Cooking in Pressure Cookers vs. Cast Iron Dutch Ovens

[ExtraMSG]

Thinking of getting a pressure cooker, however:

I know they cook faster and understand why they cook faster, however, are the results equal? eg, say I do an Indian curry and it takes a half hour of pressure instead of an hour and a half of stewing for the meat to be done. Will that meat be infused with as much flavor in the pressure cooker? Are textures ever hurt by the higher heat? What are the disadvantages (besides the dangers of explosion) to pressure cooking?

I ask these questions mainly because time is a secondary concern to me right now since I work from home and have time to start something and let it simmer for hours.

[JAZ]

Thinking of getting a pressure cooker, however:

I know they cook faster and understand why they cook faster, however, are the results equal? eg, say I do an Indian curry and it takes a half hour of pressure instead of an hour and a half of stewing for the meat to be done. Will that meat be infused with as much flavor in the pressure cooker? Are textures ever hurt by the higher heat? What are the disadvantages (besides the dangers of explosion) to pressure cooking?

I ask these questions mainly because time is a secondary concern to me right now since I work from home and have time to start something and let it simmer for hours.

I just got a pressure cooker and used it for the first time, so here's my opinion.

I cooked short ribs with onions and dark beer, a dish I make often (like carbonnade flamande, but with short ribs). When I make it in the oven, I saute the onions and remove, then brown the beef, then deglaze the pan. Pile everything back in the pan, cover about 3/4 of the way with porter and stick in about a 300 degree oven for about two hours. Then I take it out, remove the meat, de-grease the sauce, take the meat off the bones and trim the connective tissue if necessary. Put the meat back in, put the whole thing back in the oven, uncovered, for another hour or so, until the sauce is thickened and the meat is meltingly tender. If I'm in a hurry, I skip the last hour, reduce the sauce on the stove and go with it as is, even though it's better (richer, with deeper flavor) if it finishes in the oven.

For the pressure cooker version, I started out the same, but instead of sticking it in the oven, I put it all in the pressure cooker and cooked it for about 25 minutes (20 minutes after it came to full pressure). At that point, it was almost identical to the oven version after the first couple hours. The meat was falling off the bones and was as tender as the oven version. I finished the sauce on the stove (the reducing and seasoning, etc.) and tossed the meat back in to heat up. It was just as good as the "shortcut" version described above, but not equal to the full length, reduce-in-the-oven original version. On the other hand, it cut off about 1 1/2 hours of the cooking time. If I was going to do it again, I would plan on a longer stovetop cooking, without the lid, to reduce the sauce more slowly and give it that deeper flavor.

So, is it worth it, if you don't need to save time? Maybe not. But consider braising things in the summer time, when the last thing you want is an oven on for three hours. Consider the disorganized dinner prep where you're 10 minutes away from dinner and you realize you haven't even started the potatoes for mashing. Consider coming home from work at 5 and having beef stew, or chicken and noodles, from scratch, in an hour or so. Artichokes in 15 minutes. Applesauce in 10. It makes those spontaneous culinary ideas that would ordinarily take major planning possible in real time. I'm hooked, and I've only had mine for two days.

[ExtraMSG]

Thanks. That's very helpful. Yeah, I essentially want to have the pressure cooker around for when I need it and when I just don't feel like doing things the long way, but not if the quality is going to be meaningfully reduced. Doesn't sound like it is.

[Blondelle]

Here's a subject I haven't seen discussed anywhere. There have been extensive braising comparisons here using all sorts of vessels such as enameled cast iron, clay, steel, and Pyrex. I haven't seen pressure cooking braising compared to braising in enameled cast iron though. One is fast, and one is long and slow. I was just wondering if anyone has made the same recipe in a pressure cooker, and in let's say an LC oven. I would be interested in knowing the difference in the finished product. Anyone?

[Eng Su]

Hi Blondelle,

I've experimented with 2 recipes. Beef Bourguignon and a Rajasthani Curry. Both yielded the same results. I found the texture from brisket and beef cheeks was far more tender and almost fluffy in the pressure cooker than the braise. But the taste was a little dilute, but I believe that to be resultant from the lack of evaporation inside the pressure cooker. So I reccomend using less liquids (stocks, wine or water) than usual. As expected, searing before presuure cooking is essential. In fact, I think pressure cooking is and even better method than using a sous-vide and water bath which held my beef cheeks at 75 degrees for 18 hours. In terms of cost, cooking something on the stove for 45 mins compared to at least 6-8 hours saves you some coin...

[helenjp]

I haven't compared the same recipe in LC and pressure cooker, but I have cooked two pork braises intended for pulled pork, one in a pressure cooker, and one in a Japanese-style slow cooker (like a hay box, you cook the dish briefly, then drop the whole saucepan into an insulated outer container and leave it several hours).

Liquid does not evaporate much in either method. The pressure cooker produced a more flavorful and softer result. I was afraid that the pressure might drive the flavor out into the broth, but that was not the case.

The insulated slow-cook method was not quite powerful enough to completely tenderize meat cooked in one piece, even though I repeated the whole heat/sit process.