Pressure cooking is more popular now than ever! Thanks to the Instant Pot, more and more home cooks are turning to high pressure cooking to save time. Those that travel often, like truck drivers, are also adding one to their arsenal. This great multiuse gadget allows you the freedom to make a wide variety of foods quickly, with less clean up afterward.
I bought the 6qt 7 in 1 Duo 60 on sale for $49 on Black Friday. There are 2 of us on the truck, and the 6qt has more than enough room to cook whatever meal I want. I have bought some accessories for my IP, but more on those in another post. For most recipes, I could easily fit enough food for 6-8 people.
My first real encounter with high altitude cooking came just a few weeks into my IP journey. I was making muffins. I've made them several times already as we have travelled through the South. This time they came out a little more moist than normal. While the were cooked through, they stuck to my pan. Turns out, we were at about 4000ft above sea level at the time, and I needed to adjust my recipe. This morning I made blueberry muffins, and adjusted my time for the elevation of West Jordan, Utah (4373ft). They came out perfect!
If you have never used a pressure cooker, there is a bit of a learning curve when you are trying to adapt regular recipes to cook under pressure. Different items cook for different times. Also, it will depend on if the meat is whole or cut into pieces. Another important factor will be your elevation.
What is elevation? It is how many feet you are above sea level. Throughout the country, elevations change rapidly. Here are just a few:
Denver, CO........5280ft
Black Mountain, KY......4145ft
Los Angeles, CA.....285ft
So, why is elevation important? For every 540 feet of altitude increase, the boiling point decreases by about 1 degree. At sea level, water will boil at the standard 212°F, while in Denver, CO water will boil at just 202°F. This means that inside your pressure cooker, the water will come to a boil faster in Denver, thus causing your IP to build pressure more quickly. While your cooker is building pressure, your food begins to cook. If it reaches full pressure more quickly, your food, in turn, cooks for less time. Time is what will make that roast fall to shreds instead of remaining as a hunk of meat.
To compensate for this reduction in cooking time, we will adjust the cook time on our IP according to what our elevation is. But how much do I adjust it? Here is a simple formula:
For every 1000ft above 2000ft elevation, increase Cook time by 5%.
What does that mean? Let's say you live in Laramie, WY at 7165ft above sea level, and your recipe says to cook your roast for 30 minutes.
7165 - 2000= 5165
5165/1000= 5.165 (round to 5)
5 * 5= 25 <--this is the percentage you need to increase your time by.
You will need to increase your cook time by 25% or 7-8 minutes. Your roast would cook for 38 minutes to achieve the same results as someone in Seattle using the same recipe.
If you are using a pressure cooker on a truck, like me, this is invaluable information. I've lived in Texas all my life. I have never had an issue making food in a pressure cooker. When my super simple recipe turned out not so great, I was confused. Turns out I just needed to add a couple minutes to my cook time!
Hopefully this Chicken Lights & Chrome moment will help you on your culinary travels. So tell me, what's the elevation where you are?
3s & 8s,
Crystal
No comments:
Post a Comment