About Pressure Cooking

Pressure cooking is an ideal way to make fast, tasty meals for your family! This method of cooking makes it easy for even the busiest cooks to prepare meals from scratch. Use your pressure cooker for fish, chicken, fresh vegetables, rice, legumes, and even dessert – and everything can be cooked to perfection in minutes.

The pressure cooker will save you time, energy and money, as well

as valuable nutrients. Boiling liquid inside the tightly sealed pot produces steam, which is trapped inside to create pressure. The very hot temperature produced reduces cooking time. The steam helps break down the fibers of whatever you’re cooking and infuse the food with flavors. This also captures all of the water-soluble nutrients, making the food higher in flavor and more nutritious than with conventional cooking methods.

Additional Safety Tips

•Always keep hands and face away from steam release valve when reducing pressure.

•Use extreme caution when removing lid after cooking. Always tilt the lid away from you, so any remaining steam is blocked from your face.

•Never attempt to open lid while cooking, or before pressure indicator has dropped. Do not attempt to defeat the safety lid-release button by forcing it.

•Do not cover or block the pressure valves.

•Do not touch the pot or lid except for the handles immediately after using.

•To avoid burns, allow food to cool before tasting.

The temperature of the food gets considerable hotter than with conventional cooking.

•Do not attempt to make applesauce in your pressure cooker.

Using Your Pressure Cooker

1Gather all ingredients and be familiar with your recipe. Pour required amount of liquid into pressure cooker, then add food. Use the cooking rack, if desired.Never load cooker above the maximum ingredient level line. Foods that expand while cooking (i.e. legumes) should never go above the halfway level.

2Make sure gasket is securely positioned in the inner lid. Always examine the gasket before installing and before each use. Make sure it is in good working order and free of any tears.

3Secure cover on pressure cooker by first lining up the arrows printed on the lid and the cooker. Then twist the lid clockwise to secure in place (cover handles should be directly above the body handles).

4Plug power cord into unit first and then into a 120-volt 60 Hz AC only outlet.

5Set the pressure regulator to 10 or 15 PSI by lining up the circle with I for 10 or II for 15. (Most recipes call for 15 PSI, or 15 pounds of pressure.) Turning the regulator to the right increases PSI, and turning to the left decreases PSI. Make sure pressure release valve is in the up position.

6Set temperature dial to desired setting. Heat the pressure cooker until the pressure indicator pops up, indicating high pressure has been achieved. Adjust heat as indicated in your recipe to maintain pressure. Cooking time begins at this point.

7Set a kitchen timer and cook for the length of time specified in recipe. Then reduce pressure as specified. When recipe states "let pressure drop on its own," turn temperature dial to OFF and unplug the cooker. When recipe states "reduce pressure at once" or “reduce pressure manually”, flip the pressure release valve to release steam and reduce pressure.

8Pressure is completely reduced when the pressure indicator has dropped. Only then is it safe to remove pressure cooker lid and serve food. Remove lid by pressing green lid-release button and twisting lid counter-clockwise. As a safety feature, the lid-release button will not engage unless all pressure is reduced.