why do we use pressure cooker at higher altitudes
Answers
While you do adjust your cooking time for pressure cookers as well as for some standard cooking methods, you still save time and energy. Instead of a delicious and juicy roast taking 8-10 hours in a crock pot, you can achieve the same results in 35-60 minutes in a pressure cooker, depending on how high you are above sea level.
With high altitudes, pressure cooking doesn’t just cook food faster than traditional methods, it also makes food retain more moisture, with better tasting results.
As stated above, thin air means dry air and dry air means dry food. Moisture evaporates much faster from your food as it cooks if it is not retained in some way. Pressure cooking replaces and mimics the moisture and atmospheric pressure that you lose at high altitudes, leaving your food much juicier and succulent.
Pressure cooking is a great way of making sure the food you eat is cooked through and safe to eat. As the boiling point of water is below 212 degrees Fahrenheit, your food can end up undercooked and dangerous to eat with some standard cooking methods.
Cooking with high pressure allows you to create delicious foods much quicker, even with adjusted cooking times, than standard cooking methods, and ensures they are safe for your and your family to eat do to the increased pressure causing temperatures to get higher.
Pressure cookers are recommended for high altitude cooking because they reduce standard cooking method times, produce moist and tender foods and increases food safety, which reduces the risk of food-borne illnesses.
If you are planning on boiling food at all at a high altitude you should always consider the benefit of using a pressure cooker instead for the increase in temperature alone. High altitude pressure cooking times are a bit longer than sea level pressure cooking times but not by that much.