Pressure Cooking

Take the Pressure Off Grocery Savings

I’ll never forget the steam train chugging from the kitchen every time my mom engaged in pressure cooking. Walking by, I couldn’t help but stare at the regulator as it chugged away releasing steam as it went. I didn’t know the purpose of cooking in this fashion at the time, but I now know that it can yield some good grocery savings.

There are probably many other ways to save money pressure cooking, but the two I’m familiar with is cooking dry beans and cooking a roast. First, I may be putting the cart before the horse. What exactly is pressure cooking? Well, simply put it’s cooking with a pressure cooker which is basically a pot with a lid that seals and has a regulator to release the built up steam a little at a time. The result is built up pressure inside the cooker. This pressure hastens the cooking process for cooking dry beans and tenderizing roasts. Think of a crock pot or slow cooker, only the exact opposite. With beans the average cook time with pressure cooking is 12 – 20 minutes. For meats it’s a couple minutes to an hour-and-a-half. That’s some seriously fast cooking!

What does all this mean in the realm of grocery savings? Well, dry beans are as cheap as all get out and much like slow cooking, you can pressure cook a cheap, tough roast and tenderize the goody out of it to make a delicious, affordable meal. By the way, just because dry beans are cheap doesn’t mean they are not good. The bean recipes I put out are raved about over their tin can counterparts. Pressure cookers are also sometimes used in canning. Wow, now that’s opening a huge can of wax (or, ah, beans as the case may be) when it comes to grocery savings. Well, I’ll save that for another day.

That’s what pressure cooking has to do with grocery savings.

Additionally, people aren’t using pressure cookers as often nowadays, so finding a bargain at a yard sale, Craig’s List, ebay…may be easy. I actually found a new one a JC Penny’s on sale for less than $20 – cha-ching!

Check out Miss Vickie’s Site for everything you want to know about pressure cooking. I refer to it often. Also check back here for occasional recipes!

Pressure Cooking Recipes

Hummus

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