Which One is Better – Pressure Cooker or Slow Cooker

difference between slow cooker and pressure cooker

For perfect hibernation and hand-off cooking in your kitchen, you can have either pressure cooker or slow cooker. You just have to keep inside the ingredients together and let the cooker do its job. In the end, you will receive a delicious meal prepared to get served on the table. Both of the cookers are fantastic appliances to do the heavy lifting while stewing, braising of meat and cooking lots of things.

So you are acquainted with programmable slow cooker. So why not give a read to the advantages?

Although the output seems to be similar for both cookers, these two share considerable differences in functionality and efficiency. Therefore, you need to have a clear distinction for these helpful, convenient tools to make the proper applications. Here we got a detailed review of the difference between slow cooker and pressure cooker explaining their individual functionality, efficiency, performance, and applications.

  • Working Process

Slow Cooker: This cooker shares a good similarity with conventional stovetop cooking. In this case, the heat gets trapped at the cooker base which eventually flows on the frame sides for uniform distribution. There comes one built-in setting to adjust and fix a particular cooking temperature. Though it requires more time than a pressure cooker, you can get better taste and flavor through the heat settings.

Convenient features help you to slow cook saute vegetables and brown meats for your favorite food. With the perfect choice for the cooking function, you will get the best meal of the day.

Pressure Cooker: Using pressurized steam, the pressure cooker prepares the meal. The top airtight seal traps the vapors inside resulting from interior boiling liquid. The accumulating pressure causes the internal temperature and pressure to increase around the cooking ingredients. This ultimately triggers to speed up the cooking process while effective softening and marinating of food.

  • Energy Consumption

Slow Cooker: Although general slow cookers take 4 – 8 hours for cooking, they are considered energy efficient compared to oven/cooking pot. For the long run, they aren’t exhaustive that much and requires less energy for a tenderized roast. With high heat settings, it may take 4 hours which increases to 8 hours with low heat settings and this results in time flexibility in terms of cooking.

Pressure Cooker: When it comes to energy consumption, almost no equipment can beat pressure cooker regarding its efficiency. In fact, you can deduce the energy requirement up to 70% with a pressure cooker. Therefore, you will get pressurized cooking that saves your effort, time and energy at the same time. Again, it requires lower water amount to cook your meal than a slow cooker.

  • Cooking Applications

Slow Cooker: For meat and stews, this holds the best for sure. It easily creates tenderized meat cuts having more juice and flavor. Also, you can go for cooking common types of fresh vegetables alongside the meat. But it is better to avoid cooking tender food, seafood,and numerous dairy products at the initial stage to prevent early break down. You can add these at the final hours of our cooking time.

Pressure Cooker: Unlike the former one, it can cook almost anything at any time. It holds incredibly great for rice, meat, vegetable,and even beans. The internal high pressure works pretty good on hard as well as soft vegetables and beans to cook within minutes. Though it works for everything, it is preferred to prepare tenderized roasts and vegetable stews, pulses, beans in less time than a slow cooker.

  • Preserving & Canning

Slow Cooker: Canning process for different meals having low-acid may not hold good enough. This is quite true with homemade vegetables and soups. There comes no air trapping lid or similar construction at the top and therefore, the pressure gets out in the open. Unless there is a pressure gauge available with the slow cooker, you should avoid keeping low-acid foods inside the cooker.

Pressure Cooker:Using a pressure cooker, you can preserve canned food with utmost ease. it comes with vapor entrapping lid at the top and therefore, no chance of the pressure to get in the open. Not to mention, the low-acid canned foods remain fresh for a considerable time inside a pressure cooker. Through pressure regulation with a built-in pressure gauge, it maintains sufficient pressure all along.

  • Space Requirement

Slow Cooker: At present, only electric-powered cookers are available which may take 4 – 10 hours of cooking time depending on the intended ingredients. In terms of space requirements, slow cookers with larger capacity hold better for tasteful cooking. Though it may differ in size, you need to fill up to half capacity but not full for better cooking output.

Pressure Cooker: You can go for either stovetop or electric-powered pressure cooker for the same size. The only difference is the former requires external heating source and the latter comes with integrated heating tackle. With stovetop, you can save a greater amount of space than any other. Although electric-driven cooker requires a bit more space, you can easily store them in kitchen cabinets right after use.

  • Caring & Maintenance

Slow Cooker: Different models of slow cookers come with different materials and therefore, the maintenance is likely to differ slightly. Not to mention, cleaning steel or aluminum cooker requires more care and tasks than cleaning a glassed cooker. It would be great if you go through the user manual properly and gather the required cleaning agents before cleaning after every application.

Pressure Cooker: The most important portion that requires your attention is the top lid. You have to remove any sort of residuals that sticks to the lid surface before or after cooking. Advanced cookers have dishwasher-safe parts and you just need to find them from the manual. Meanwhile, you can rely on warm soapy water to clean the components that are not dishwasher safe.

Substituting One with The Other

Whether these two can be interchanged or substituted for kitchen application is a common question that puzzles lots of users. The profound answer is a straight no. The most important factor regarding this issue concerns with the cooking speed and heat generation. Being two opposite types of food processing units, the pressure cooker comes with incredibly high cooking speed in contrast to slow cooker.

The enormous difference in cooking methodology results in no available translation between specific and particular recipes suitable for each equipment. It is true that you can prepare some recipes using the alternate cooker but you have to consider the time, energy and amount in the first place. Apart from that, a considerable difference in taste is likely to take place which also needs to be addressed.

As we got here 10 of the best slow cookers, it is indeed a hard task to choose a specific one. The one that overcomes all the other with convenience and usefulness. But if you want me to pick one among the aforementioned 10 cookers, I would pick the very first one. The Duo Plus Instant Pot has brought about an evolution regarding the best-selling instant pot family. Being a 9 in 1 multi-use programmable slow cooker, this is the best you can find in the market.

Along with smart built-in 15 programs of microprocessor technology and 13 preset temperatures, this best programmable slow cooker offers a rather easy cooking facility. Moreover, 10 safety features and up to 4 hours of pressure cooking time come along with it. Having 6 Quart capacity pot and 1000 W power consumption, this one also saves power and money. Superior adjustment facility along with LCD display allows the user to prepare a perfect dish with efficiency. I can assure you that you will find no parallel quality cooker in the market at an affordable price.

Also Read: Simple Tips to Maintain Your Slow Cooker and Keep Up to the Mark

Verdict

The very first consideration regarding our choice between these two starts with the preferred and often served meals for the family. Apart from that, you have to take account the available time frame for cooking and required meal amount as well. Knowing all these factors will certainly lead you to choose the most convenient cooker for your kitchen. Most houses don’t come without any of these two and you need to make choice for the most suitable one to prepare a healthy meal. Therefore, we hope you got a detailed explanation of the difference between slow cooker and pressure cooker by now and you can make your choice with ease.

If you have any other questions, visit this FAQ section.

Roja D’Costa
Hi there, it’s Roja D'Costa. I have been crazy about food for a very long time. I think from this, I got my passion for cooking. Cooking is my everything if I describe myself in a word. We all know that kitchen appliances play a great role in good cooking, That’s why I decided to give reviews about kitchen appliances. My reviews will not only help you to find the best kitchen appliance but also will help you to maintain the quality of your dish and most importantly it’s Taste. So brace yourself and be ready to explore what’s best for you. Happy Cooking!