How long does food take in a pressure cooker?

Pressure cooking raises the boiling point to around 120°C, which roughly triples the rate of cooking. Times are short and unforgiving, and the release method is part of the recipe rather than an afterthought.

Step by step

1. Start timing when pressure is reached.Not when the pot goes on the heat. Coming up to pressure can take ten minutes and is not part of the stated time.
2. Use a third of the conventional time as a starting point.A stew that takes two hours in the oven takes about 35 to 40 minutes at pressure. Round down and check — you can always give it more.
3. Learn the common figures.Stewing beef 25 to 35 min; lamb shoulder 40 to 50; whole chicken 25; chicken thighs 10; dried chickpeas 35 to 40 unsoaked; dried beans 25 to 30 unsoaked; lentils 8 to 10; potatoes 8 to 10; risotto rice 6; stock 45 to 60.
4. Choose the release method as part of the recipe.Quick release for vegetables, fish, eggs and pasta. Natural release for meat, pulses, stock and anything liquid, where the extra 10 to 25 minutes is doing real cooking.
5. Account for natural release in the total.A recipe saying 25 minutes with natural release means roughly 25 plus 15, and the food carries on cooking throughout. Ignoring it gives overcooked meat.
6. Add ingredients in stages if they differ.Meat first, then release, add quick-cooking vegetables, then a short second pressure cycle. Everything in at once gives disintegrated vegetables.
7. Reduce the liquid in adapted recipes.Almost nothing evaporates under pressure, so a conventional recipe's liquid quantity leaves a watery result. Use roughly half to two-thirds, keeping above the cooker's minimum.
8. Finish sauces after opening.Reduce, thicken and adjust seasoning with the lid off. Under pressure you cannot taste and you cannot reduce.
9. Brown first where it matters.Use the sauté function or a separate pan before pressurising. Nothing browns under pressure, so a stew made entirely in the cooker tastes flat.
10. Undercook rather than overcook.Bringing it back up to pressure for another three minutes is easy. Overcooked meat under pressure disintegrates and cannot be recovered.

Tips

• A third of the conventional time, then check. Rounding down costs three minutes; rounding up costs the dish.
• Natural release is cooking time, not waiting time. Count it.
• Halve the liquid when converting an oven or hob recipe — nothing evaporates under pressure.

Common mistakes

• Using the conventional recipe's liquid quantity — A pressure cooker is sealed, so almost no liquid evaporates. A stew that would have reduced by half in the oven comes out thin and watery, and the flavour is diluted with it.
• Treating natural release as idle time — The contents stay above 100°C for the whole release, which can be another twenty minutes of cooking. Recipes are written assuming this, so switching to quick release undercooks and adding release time to a quick-release recipe overcooks.

If it doesn't work

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