The Pressure Cooker Gourmet: 225 Recipes for Great-Tasting, Long-Simmered Flavors in Just Minutes

The beauty of pressure cooking is that it allows the home cook to make traditionally labor-intensive dishes like stews, braises, briskets, and pot roasts literally in a matter of minutes, opening up vast new possibilities for weekday cooking.

In a thorough introduction, Victoria Wise explains how to use the modern pressure cooker (which has been completely reengineered for safety and ease of use) and outlines what it particularly excels at, from basic beans and grains to hearty one-pot entres. Then she presents outstanding dishes such as Lamb Shank Braised with Garlic and Rosemary (cooking time 25 minutes); Sunday Chicken Poached Belgian-Style (25 minutes); Risotto with Shrimp, Fennel, and Saffron (18 minutes); Tamales with Black Bean and Plantain Filling (16 minutes); In-House Clam Bake (20 minutes); and Peanut Butter Swirl Cheesecake (30 minutes).

The Pressure Cooker Gourmet includes recipes for soups, meat, poultry, fish, grains, vegetables, legumes, sauces and of course desserts. Although there are photographs of the finished recipes, the reader will delight in the many tips, subtitutions and suggestions that accompany many of the recipes. You will also appreciate the index of recipes with page numbers, that appear at the beginning of each chapter.

Being a poultry fan, I loved the Coq au Vin. The wine sauce was thicker than I ever remember from another method and the blend of herbs and spices was intensified by the increased pressure.

And if you can't resist a moist and rich cheesecake, try the Cheesecake with Mascarpone Cheese in Chocolate Cookie Crust. I had never tried Mascarpone (a very creamy cream cheese) and it, combined with the moist heat of a pressure cooker, was sinfully delicious.

I'm still experimenting with the recipes and there are a lot of them! It takes some 'old time' recipes and applies 21st century flavors and technology to help rekindle our culinary past. As you might imagine, I love this book and you will too! Buy it!!


Disappointing   October 1, 2006
R. Suits (Yellow Springs, Ohio)
43 out of 45 found this review helpful

I have been cooking "from scratch" for more than 30 years and own more than 50 cookbooks, including most of the great classics. Favorite cookbook authors I return to again and agin include Julia Child, Craig Claiborn, Christopher Kimball, Diana Kennedy, Ruth Reichl, Irene Kuo, Paul Prudhomme and Irma Rombauer (& her descendents). I love ethnic food, gourmet food and great American regional home cooking. The best cookbooks provide detailed techniques and enough information so a confident cook can develop variations based on personal taste and available ingredients. I was dissappointed to find that this book fails in that regard. I purchased it hoping it would be like Barbara Kafka's Microwave Gourmet (still the best on its subject), laying out what this kitchen utensil is best suited for and honestly explaining what it can and cannot do well. Instead, the author seems to believe the pressure cooker should be able to tackle any task. For example, she includes several recipes for items like seafood that are best cooked quickly, but leaves out foods that benefit from long, slow cooking, like soups, sauces and stews. There are only two barebones recipes for stock, one for beef stew (Bouef Bourgiugnon), and a few for odd soups and sauces (like a "blonde onion soup" but no French Onion Soup, a lentil soup but no other legume soups, a Bolognese sauce that dumps raw beef and tomatoes in all at once in violation of all principals I have learned), and several recipes for things like custard and cheesecake. There are unusual, tasty recipes in here, and excellent directions on timing, but I agree with another reviewer who warns that her temperature recommendations are way too high.


great book   November 20, 2003
Amy Lee Weitzman (Cambridge, MA United States)
38 out of 41 found this review helpful

I went to the bookstore and skimmed *all* of the pressure cookbooks they had (about 10 different authors). I found this one to be just the right mix between simple, everyday food and gourmet, international specialties. Also, you get many recipes in one book - more than most of the other books had. I made the split pea soup the other night - easy, quick, tasty, and HEALTHY.


Will prove a real time saver when serving up dishes   May 16, 2003
Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA)
22 out of 26 found this review helpful

The Pressure Cooker Gourmet showcases 225 superbly presented recipes and instructions by Victoria Wise for today's safe and easy-to-use pressure cookers that will please any palate and satisfy any appetite. From Cream of Tomato Soup; Black Pepper Pot Steak with Shallots and Spicy Red Wine Gravy; American All-Beef Meat Loaf; and Duck with Green Olives, Turnips, and Turnip Greens; to Baby Artichokes and Two Sauces; Zucchini Stuffed with Spinach, Cream Cheese, and Pine Nuts; Omi's Chickpeas with Lime and Onion Ring Topping; and Chevre Rosemary Popover Pudding, The Pressure Cooker Gourmet will prove a real time saver when serving up dishes that would grace any family meal or special celebratory dining event!


Beware of some recipes   June 7, 2006
Bruce T. Lockard (Scranton, PA United States)
17 out of 17 found this review helpful

I wonder if Ms. Wise realy cooked and tried out all these recipes?
The garbonzo bean preparation recipe at the times and temperatures
specified, left the beans to hard and inedible. The Bolognese sauce ,cooked at medium heat, left my new Fagor pressure cooker with a horrible scorch that took me two hours to scour out.(Many of the temperature setting look way too high for pressure cooking) She states that only baby Artichokes can be cooked in a pressure cooker...not true.etc. etc For a better, more reliable, pressure cooker cook book try "Pressure Cookers for Dummys"