pressure cooking vs. sous vide...

grant

From @Juan_Carlos_Kiel_6664 "We learned that we cook sous vide to maximize tenderness by cooking tough cuts for a long time at low temp, achieving so the conversion of collagen into gelatin which gives the feeling of moistness and tenderness.

 

However, we learn as well to cook in a pressure cooker to cook for short times at high pressure and high temp, as water will be boiling at higher temps if the pressure rises, and cooking in a pressure cooker supposedly will tenderize tough cuts.

 

The problem I see is that both low temp and high temp would achieve the same result. Would you care to elaborate on this apparent contradiction?"

 

grant

@Juan_Carlos_Kiel_6664 So what I think you are asking is what is the real difference between pressure cooking and cooking something sous vide. Without going too deep the best way to think about it is like this: 

When you cook a piece of meat lots of things are happening that make changes in the muscles. When you cook something sous vide you are trying to bring it to the desired temperature just enough to denature the collagen but with out overcooking the proteins which will squeeze out water and shrink the cut of meat. When you pop something in the pressure cooker you can achieve the same level of tenderness(or more) as far as denaturing collagen goes, with much shorter times frames, but as a side effect you are completely unwinding all the proteins and shedding almost all the moisture in the cut, you also have very little control over the desired doneness and end result. 

The main difference is essentially cooking sous vide = more control cooking and large range of desired outcomes achievable. With a pressure cooker = very tender, very fast, always.

Here is some more material on the subject:

https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/decoding-tough-and-tender-cuts