According to a hundred-year-old cookbook, there are four reasons for using a pressure cooker:
Value of a Steam Pressure Cooker
Less time for cooking – Whatever food is inside the pressure cooker is subjected to moist heat at a high temperature and cooks in much less time than it would at an ordinary temperature in an ordinary kettle. This fact has advantages for the housekeeper who has to meet emergencies in hasty preparation of meals.
Cereals may be deliciously cooked in twenty minutes in the pressure cooker, as compared with three hours of cooking on the stove. Beans may be well cooked in forty minutes instead of requiring five or six hours of cooking on the stove. A steamed pudding placed in the pressure cooker is ready to serve after being cooked for thirty minutes under ten pounds of pressure. Three hours would be required to accomplish this in any other way.
Even beef neck or flank, which would required from three to five hours of cooking on the stove, may be cooked in forty minutes in the pressure cooker.
Less fuel used – In most pressure cookers, only a short period of time is required to attain ten pounds of pressure. A low fire will maintain the pressure throughout the cooking process.
Micro-organisms killed – Micro-organisms that cause spoilage in canned foods are killed at the high temperature made possible by the use of steam under pressure.
Thorough cooking – The combination of high temperature and moist heat attained by the pressure cooker is probably more effective than any other methods of cooking for making certain foods digestible and tender. Cereals, with their large proportion of cellulose, and meats with tough fiber are among such foods.
The New Butterick Cook Book (1924)
A Hundred Years Ago 
How interesting! I remember the first time I used a pressure cooker to can vegetables. I was terrified! And my mom was there with me, but she’d only used the old-fashioned water bath canners, so she was as leery as I was.
I have similar memories of being worried the first time I used a pressure cooker for canning.
I am amazed there were electric pressure cookers a hundred years ago! I certainly haven’t seen one. When I was a kid, they were all stove top with the little jiggler on top.
Same here!
It surprised me, too. I know from browisng through old women’s magazines that there were ads for electric vacuum cleaners and other appliances by 1924 – so I guess it shouldn’t have surprised me.
I have always been terrified of pressure cookers and have never used one I keep eying up the Instant Pots as they now seem a tad safer no plunging into water when releasing the steam…
I really enjoy my Instant Pot! It is wonderful for so many foods, and I have not had any issues. Just follow the guidelines of when and how to release steam to be able to open safely.
Wish me luck and thank you, Suzassipi 🙂
I hope it will work for you if you decide to try it. I was not certain either, even though I had used an old one on the stove top a few times for beans without problems.
I haven’t gotten an instant pot yet, but maybe I should.
I keep umming and ahing but need to take the plunge especially for beans and lentils 🙂
I couldn’t live without my pressure cooker, which isn’t a bit scary compared with the one my mother used when I was small. So quick! So economical!
Pressure cookers have a lot of advantages.
The neat thing about the instant pot was it opened up possibilities for so many people. My Mama used a regular pressure cooker mostly for beans (which we had often) and potatoes. I remember stories of blowing the top off of one and having red stuff on the ceiling.
I loved the instant pot when it came out cause I could set it and forget it and not worry about listening for the jiggle. But I have burned out 2 pots so I am back to the traditional pressure cooker with a lot more recipes and things I can make in it.
I haven’t yet purchased an instant pot, maybe I should just continue to use a pressure cooker.
I have problems with with most electronics ( including computers) but most people are fine with the electric pressure cookers and you can walk away and preset and do all sorts of neat things
I think that instant pots are supposed to be easy to preset, but, similarly to you, I know that I can get easily frustrated when I need to program various pieces of technology.
All good reasons! The bonus is that the tougher cuts are made more tender too!
It’s amazing how a pressure cooker can tenderize tougher cuts.
I used a pressure cooker on top of the stove for years. I always watched it carefully, though. I found it intimidating. I use a Crock-Pot now. Going from fast to slow suits me these days.
😄 I know that feeling!
Works for me. 🙂
wow I had no idea they had been around so long!
cheers
sherry
I didn’t either until I saw them featured in a 1924 cookbook.