eli5: how do pressure cookers get food cooked more quickly in a way that simply using a higher heat does not?

Question

obviously cooking on very high heat is faster but it wouldn’t mean you could have a huge hunk of meat nice and tender in a couple hours. but why. i don’t even understand enough to know if i chose the right flair.

In: 2

Answer 1

Let’s take cooking pasta as an example. No matter how high you turn your range, water cannot exceed 212°F under normal circumstances. It physically can’t get any hotter or it would be steam. Now, if you put that water into a closed system, which a pressure cooker is, and raise the pressure you can raise the temperature that water can exist at. Water can now get up above 212°F making things cook faster.