Slow cook vs pressure cook

Hey all,

Quick question to ask. I've tried searching on Google, but all that the articles talk about is the pros/cons of the time needed to cook, and not about the taste/texture.

I've prepped a beef bourguignon which is sitting in my Instant Pot at the moment. I am planning on having it tomorrow for late morning/early lunch.

I know that you would need to adjust the amount of liquid, but do I slow cook it for 8 hours or pressure cook it in the morning? Which one is going to come out tastiest?
Or is the difference between the 2 methods really just that pressure cooking is quicker?

Ok, so pressure cooking is pretty much always better? To put it another way: I can put the pressure cooking on a delay timer up to 24 hours. Is there any reason I would pick to slow cook it over pressure cooking?

Slow cooking takes more time and effort, but the taste is worth the patience and time. !!Pressure cooking is faster.

Depends what it is but the texture and taste can be different.

It's about double normal air pressure inside a pressure cooker and much higher than normal boiling temperature. You also have to use a fair bit of liquid and no thick substances in pressure cooking or it burns at the bottom.

I guess anything cooked in a pressure cooker by nature will come out wetter than if it was in a slow cooker.

Time really is the big thing. That and you want to be sure about everything before you seal up the pressure cooker cos there's no peeking without faffing about depressurising it and starting it back up again.

I'd always cook bourguignon slow cook. Pressure cooker has it's uses, but you struggle to get the same depth of flavour in it due to the time, but you'd get the meat cuisson right.

pressure cooking kills many flavours and doesn't produce others, unless you are in a hurry then slow cook.

This is the article you are all looking for: http://www.seriouseats.com/2016/10/why-pressure-cookers-are-better-than-slow-cookers.html

Scam said:

This is the article you are all looking for: http://www.seriouseats.com/2016/10/why-pressure-cookers-are-better-than-slow-cookers.html

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I was just about to link that

I disagree that pressure cookers kill flavours. I would say more so about slow cookers. However, "slow cooking" (i.e. braising) can produce superior results due to much more browning.

FrenchTart said:

I was just about to link that

I disagree that pressure cookers kill flavours. I would say more so about slow cookers. However, "slow cooking" (i.e. braising) can produce superior results due to much more browning.

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they do though. Watch the MIT food lectures.

he likes the slow cooker as it mashes everything so you don't need thickeners which is fair enough but not good for most things.

Like he says dutch oven for the win, which is what i use most of the time.

also on a slow cooker, just remove the lid for the last couple of hours, it allows water to evaporate and you get a bit of browning round the edges.

Glaucus said:

they do though. Watch the MIT food lectures.

he likes the slow cooker as it mashes everything so you don't need thickeners which is fair enough but not good for most things.

Like he says dutch oven for the win, which is what i use most of the time.

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Do you have a link to the specific videos/articles? Not something I've heard of before but I'm happy to educate myself/change my opinion if there's evidence. I'm also wondering if it's something that is an issue more for certain food types than others.

I've not noticed it myself but I've only recently started using a pressure cooker.

yes it is an issue for certain things onion was one of them. the high pressure facilitates some flavour compounds to be destroyed, just like heat destroys lots of flavour compounds in pepper corns and the like, which is why they should be added right at the end.

however saying that, there's not a lot i would use a pressure cooker for other than time.

i cant remember link, but it was posted on here probably a few years ago, the entire lecture series for their food type course.

So many points to argue on both sides it's hard to know
In the link he said that the slow cooker produced thinner sauce, but both times before when I've cooked beef bourguignon in the slow cooker it's come out thicker than the most recent time in the pressure cooker where I had to set it to saute to reduce it a bit.

I might just bring out my slow cooker and do some tests myself and see which ones I prefer.

Well you can't do thick anything in a pressure cooker.

Sure once the actual pressure cooking part is done you can open it up to obliterate the cooked starchy stuff to thicken the liquid or reduce it or add something to thicken.

But pressure cooking a dense mixture doesn't go well. The liquid doesn't circulate properly and whatever is thickening it settles and burns at the bottom.

A slow cooker is far superior in terms of taste... the depths of flavour created as it sits there and bubbles and thoroughly blends and with everything else, no to mention effectively marinading the meat, are fantastic.

The only issue I have with slow cooking is that if you overcook meat in it then it goes stringy-textured.

Moses said:

Do you mean the Harvard ones? But either way, can you refer us to a specific video? Ideally a time stamp in it. Just saying, 'lol x lecture series' isn't particularly helpful .

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thats probably it, and no. do you think i just write down stuff like this, just in case someone wants a link with a time stamp.
believe it or don't, but it really shouldn't be a surprise, just like heat destroys some flavour compounds, pressure and heat destroys more.

and all though i love serious eats i don't always agree with him, and i have no idea how he makes slow cooker stuff look so insipid.

Moses said:

I thought you'd at least be able to link us to the video. I can remember loads of those Harvard ones I've watched and could eg. link you to where Jose Andres talks about methyl cellulose.

Yes, heat and pressure will destroy some aromatic compounds for example. But so will cooking in a slow cooker, or a Dutch oven, with the evaporation being another concern. So it's not as simple as pressure cookers = bad, given the other methods have other negative aspects.

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A few issues with that post, already said I didn't have a live k and even got the name of the ibstution wrong
So bizzare you think I would then suddenly rember, good on you have a near photographic memory.

Yes you lose some flavours through cooking, then you build other up through things like Millard reaction. So dutch oven is basically the best for most stuff, slow cooker in the middle and pressure cooker last.
Which comes to my main point, why use a pressure cooker and for the most part same applies to slow cooker.
There is zero issue leaving oven on all day, the only time I use a slow cooker is if I'm cooking through the 5pm-7pm period as unfortuntley I'm back in a shared house.

Serious eats basicly shows one advantage turning everything to mush, if you want that sure use a pressure cooker. But for 99% of stuff pressure cook is purely a time thing.

Can we all have a whip around and buy Glaucus a computer with a spellchecker?

Or at least bribe a mod to change his username to Gluacas?