
I don’t have a wife. Or a clone. But gracious, wouldn’t it be lovely? Instead, I have a 6 litre, dark and squat hissing pot.
There’s a reason Juanita Phillips titled her memoir ‘A Pressure Cooker Saved My Life: How To Have It All, Do It All And Keep It All Together‘. I became smitten with this saintly device when I was sandwiched between a book deadline, a wakeful baby and searching for easy ways to cook pulses from scratch.
Why? They’re cheaper than canned and often you end up with a superior texture. From there, I was hooked. Please don’t fret, modern versions of these devices don’t explode on a stovetop, they just cook things very swiftly, maximising flavour and hands on time. So here are ten reasons why a $90, retro cooking device might be the best purchase you make this year.
1) Home made bone broth in one hour.

When we’re not smugly sipping green smoothies, every health conscious hipster worth their Murray River salt is busy stocking up on bone broth. It’s renowned for its anti inflammatory healing properties. You could balance your pot of on the hob for 24 hours to get the best out of your bones. Or you could tumble the leftover roast carcasses from where they’ve lain dormant in your freezer straight into your pressure cooker. Add cold water to 2/3 of the way up the pot, a tablespoon of vinegar, two carrots and a halved peeled onion and cook for one hour (the longer you cook it the more intensely flavoured it will be- you can cook it for up to three hours). Strain the stock and cool. It will keep for up to five days in the fridge, or freeze in portions. Sip it as is or use it as a base for vegetable packed soups.
2) Hands free cooking.
Since the maillard reaction which browns meats and boosts their flavour also takes place at the intensely high temperatures generated inside a pressure cooker, you can still end up with a sterling ragu if you lob your protein and aromatics inside the cooker with a cup of broth or wine. Which means you can use your hands to do many other things beyond babysitting pieces of meat in a pan.