Pressure Perfect: Two Hour Taste in Twenty Minutes Using Your Pressure Cooker [Hardcover]

Lorna J. Sass (Author)

Book Description

Release date: January 6, 2004

Under pressure to get a tasty, nutritious dinner on the table in a flash? Like the idea of preparing fork-tender beef stew in thirty minutes and pot roast in under an hour? All this and more is made possible by the pressure cooker, a magical appliance that produces soul-satisfying, homemade food in one-third (or less) the standard cooking time.

In Pressure Perfect, Lorna Sass, the country's leading authority on pressure cooking, distills her two decades of experience into one comprehensive volume. First learn everything you need to know about buying and using today's 100% safe cookers. Then enjoy more than 200 recipes for preparing soups, meats, poultry, grains, beans, vegetables, and desserts in record time. How about whipping up a savory risotto in 4 minutes, chicken cacciatore in 12 minutes, or a delectable chocolate cheesecake in 25 minutes?

Because the pressure cooker tenderizes tough cuts of meat quickly, you can prepare fall-off-the-bone beef short ribs or lamb shanks on weekday nights instead of waiting for a special occasion. The pressure cooker also allows you to make delectable one-pot meals in minutes. Among the many innovative recipes and techniques, you'll learn to cook meatloaf and potatoes simultaneously in 10 minutes, and meatballs, pasta, and sauce at the same time in only 5 minutes. Many recipes also suggest Cook-Along ideas for preparing vegetables and grains along with the entrée.

To further help those cooking under pressure (and who isn't nowadays?), each chapter contains timing charts for quick reference. Tips and Pressure Points in every recipe ensure optimum results.

This ultimate guide to pressure cooking is a must for all busy cooks, boaters, brides, college students, and anyone looking for a great way to make irresistible, healthy, home-made food fast.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Predating the Crock-Pot was its opposite in cooking speed, the pressure cooker. Contemporary pressure cookers take much of the guesswork and anxiety out of their operation and make them a boon for the cook who needs to get something on the table fast and with minimum fuss. Pressure Perfect not only gives dozens of recipes for the pressure cooker, but Sass also shows how to modify each recipe to create an ever-varying series of dishes. Her beef in beer and mustard gravy not only gives the cook a choice among brisket, chuck, oxtails, or short ribs but also offers alteration in sauce structure to create either horseradish cream or chili versions. Tables throughout the book explain how to adjust standard recipes to take advantage of a pressure cooker. Mark Knoblauch
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

[Lorna Sass’s] recipes are seductive, ranging from the homey and familiar to the slightly more modern. (Publishers Weekly)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow Cookbooks; 1 edition (January 6, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060505346
• ISBN-13: 978-0060505349
• Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 1 x 9.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (148 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #20,575 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #61 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Special Appliances

More About the Author

Lorna Sass is fondly known as "the Queen of Pressure Cooking." She is also a widely published food writer and an award-winning cookbook author. Check out her new blog: www.pressurecookingwithlornasass.wordpress.com

Lorna became interested in pressure cooking during the mid-eighties when most Americans had either never heard of this magical appliance or were afraid of it! Her COOKING UNDER PRESSURE, published in 1989, became a best-seller with over 250,000 copies in print. The 20th-Anniversary revised edition of COOKING UNDER PRESSURE came out on November 3,2009.

Lorna followed COOKING UNDER PRESSURE with 3 other pressure cooker books: GREAT VEGETARIAN COOKING UNDER PRESSURE (VEGAN!), THE PRESSURED COOK, and PRESSURE PERFECT.

During the nineties, Lorna wrote numerous vegan cookbooks, recognizing that a vegan approach to food created a much smaller carbon footprint. This was decades before cookbook authors were writing about the connection between food and sustainability. Her RECIPES FROM AN ECOLOGICAL KITCHEN was published in 1992! Her NEW VEGAN COOKBOOK was nominated for an IACP Award and her latest title in this category is SHORT-CUT VEGAN.

Her fourteenth cookbook, WHOLE GRAINS EVERY DAY, EVERY WAY, published in 2006, was awarded the prestigious James Beard Award in the "healthy focus" category. Her latest cookbook, WHOLE GRAINS FOR BUSY PEOPLE, focuses on quick-cooking recipes for cooks on the go.

Lorna has often found herself ahead of her time. While studying for her PhD in medieval literature at Columbia University, she wrote four historical cookbooks that were published by the Metropolitan Museum of Art--decades before anyone was studying food history!

Lorna's food articles have been published in dozens of prominent newspapers and magazines, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Gourmet, and Bon Appetit. In addition to her own blogs, she has blogged for The Huffington Post and Green Fork, and wrote a monthly recipe column for localharvest.org.

She is a member of Slow Food, The Author's Guild, and the Women's Culinary Alliance and an alumna of Les Dames des Escoffier, an organization of the top women in the food industry.

Lorna's current passion is to make healthy food available to all, and she is especially eager to help people grow their own food on rooftops and in community gardens in NYC.


