Making Stew in a Pressure Cooker

When making stew in a pressure cooker, you cook in stages. You can’t add all the stew ingredients to the pressure cooker at the same time. Start by adding the longest-cooking ingredients and finish up with the shortest. To be fork-tender, stew meat needs to cook at least 20 minutes under pressure. The substantial vegetables, such as green beans and potatoes, need less than 10 minutes; softer veggies, like mushrooms, need only 60 seconds.

1. Brown the meat you want to stew in the pressure cooker.

   
   

   Use whatever oil you prefer.

   
   



2. When the meat is brown, add liquid and bring it to a boil.

   
   

   You can add wine or stock, depending on your recipe.

   
   



3. Cook the meat under pressure for 15 minutes.

   
   

   Then, release the pressure by using a quick-release method.

   
   



4. Add all the substantial veggies and cook them with the meat for eight minutes.

   
   

   While the vegetables cook with the meat, all the juices and liquid you added make a gravy. Once again, when it’s done, release the pressure by using a quick-release method.

   
   



5. Add the soft vegetables and cook them for one minute under pressure.

   
   

   All together, the meat cooked for 15 minutes, plus 8 minutes, plus another 1 minute, for a total of 24 minutes under pressure.

   
   

The meat is fork-tender, having been cooked to perfection for the right amount of time; the faster cooking vegetables also cooked for the right amount of time, so they retained their shape and flavor. And because all the ingredients were cooked together, the stew gravy is amazingly flavorful.

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