Compared my slow cooker to a pressure cooker for a month and the winner was clear

I was making chili every Sunday to stretch my grocery budget, so I tried both methods. Slow cooker took 8 hours and the beans still came out mushy on the outside but hard inside. Pressure cooker did the same thing in 45 minutes and the texture was way better, plus I saved on electricity. Has anyone else found one gadget just works better for cheap cuts of meat?

2 comments

2 Comments

ryantorres4d ago

Is a pressure cooker basically cheating at this point? I've had the same problem with slow cookers and cheap meat, it always comes out dry or uneven. My pressure cooker turns a tough chuck roast into fork-tender shreds in under an hour. Once you go pressure, you don't go back.

wendy6284d ago

Pressure cooking saved my relationship with tough cuts of meat for real. My mom always used a slow cooker for roasts and they came out like shoe leather half the time, so I avoided them forever. Then I got a stovetop pressure cooker on clearance and tried a chuck roast with some broth and onions. It was fall-apart tender in 45 minutes flat, and even my picky kid ate it without complaint. Now I do the same thing with pork shoulder and it never fails, no dry patches or stringy bits. Slow cookers have their place for beans or broth maybe, but for turning cheap meat into something good, pressure cooking is the way.