Unfortunately, once you overcook a piece of meat in the pressure cooker, there’s no going back. You’ll be left with a pile of dry, crunchy, tasteless fibers and no amount of additional pressure cooking is going to put that moisture back into the meat.
Earlier, I explained how ingredient size affects the cooking time. Well, that doesn’t just apply to potatoes, it applies to meat, too. Actually, it applies to everything that goes into the pressure cooker.
The same slab of beef, for example, can have different pressure cooking times based on how it is sliced. Because the size dictates how quickly the heat will get to the center of the meat.
A roast, for example, has the longest distance for heat to travel from the outside to the center of the meat. And, that’s about 45 minutes. If it’s sliced into 1-inch stewing chunks, it will need 20 minutes. And broken-up ground beef, only about 5.
Don’t worry, the pressure cooking time chart lists the cooking times for just about any cut of meat.
And no matter how absurdly short the pressure cooking time sounds, you should try it. You can always double-check the results with a meat thermometer. And, if the meat is not cooked to your liking, you can always pressure cook the meat MORE but never LESS.
And, that’s the third secret to marvelous meats!
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The cooking and Safety Tips in the User Manual say to always add at least 18 fl oz of water when cooking under pressure. Yet many recipes don’t show that much. What’s the minimum for a red meat roast?
great article. i’ve had my instant pot for a couple years and done a lot of cooking with it, but it’s still tricky to know how long/what pressure/what release, even with the thousands of IP recipes out there. you gave me a common-sense solution to a dilemma i found myself in with a partially frozen roast. i didn’t want it to cook all the way, so i could cut it off the bone and into chunks (for posole), so i cooked it on high pressure for 20 minutes and used a release after 10 minutes, with the intention of finishing cooking either with pressure or slow cooking, depending on the tenderness after the initial cooking period. turned out to be a good call all around. the meat was still raw in places, but i didn’t want to risk the meat getting rubbery, so i slow-cooked it for an hour or so before i added the hominy. it also gave me the flexibility to adjust the seasoning.
tl/dr: when using pressure – when in doubt, undercook. thanks!
Great advise and „refresher“ lessons for cooking any meats !!! Thank you sooo very much !!!
Never heard of such nonsense. Been using a pressure cooker for 40 years.