What is the difference between aluminum and stainless steel pressure cookers?
Aluminum pressure cookers are lightweight, low cost, and provide uniform heating performance due to the excellent heat conduction of aluminum. With heavy use, however, aluminum cookware will stain and pit and, although this doesn’t affect how it cooks, it’s important to note aluminum’s intrinsic weakness. Economy is the main reason to choose an aluminum pressure cooker. Stainless steel pressure cookers are nonporous, slightly heavier, and more expensive than aluminum models. The extremely durable nature of stainless steel will provide years of use with a beautiful high luster finish. However, by itself, stainless steel is not a good conductor of heat, so it’s best to select a model with a layered base, usually a disc of aluminum bonded to the outside bottom of the pan. This will greatly improve the heating characteristics and performance of a stainless steel pressure cooker by eliminating “hot spots” that would otherwise be common in stainless steel cookware. What size pressure cooker
