What do pressure cookers do to food that traditional cooking methods can’t?

Question

What do pressure cookers do to food that traditional cooking methods can’t?

In: Chemistry

Answer 1

They allow the food to be cooked at a higher temperature than is otherwise possible. Food at atmospheric pressure, if it contains water, cannot itself get hotter than 212F/100C (at sea level). It may be exposed to higher temperatures than that, but it can’t be higher because the extra heat energy will go into evaporating the water. A pressure cooker allows the temperatures to go higher because the pressure increases the temperature at which the water will become steam.