Cooking under Pressure

The 20^th Anniversary Edition of the classic cookbook from the leading authority on speed-cooking, Cooking Under Pressure by Lorna Sass offers a mouthwatering array of extraordinary dishes that can be prepared in minutes—from classic ossobucco to chocolate cheesecake—using a pressure cooker. A James Beard Award–winning cookbook author and food writer who has written for the Washington Post, New York Times, Food & Wine, Woman’s Day and other publications, Lorna Sass shows you how to turn out meals in one-third the time of conventional methods without sacrificing moisture, flavor, aroma, or nutritional content. Newly updated and revised for contemporary tastes and more efficient machines, Cooking Under Pressure is the cookbook that inspired a whole generation of home cooks to dust off their pressure cookers.

Remember how wonderful home cooking tasted when you were a kid? Remember the comforting aromas that filled your house, the delicious soups and stews that warmed your childhood winters?

They can all be yours again. From the elegant to the ethnic to the traditional, this collection of recipes -- developed for a whole new generation of pressure cookers and mindful of the healthier way we eat today -- is comfort food at its fastest and best.

Today's totally safe pressure cookers -- sleeker, speedier, more user-friendly than the microwave oven -- turn out foods in one-third the time of conventional methods without sacrificing moisture, flavor, or aroma. Even inexpensive cuts of meat become tender and succulent; soups, stews, and sauces taste as if they've been simmering for hours; pot roast melts in the mouth; rice, beans, and grains, which used to take hours, are ready in minutes.

Lorna Sass introduces us to an eclectic array of dishes that can be prepared on a whim: Imagine a classic ossobuco in only 18 minutes, chicken gumbo in an astounding 9, superb risotto in just 6 minutes without stirring -- even chocolate cheesecake and Grand Marnier bread pudding are done to perfection in record time.

These are dishes that are right in tune with the eat-healthy eat-right life-style of the 1990s: The shorter cooking times allow foods to retain their nutritional content, and the pressure cooker is ideal for preparing grains and beans, so low in cholesterol and high in fiber. Also included in the book are charts and tables that take the guesswork out of cooking foods under pressure.

Treat yourself to this wonderful world of satisfying flavors: Take the pressure out of cooking and put the taste and nutrition back in.

“In her classic book, Lorna Sass dazzles us with her time- and energy-saving techniques and fabulous recipes, from soup to risotto, brisket to cheesecake. Bravo!” - Peter Berley, author of Fresh Food Fast

A SeriousEats.com best cookbook of 2010 - SeriousEats.com

“Sass makes it clear that good food can not only be delicious, but instantaneous and healthful for eaters as well as the planet… Anyone who doesn’t own a pressure cooker will want one right away.” - Marion Nestle, professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at New York University and author of What to Eat