Which is better: a multicooker or a pressure cooker?

Modern multicookers and pressure cookers greatly simplify the process of preparing your favorite dishes. To understand the wide variety of functions and choose the equipment that suits your needs, you need to take into account the advantages and disadvantages of each type of device.

Advantages and disadvantages of multicookers

A multicooker is a device with the ability to select different temperature modes for preparing a large number of different dishes. Using a multicooker, you can cook the same dishes as on a regular stove, but with less time spent monitoring the process. Despite this significant simplification of cooking, you will first have to spend time understanding the many programs and learning how to operate the device. Food in a multicooker is cooked at a variety of temperatures. The heating element can operate at a low temperature, as during stewing, and at a higher temperature during frying and baking.

Advantages of using a multicooker:

1. Possibility of automatic preparation of dishes without human participation in process control.
2. Automatic heating of ready meals and maintaining temperature.
3. Setting a timer and delayed start - to prepare food at a specified time.
4. Using a minimum amount of seasonings and oil for lower calorie dishes.
5. Uniform heating of food while preserving a large amount of vitamins and nutrients.
6. The outer surface of the multicooker heats up slightly and its use is generally safe even for inexperienced cooks.

Having such wide capabilities, the multicooker also has a number of disadvantages:

1. The price is quite high, especially for models with a large number of functions.
2. Low cooking speed for some dishes in the cooking and stewing modes.
3. Scattering of additional functionality. If you need a specific cooking program, you can buy a separate special device for this. For example, take a regular multicooker for cooking, and additionally purchase a good bread maker for baking bread, without spending money on buying an expensive multicooker with an additional function.

What is the difference between a pressure cooker and a multicooker?

A pressure cooker is a device for cooking food in a sealed container under high pressure, allowing food to be cooked at high temperatures in a minimum period of time.

ATTENTION! A pressure cooker is a dangerous appliance because it maintains hot steam under high pressure. This equipment should be kept away from use by children.

First of all, these two devices differ in the way they influence food: in a multicooker, the cooking process is carried out due to different temperature conditions, and a pressure cooker cooks dishes at high temperature and under constant pressure.

Pros and cons of pressure cookers

By maintaining a high temperature, this device allows you to cook food much faster. On average, it speeds up the process by 2–4 times, and some types of products (beans, legumes) – up to 8 times. Moreover, any products after such heat treatment retain their natural color and juiciness. Cooking is carried out without adding oil, allowing you to create low-calorie healthy dishes.

The main advantages of pressure cookers are the following details:

• a pressure cooker allows you to shorten the cooking process due to high pressure and temperature;
• during short-term processing in a pressure cooker, the color of the products remains natural due to the absence of oxygen;
• The device is very convenient for quickly preparing rich soups and cereals;
• Electrical energy consumption is significantly less than that of other kitchen appliances.

At the same time, they are inferior to multicookers in some functional properties:

• a pressure cooker can only cook and stew; unlike a multicooker, it does not have baking or frying functions;
• there is no possibility to set a timer;
• during the cooking process, the multicooker can be opened to check the readiness of the products, but the pressure cooker cannot be opened, because high pressure is maintained inside it;
• Typically, such equipment is much larger in size than a multicooker, and it requires more free space.

What is better - a slow cooker or a pressure cooker?

When choosing between kitchen appliances, the specific need for the functionality of the appliance is decisive. A multicooker will allow you to prepare a wide variety of dishes; with its help, you can experiment with the most unusual recipes or use automatic standard programs. But a pressure cooker cooks food much faster and retains more naturalness in it; such a device is suitable for simplifying the preparation of everyday healthy dishes.