Pressure cooking is a popular cooking choice of most households for a variety of different reasons. Some people might be motivated to use it since they do not want to spare a lot of time cooking their food and pressure cooker offers them a chance to prepare meals in one-fourth the original cooking time. Others might find interest in the convenience of unsupervised cooking that the modern electric pressure cookers offer.  Whatever the motivation might be that drives people to the use of pressure cookers, one thing is for sure: most households cannot imagine a life without it!

To use your pressure cooker safely and efficiently and to become a pro at pressure cooking, there are some rules that you need to remember. We have put together a list of do’s and don’ts for pressure cooking so that you can get the most out of your cooking experience.

Pressure Cooker Do’s:
Try to use newer models of pressure cookers for your home since older models are unreliable and do not provide the safe level of safety features that the modern cookers do. Buying old models of pressure cookers from auctions might seem like an attractive choice since they offer such low prices but it is not a wise choice in the long run. They are unsafe and pose danger to the user as well as the surroundings.
Read the instruction manual for your pressure cooker model carefully before using it for the first time. Most users might consider this step unimportant and jump right to the action part! However, this is not advisable since every model is different and has its own set of instructions that you need to follow. Reading a manual will ensure that you are using it right and keeping yourself and the machine out of harm’s way.
Keep the flame on medium-high when cooking on pressure. You may turn the heat high to bring it to pressure quickly but once it reaches pressure, turn the flame to medium. Cooking on medium flame ensures that your food is cooked through and does not get burned.
Clean your pressure cooker immediately after each use. This will prevent food from getting stuck to the walls and floor of the cooker and further difficulty in cleaning. If your pressure cooker is not dishwasher safe, you can hand wash it with some warm water and a drop of liquid detergent. Make sure that the cooker and its parts are completely dry before you store it away.
Pressure Cooker Don’ts:
Don’t add ingredients without any liquid. The pressure cookers function by trapping steam inside the cooker to build pressure and steam will only be produced if you add enough liquid. The amount of liquid depends on the recipe and the pressure cooker model but in general, do not add less than 1 cup of liquid when you are pressure cooking.
Don’t preheat a stovetop pressure cooker. Most people prefer preheating their pots and pans while they are preparing the ingredients. However, with induction pressure cookers the cooking surface heats up very quickly and preheating would result in your ingredients getting burnt.
 Don’t overfill the pressure cooker to more than the prescribed level. Overfilling the pressure cooker may result in uneven cooking of the food and increased cooking time. Read the instruction manual for the exact instructions on the maximum level but in general, do not fill your cooker to more than two-thirds its true capacity. For ingredients that expand, for example, beans, do not fill it more than half its capacity.