A Beginner's Guide to Pressure Cookers
The prospect of 15 pounds per square inch of steam heat that will soon be building up in the pressure cooker on my kitchen stove has me rattled before I even get the thing fired up. I have, I feel, done less dangerous things in my career—like luging, for example. My friends and family don't help matters. One pal cautions, "It's that constant, almost menacing rocking and hissing of the valve that totally keeps you on edge." My mom, whose new pressure cooker I borrow for this little experiment, left a helpful Post-it note saying, "Don't want to scare you but it needs respect." When's the last time someone lent you a toaster with a cautionary Post-it note? (Rhetorical question, since this has never happened in the history of the world.) There's no denying, however, the appeal of the pressure cooker: slow cook...