Can You Make Sous Vide Steak in a Pressure Cooker?

No. A pressure cooker cannot hold the steady, low water temperature that sous vide steak depends on, so the steak will not cook the way a sous vide setup cooks it. Of the five picks in our Best Pressure Cookers for Canning and Fast Meals guide, only one lists a sous vide function, and that listing is a mode name, not a published temperature range.

Why a pressure cooker is the wrong tool

Sous vide cooking means sealing food and holding it in a water bath at a set, low temperature for a long stretch, so the meat comes up to that temperature evenly from edge to center. A pressure cooker works the opposite way. It seals, builds pressure and drives the contents well above the boiling point of water, which is why it cooks fast. The two methods pull in different directions.

A stovetop pressure canner such as the Presto 01781 23-Quart Pressure Canner and Cooker is built around a dial gauge that registers processing pressures, and the maker describes it as the method the US Department of Agriculture recommends for canning vegetables, meats, poultry and seafood. Nothing in that description is a low, steady bath. The T-fal 22-Quart Aluminum Pressure Canner lists three PSI settings and a steam release valve, again aimed at canning and pressure cooking, not at holding a steak at a set low temperature.

An electric pressure cooker is closer in shape to a water bath, because the inner pot can hold water and the machine can be set to keep warm. But the modes the makers publish are pressure cook, slow cook, sauté, steam, rice, yogurt and keep warm. None of those is a published sous vide temperature program on the Presto, the T-fal, the Instant Pot Duo or the Midea 12-in-1.

The one pick that lists sous vide

The Cosori Pressure Cooker 6QT, 9-in-1, Ceramic Coating Pot, 12 Safety Features lists sous vide among its modes. The maker’s feature text reads: pressure cook, rice, steam, sterilize, oatmeal or porridge, stew or broth, bean or grain, meat or poultry, slow cook, sauté, ferment, sous vide, keep warm. That is the whole of what the maker publishes about it in the material we compared.

What the maker does not publish is just as important. There is no stated temperature range for the sous vide mode, no stated temperature accuracy, and no stated water capacity for a bath. The Cosori block in our guide also has no published width, depth or height; the maker lists a weight of 11.9 pounds and a size of 6 Quarts. So this site has not compared a sous vide temperature range for the Cosori, because the maker does not publish one.

That gap matters for steak. Sous vide steak depends on knowing the exact bath temperature and trusting it to hold, since the doneness of the meat follows from that number. A mode name on a control panel does not tell you either figure. If you want to cook steak this way, the honest answer is that a dedicated sous vide circulator is the tool built for it, and no pressure cooker in our guide publishes the numbers that would let you treat it as one.

What the electric picks do publish

The Instant Pot Duo 6 Qt 7-in-1 Electric Pressure Cooker lists seven cooking functions: pressure cook, slow cook, sauté, steam, rice, yogurt and keep warm, plus 13 one-touch programs. The maker states 1000 watts, 120 V 60 Hz, and a stainless steel 18/8 inner pot with a tri-ply bottom that it says is suited to searing and sautéing. Its published dimensions are 12.6 inches wide, 13.0 inches deep and 12.2 inches high, at 14.6 pounds.

The Midea 12-in-1 Electric Pressure Cooker, 8 Quarts, Stainless Steel Inner Pot lists pressure cook, sauté, steam, slow cook, oatmeal, soup, rice, bean chili and yogurt among its functions, with an 8-quart capacity the maker ties to a family of 8. Its published dimensions are 11.6 inches wide, 11.1 inches deep and 11.6 inches high. The maker does not publish a weight for this pick.

Both makers describe speed as the point of the appliance. Instant Pot states cooking up to 70% faster compared to slow cooking methods, and Midea states one-pot cooking up to 70% faster than traditional cooking methods. Fast and hot is the design goal, and that is the opposite of a long, low, steady bath.

The stovetop canners and their figures

The Presto 01781 is the largest pick in the guide at 23 Quarts, with published dimensions of 17.5 inches wide, 13.5 inches deep and 15.5 inches high, at 12.0 pounds. The maker lists a deluxe pressure dial gauge that registers the complete range of processing pressures, and a jar capacity of 26 half-pints, 20 pints or 7 quarts. It is built of heavy-gauge aluminum and works on regular and smooth-top ranges.

The T-fal 22-Quart Aluminum Pressure Canner publishes 15.39 inches wide, 19.33 inches deep and 16.26 inches high, at 14.77 pounds, with a jar capacity of 24 half-pint jars, 16 wide-mouth pint jars, 18 pint jars or 7 quart jars per batch. The maker states it is compatible with gas and electric coil cooktops and includes two canning racks and a canning guide.

Neither stovetop maker publishes a thermostat, a low-temperature hold or a water-bath temperature setting. Both are built to reach processing pressure under a locked lid, and the gauges they publish read pressure, not a set water temperature. A steak put into either one would be pressure cooked, not sous vide cooked.

What to do with the pressure cooker instead

If the goal is a tender steak dinner from a pressure cooker, the realistic route is a braise: sear the meat using a sauté function where the maker lists one, add liquid, lock the lid and pressure cook until the meat is fork tender. The Instant Pot Duo and the Midea both list sauté, and the Instant Pot maker describes its tri-ply inner pot as suited to searing. That produces a braised steak or a pot roast, not a pink-centered sous vide steak.

For the sous vide result itself, the tool is a circulator that publishes its temperature range and accuracy. None of the five picks in our guide publishes those figures, and only the Cosori lists the mode at all. This site has not compared a sous vide temperature range for any of them, because no maker in the guide publishes one.

One more caution belongs here. The Presto and T-fal makers both frame their canners around the USDA-recommended pressure canning method, and pressure canning follows published procedures and pressures. Using a canner for an unlisted low-temperature bath is outside what either maker describes. Read the instruction book that comes with the appliance before using any mode in a way the maker does not spell out.