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!
