Pressure Cooker Tips

Last weekend, I was using my Instant Pot pressure cooker to make a roast, and that reminded me of a few tips I have wanted to share with you. 

• Number one, when you're planning a meal to be ready at an exact time, besides any prepping such as defrosting, cutting, and searing, be sure to allow approximately 20 minutes for the pressure cooker to preheat. Although, your meal is in the cooker and the lid is sealed, preheat time is separate from the cook time and will vary a little bit with each setting. And there is probably going to be nothing in a cookbook to tell you how long preheat will take.
• Second, if instructions call for searing, do that in a skillet instead of the pressure cooker. That way you don't have to take time to clean out the pot before you pressure cook the meal.
• And third, add an extra 30 minutes to the timer when cooking meat to assure your meat will be tender. For instance, my cookbook instructions for a roast is to cook 20 minutes for every pound. So, if I have a 2.5 pound roast, I round up to 3 pounds (which is 1 hour per instructions) and then I add the extra 30 minutes to cook for a total of 1 hour, 30 minutes. My roast is still tough if I go by the cookbook guidelines but tender when I add the extra 30 minutes of cook time.

If your meal finishes a little early, just leave the pressure cooker on a few minutes longer. This also allows for a slow release of pressure during the wait period and there won't be much pressure on the release valve before you remove the lid.

Instant Pot image courtesy of Katherine Chase via Unsplash

I hope these tips help! 

Blessings,

Patricia