The 5 Best Pressure Cookers

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While this model is the most expensive machine on this list — and a couple hundred dollars more than the comparably sized, ever-popular Instant Pot, below — it’s worth it if you plan to pressure-cook often. “It’s just a step up,” says Lesley Sykes, founder ofPrimary Beans, who was a longtime Instant Pot user before switching to this model a few months ago.For her, the main attraction is the choice of a pulse release that Instant’s cookers don’t have. When food is done, the machine frees the built-up steam and pressure in steady bursts, resulting in perfect texture every time, she says. In comparison, the only options on the Instant are a quick release that can cause foods to break apart from the sudden and aggressive disruption, and a slow release that can make foods mushy from extra time in the pot, notes Sykes. Also, if you’re interested in getting super-specific, the Breville allows you to adjust pressure in increments of 0.5 PSI (the standard unit used to measure pressure) instead of simply choosing between low (for gentler foods like eggs andfish) and high (for pretty much everything else). Sykes says that specificity has allowed her to make perfectly cooked chickpeas, a legume she had issues with in the past.

“It feels and looks nicer,” she adds, noting the body that “cleans up well” and the lid that “locks in so easily” and “isn’t as clunky as Instant’s.” Nate Kuester, executive chef at New York City’sNARO, uses his formeal prepevery week and expresses the same sentiment: “It’s so sturdy, and the fact that it has more stainless-steel parts than plastic makes it more like a professional piece of equipment,” he says. A final niche but still notable feature: You can set your altitude so that you don’t have to adjust cooking times in recipes by five or ten minutes.

Instant Pot’s most basic model is the Duo, listed here, though you can findmany variationswith different presets and additional features if you want to spend more money. But as Weinstein says, all that matters is size, pressure, and time — and this one lets you manually determine all those factors.

Chef, TV personality, and food writerWill Colemanhas owned his Duo for five years and says its most basic function — to cook food quickly — is its most appealing. “For folks who don’t want to spend a lot of the time in the kitchen, it really just turns out dishes in a fraction of the time,” he says. “But it’s not just pressure cooking. It has the ability to sear, sauté, simmer, slow cook, and keep food warm, too.” He says the mechanisms are clear, with easy-to-read buttons and lights. When you’re done, he says, the interior pot is a breeze to clean with a scrub. Jenny Park, co-founder of and recipe developer atSpoon Fork Bacon, has owned a slightly fancier model, theInstant Pot Duo Plus, for a few years. Park uses hers similarly to Coleman: to pressure-cook dishes quickly. “I used to have a stovetop one, and I especially appreciate the safety with the Instant,” she says. “It’s not gonna bust open or create an intense stream of hot steam. The guides on the screen are easy to follow and it really just works well.”

Recipe developer andnewsletter authorCaroline Chamberssays that while the Instant Pot is a “very reliable pressure cooker,” the Ninja Foodi boasts one feature that makes it a better buy: anair fryer. Because of the steam, pressure cooking generally works best for softer foods, but the air fryer allows her to crisp things up after they’ve been cooked through. “It brings food back to life,” she says. “And also, switching between those two functionalities is really seamless.” (Though Chambers doesn’t use them, the Foodi comes with even more additional presets that the Instant Pot Duo doesn’t have:bake,dehydrate,sous vide, and proof.) “Space-wise, having something that’s multifunctional just helps a lot,” she says. “I have asmall kitchen, so if I’m going to buy a bulky appliance, it really needs to be a workhorse — and this is.”

Before there were electric pressure cookers, there were stovetop ones. The basics of how they work is the same: Heat creates steam, steam trapped inside of a vessel creates pressure, pressure cooks food quickly. For Ragoth Bala and Harish Visweswaran, co-founders ofThe Cumin Club, the Prestige was ubiquitous growing up in India. “It’s just a brand we trust,” Visweswaran says. “There’s something appealing about the simplicity. You don’t have to figure out settings. It just pressure-cooks.” Both experts do warn that using a manual model takes some practice; there aren’t the built-in safety features of modern electric ones, so if you loosen the lid too soon, it can pop off. “But if you use low to medium-low heat as it instructs, turn it off, release the steam, and let it sit for a few minutes before you remove the lid, you’ll be fine,” Visweswaran says. The Prestige comes in ten different sizes, more than any other cooker on this list.

Rice cookers are, for all intents and purposes, pressure cookers (there’s even an Instant Pot Duo inour roundup of the best ones). Though there are many great models out there, this one has a dedicated pressure-cook setting that allows you to control the heat and time (just like with the other electric appliances, above) instead of simply predetermining those factors for you based on the type of rice or grain. For food writerJustine Lee, this feature “is where it stuns,” she says. “It’s how I steam a bunch of Korean sweet potatoes right before road trips and quell my bean hankerings. I’ve even followed recipes fitted for a traditional Instant Pot such as cinnamon buns andyakbap.” Both of those foods can get sticky, but cleaning the interior nonstick pot is easy with a lightscrub, she says.