What’s Cooking: Pressuring Meat

Stewed Beef & Cucumbers cooked in a pressure cooker (Photo by Cynthia Nelson)

What’s Cooking is a series in which I answer questions and share advice about food and cooking that you may have, and things I may have found out myself that I want to share with you.

The other day I went over to the home of an elderly family friend, and she insisted that I join her for a meal which her caregiver had made. It was supposed to be curried chicken. I say supposed to be because it ended up being a curried chicken soup. In an effort to leave early, the caregiver decided to cook the curried chicken in a pressure cooker. It resulted in the chicken being cooked beyond recognition. The meat was completely shredded and melted; there were little lumps of potatoes, and the bones of the chicken sunk to the bottom of the pot all swimming in a watery soup.