to a significant reduction in cooking time. Let’s face it: cooking without a pressure cooker takes much longer. In particular, boiling beans the conventional way could take anywhere from one to three hours or longer to become ready without factoring in soaking time. However, an electric pressure cooker does the job much faster. On average, it would take 20-30 minutes to cook black beans, 20-30 minutes to prepare kidney beans, 25-35 minutes to boil navy beans, and 15-20 minutes to boil pinto beans. However, even with the pressure cooker, please note that it is recommended to soak beans for 4 hours before cooking. Nonetheless, there is a hack around soaking known as the quick-soak method. Quick-soak entails heating beans in a saucepan of water until coming to a boil and subsequently heating them for three minutes. This should be followed by turning the heat off and allowing it to soak for an hour before continuing with the preparation in the electric pressure cooker. Cooking pre-soaked beans in a pressure cooker significantly cuts preparation time.
2. Best Safety Mechanisms
Modern electric pressure cookers are much safer than we thought. Many of us, when we hear about pressure cookers, it reminds us of the loud steam release and many safety precautions needed to safely operate a pressure cooker lest it cause an accident. However, electric pressure cookers have improved designs, rendering them safe to use and more silent. In fact, electric pressure cookers are less noisy; not even your next-door neighbor in an apartment can tell you have one unless they have been to your kitchen. Electric pressure cookers also have built-in safety features to take care of all your safety concerns. For example, their designs feature lid detection and lock, even heat distribution, heating and pressure sensors, and automatic pressure control.
3. High Nutrient Retention
Traditional boiling or steaming uses more time, creating a leeway for vitamins and nutrients to escape, reducing the nutritional value of foods. However, electric pressure cookers shorten cooking time, helping to preserve their color, flavor, and prevent nutrient loss. Therefore, pressure cookers are better at nutrient retention than other meal preparation methods.
4. Electric Pressure Cookers Are Multi-purpose
The best thing about owning an electric pressure cooker is its versatility. Electric pressure cookers have multiple cooking modes for various cooking tasks. You can use your electric pressure cooker as a rice cooker, porridge maker, warming food, sautéing, baking, steaming, making yogurt, and boiling meat and grains, among others. The devices have automated cooking programs to support the above cooking modes. Owning a pressure cooker saves one the hustle of owning multiple devices for each of the above-mentioned meals.
5. Motivation to Eat Healthy
Many of us are attracted to fast food because of convenience. However, have we considered the price we pay for consuming fast food, such as increased risk for diabetes? The best part about owning an electric pressure cooker is that it takes care of the convenience most of us yearn for. Electric pressure cookers are much faster, easy to clean, and feature various other convenient features, such as automated cooking to stop automatically when the food is presumably ready.
6. Simple to clean up
Electric pressure cookers have the simplest cleaning procedure. The device features a lid, inner pot, and housing unit. After use, the inner pot and lid are the only components that should be cleaned. In most designs, the inner pot is Teflon-coated. This means a simple cleaning procedure with water, soap, and dishcloth will do the job. Additionally, electric pressure cookers do not create a mess during meal preparation.
Conclusion
Electric pressure cookers are one of the greatest inventions of our time. Compared to the old pressure cookers, these devices have improved safety, save time, are simple to clean, are multi-purpose, have high nutrient retention, and are finally convenient. For those skeptical about owning pressure cookers, you are missing out on huge benefits. Personally, what I relish most about my electric pressure cooker is how it enables me to prepare the most delicious rice.
