Discussion Board

Jeff,

Does cooking food in a pressure cooker fall under the same category as regular cooking? or do you lose more nutrients in the pressure cooker?

Thanks!

I'm really curious about this. I know pressure cookers cook with very high temperatures and I'm wondering if this kills nutrients more than standard cooking.

Your reply would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks you.

Actually, they don't reach very high temperatures. The temperature is a bit higher than boiling because of the pressure, but it is still relatively low (most are approximately 250 degrees F).http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pressure_cooking

Michael

The difference is from the pressure. If you bake something, so long as there is internal moisture/water it won't get over 212 (boiling point) though surface temp will be close to oven temp. Pressure cooking, internal temp will go to 250 (at 15 psi pressure).

I think the nutrients are well retained though, esp if you consume the cook water from the PC

Although the temperature does get higher with the pressure cooker than with stove top cooking, generally the food is cooked for shorter time periods. The few studies that have been done show less Vitamin C loss than with other cooking methods.

Also, many times you are going to be consuming the small amount of cooking water that you need to add to the pressure cooker so it's a great way to cook.

I am a pressure cooking expert and just wrote a pressure cooking cookbook The New Fast Food: The Veggie Queen Pressure Cooks Whole Food Meals in Less than 30 Minutes. The recipes are McDougall-friendly.

I hope that this helps. It will definitely help cut the time when cooking legumes this way.

Thanks veggiequeen for this resource. I'm a bit at a loss for recipes to try with pressure cooker.

Thanks Veggie Queen for answering my question.
I will check out your book.

What are your thoughts on the Cuisinart pressure cooker?
http://www.amazon.com/Cuisinart-CPC-600 ... B000MPA044

An electric pressure cooker is good if you want to do mostly set it and forget it cooking. If you want to do more true cooking in a pressure cooker, I much prefer the stove top models. Those are what I use because I love the "quick release" feature on them.

If you want to use an electric model, then the Cuisinart or Fagor models are good choices.

For those who don't know, The Veggie Queen is Jill Nussinow, RD and is both a chef and Dietitian who teaches at the McDougall program.

Thanks for stopping by!

In Health
Jeff

The Cuisinart has a "quick release" function. Does that mean all your recipes will work in it? Thanks again for helping out.