Pressure cooker is a saucepan that cooks food under pressure at a higher temperature than an ordinary saucepan, therefore reducing the cooking time by as much as two-thirds.

Pressure cookers are made of stainless steel (or thick aluminium, though not recommended nowadays). They have an airtight lid fitted with a rubber gasket and a valve for controlling the escape of steam from the pan during cooking. Cooking temperature inside the pan ranges from 112 - 125 °C (230 - 250 °F).

Pressure cookers are ideal for preparing soups and delicious beef, vegetable, chicken or fish stocks  —  it takes no more than 1 hour to cook a good beef stock, a task that would normally take several hours.

See a recipe for beef bouillon.