Pressure cookers are very handy tools in any kitchen as they cut down the cooking time drastically with the convenience of one pot cooking. There aren’t many kitchen appliances that offer that. If you like to cook meats, dry beans etc. often then they are worth the investment. However, if you are looking for alternatives then there are few kitchen appliances that can be used in place of pressure cookers.

You can use Dutch ovens, microwaves and crock pots to cook the pressure cooker recipes. These alternates will take longer to cook compared to a pressure cooker and other adjustments might be needed as well.

We are going to compare in this depth each of these cooking methods against cooking in a pressure cooker so that you can decide according to your needs.

Microwave vs Pressure Cooker

Microwaves cook the food using the heat generated from the waves that bounce off the microwave walls. Pressure cookers cook food by reaching high pressure within and cooking the food quickly while preserving the nutrients.

Meats, Dry beans can be cooked in the microwave just like the pressure cooker however these take longer. Also, microwave cooking is not one pot and you will be required to do some cooking on the gas like searing and tempering and then adding it to the microwave end result.

In terms of cooking time, we can compare rice as it’s the simplest recipe to make. While cooking 2 cups of rice in a pressure cooker takes 15-20 mins , it will take 30-35 mins for it to be done in the microwave.

Advantages of Microwave

• Easy to access as microwaves are easily available to use. Microwaves are usually considered kitchen essential appliances and can be found already installed in most of the kitchens. 
• Easy to use – As they are so widely used it is highly likely that person is already familiar with how to use it. Even if someone hasn’t used the microwave before the learning curve isn’t as steep as that of the pressure cooker
• You can check in between the cooking process how the food looks and make adjustments to the cooking time accordingly.

Disadvantages of Microwave

• Microwaves take more time and energy to cook the same amount of food. 
• You cannot do a one pot meal in the microwave. The tempering or searing of the meat needs to be done separately before the food is transferred to the microwave to be cooked.
• Microwaves are also limited in what they can do in comparison to a pressure cooker. You cannot do cooking methods like sautéing in a microwave
• The food does not cook as evenly in the microwave and there might be hot and cold pockets that need to be mixed well as food is being cooked.

Comparison between Microwave and Pressure Cooker

Can I use a microwave instead of a pressure cooker?

You can use the microwave instead of the pressure cooker if you are performing simple cooking which does not have a lot of steps to it. You can perform activities like steaming, boiling lentils or beans, cooking rice etc. 

However, if there are steps that require sautéing, searing then its better to use the cooker. All these can be done in a cooker and it saves to time as well due to its One pot nature/

Crock Pot vs Pressure Cooker

Crock Pots or Slow Cookers are used to cook the food at lower temperatures for a long time. The food is simmered in its own juices and is cooked in low heat.

In comparison a pressure cooker takes less time and cooks the food under high pressure and temperature.

Advantages of Crock Pot:

• Do not have a high learning curve to them and the recipes can be easily followed and there aren’t a lot of parts to a crock pot to understand. It is much simpler and easy to use.
• Crockpots are much more affordable than pressure cookers, you can get slow cookers starting from $20 whereas pressure cookers start at almost double that price.
• Crock pots do not cook food at high pressure and thus are considered much safer than the pressure cookers.

Disadvantages of Crock Pot:

• Takes long time to cook. Based on the heat setting the food can take up to 8 hours to be cooked and ready.
• As food is left to simmer on slow heat for a long time, some people feel that it makes the food bland as overcooking reduces the flavors present in the food.
• Crock Pots are great for making soups, stews, pot roasts etc. i.e. dishes that require constant simmering. But you cannot use them for a lot of recipes that require meat to be sautéed or seared. 

Comparison between Microwave and Pressure Cooker

Steamer vs Pressure Cooker

Steamers are used to cook vegetables, dumplings etc where food is cooked by the steam without coming in contact with the water added to it. 

Both steamer and pressure cooker cook food using the steam generated by the water added to them. However, they are very different in how they use the steam to cook the food.

In the case of the steamer the steam generated can easily escape from a vent in the steamer and in the process the food gets cooked. Whereas in case of a pressure cooker the steam is trapped in an airtight container, creating a high pressure chamber that cooks food much faster.

Advantages of Steamer:

• Easy to use as they do not have a learning curve to them and are fairly simple to use.
• Cost effective as they are much cheaper than the pressure cookers
• Safer because the cooking does not occur at high pressure and thus there is no fear of safety that can be associated with pressure cookers especially if all the instructions are not followed.
• Can check the food, usually veggies as they are being cooked. 
• Maintain nutrition unless the veggies are overcooked, overcooking can lead to veggies losing their texture and flavors.

Disadvantages of Steamer:

• Steamers can be used to steam vegetables and to cook items that are easy to cook like dumplings etc. You cannot use them to cook dry beans, meats etc. as they will take forever to be well done.
• Steamers cannot multitask and can only be used for steaming food and not for cooking that involves sautéing, boiling soups etc.
• Steamers take more time to cook than pressure cookers as they do not cook on high pressure.
• Manual monitoring is needed of the water content in the steamer. If all the water evaporates then there might be burning of the food.

Rice Cooker vs Pressure Cooker

Rice Cookers as the name suggests are used primarily to cook rice. They cook rice using the steam generated by heating the water and also keep them warm once the rice has been cooked.

Most rice cookers have a cut off as well. This means that the food has been cooked and they auto stop the cooking process.

While a pressure cooker cooks at high pressure and heat, the rice cooker only cooks at high heat. Rice cooker cooks at a lower temperature as well compared to the pressure cooker. Rice cooked in the Rice cooker always comes out perfect whereas pressure cooker rice is more mushy due to the high temperature they are cooked in.

Advantages of Rice Cooker:

• Easy to use and if using for the first time the learning curve is not as steep
• Cost effective as compared to pressure cookers that are more expensive
• Safer as the cooking is done without the high pressure used in pressure cookers
• The rice cooked is perfect every time and not mushy
• Does not require babysitting and auto cutoff happens when rice has been cooked
• Keeps rice warm until served

Disadvantage of Rice Cooker:

• Rice cookers are one trick ponies and they cannot be used to cook any other dish but rice or steaming vegetables.

Dutch Oven vs Pressure Cooker

Dutch ovens are enamel based cast iron containers with a snug lid. When heated the dutch oven heats up quickly from all the sides and cooks the food evenly.

They are used for baking, braising, searing etc. as they cook food evenly and well. But the cooking method does not involve any pressure cooking and thus takes more time compared to a pressure cooker.

So if you have some time to cook then you will get more flavors in the Dutch oven compared to Pressure cooker as the water reduces more complex flavors that are formed in Dutch oven compared to a pressure cooker.

Dutch ovens cook at a lower temperature than a pressure cooker, they cook at the boiling point of water whereas pressure cookers can cook at much higher heat than that.

Conclusion

We compared the pressure cooker with microwave, crock pot, steamer, rice cooker and Dutch ovens. While all these alternatives have their strengths and weaknesses what they lack is the versatility and unique pressure cooking feature that pressure cookers have.

They are great for one or 2 tasks in the kitchen that they specialize in for example microwave specializes in reheating the food, steamer in steaming the food, rice cooker makes perfect rice every time. However, they are nowhere close to the pressure cooker in terms of the cooking time and the varied range of cooking it can perform.

So if you already own these alternatives and have not tried your hand at pressure cooking, then you can definitely use one of them. But if you cook often especially hard to cook food items like meat, dry beans then pressure cooker is a worthy investment which pays back quickly by saving both time and effort.

f you are looking to buy one, here is an article that compares steel vs aluminum pressure cookers.

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