For further information, visit www.lornasass.com.
BLOGS: www.pressurecookingwithlornasass.wordpress.com www.lornasassatlarge.wordpress.com

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

352 of 355 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Pressure Cooking 101: Easy, Safe and Oh So Delicious!!!!! April 18, 2004

By Daniel F. Moore VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

Having purchased and thoroughly enjoyed Cooking Under Pressure and The Pressured Cook, it was a no-brainer to purchase Lorna Sass's latest offering for the pressure cooker. For persons new to pressure cooking and even for us 'old hands', this may be her best work yet.
The first twenty-two pages are a primer for pressure cooking. Ms. Sass demystifies this cooking genre and guides the reader through what she calls, 'The Language of Pressure Cooking'. She reassures the novice of the safety of today's pressure cookers and generally provides all the information that the reader will need to be successful.
What I really liked about this book (besides the recipes) are the 'extras': Variations, Transformations and Pressure Points. The variations suggest alternate ingredients, the transformations explain how to modify the recipe to create other dishes and the pressure points provide information, techniques and suggestions specific to different sized cookers. This is particularly useful as electric pressure cookers are now becoming popular and recipes don't always work the same as for stovetop models.
But, you buy a cookbook in order to make great food! Pressure Perfect won't disappoint. I admit to being a poultry lover and the pressure cooker can turn out mixed results. The Chicken Cacciatore recipe was my first choice and it was a keeper! Subsequent recipes, all highly recommended were Spanish Rice with Chicken and Sausage, Beef, Mushroom and Barley Soup and Chicken Noodle 'Casserole' with Mushroom Sauce. I'm still experimenting and at least for now, every recipe has been outstanding.
If your pressure cooker has been in storage, drag it out and dust it off. Buy this book, read through the first two chapters and get ready for a wonderful culinary experience.... You will be very pleased with your results...I know that I am! Read more ›

130 of 130 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Pressure? Perfect! February 8, 2005

By Lawrence W. Prichard

Format:Hardcover

Lorna Sass's "Pressure Perfect" really is that, I believe.She starts with a clear, but not stupidly oversimplified guide to pressure cookers and pressure cooking. To me, this section is almost worth the price of the book.I have an older, American made "jiggle top" pressure cooker, and these recipes work flawlessly in my cooker.The dishes range from very standard "American" dishes like chili and pot roast and excellent mashed potatoes that are very nearly as fast as instant, to rissottos, to a really delicious Chicken Biryani.The timing charts for meats, vegetables, and grains are presented twice, which is very handy. They are presented first in each section, and again at the end of the book, before the clear and concise index.None of the ingredients are impossible to find, and even the ones that are not common, can be mail/phone ordered. Sass includes contact information for stores and pressure cooker manufacturers.Wild rice is one of my favourite grains, and until I got this book, I rarely had wild rice beacuse of the lengthy conventional cooking time. I have it a lot more often.This is a well written, easy to use, friendly book.

163 of 167 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Lorna Sass' Dirty Pressure Cooker Book March 1, 2004

By A Customer

Format:Hardcover

Lorna Sass' passion for cooking is in every recipe description and comes through in the resulting food. I was blown away by the Curry in a Hurry and her method of cooking rice in a serving casserole on top of the curry (or other recipe). What a time saver and its much easier on the clean up too. I took this combo to a pot luck and just had to tell everyone how to do it. Also delicious and quick was the Beef Stew to which I added a bottle of Guinness!
Lorna gives so many wonderful variations which entice you to personalize the recipes. It's also a great introduction to using a pressure cooker with so much information on how they work.
This book is versatile, organized and imaginative and its going to get very dirty!

98 of 99 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome book February 13, 2005

By t19p5

Format:Hardcover

I got an electric pressure cooker and Lorna Sass's book for Christmas (yes, yes, I asked for a pressure cooker... ) The electric pressure cooker is great and very easy to use. I really didn't want to spend time watching the pressure cooker on the stove and trying to figure out how high to keep the flame so that the cooker stays at high pressure. My pressure cooker came with this little flimsy booklet and would've been virtually unusable without this book. The book great for a beginner and explains in great detail how each model (i.e. stove-top or electric) of the pressure cooker operates. The recipes are excellent and each recipe has ideas on replacing ingredients. I think the most valuable parts of the book are the cooking charts. I've been able to modify my regular recipes for use in the pressure cooker just on the charts alone. Overall, this book is a must-have in order to start using your pressure cooker.

53 of 53 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Yummy recipes--love the vegetarian variations! January 22, 2004

By A Customer

Format:Hardcover

I'm a big Lorna Sass fan, and I fell in love with pressure cookers when I bought my very first cookbook of hers (Vegetarian Cooking Under Pressure). I couldn't believe then how easy it was to use a pressure cooker, and I was bowled over by the results. This cookbook is no exception. We don't eat a lot of meat, so I really like all the variations that this cookbook offers. Each recipe includes any number of variations, and many of the meat recipes have vegetarian versions. It's wonderful to be able to do different things with a single recipe, depending on your mood and what ingredients you have on hand. And the desserts? I was pretty sceptical when I thought about doing a cheesecake in a pressure cooker, but I was blown away by the results. By far the best cheesecake I've ever made. Yum! I'd highly recommend this cookbook, along with any of Lorna Sass' other cookbooks.