Twenty years ago we had an aluminum pressure cooker on board but it didn 't like the salty atmosphere and we abandoned it to corrosion.

We got converted back to these miraculous devices when we used a stainless steel one on an extended cruise down the Antarctic Peninsula.

For the long distance cruiser gas is a very precious commodity and a pressure cooker is a very economical way to cook and cook quickly. Since then we have been using them extensively though they remain deeply unfashionable ashore.

I wondered how many others carry and use a pressure cooker in their galley?

I, too, use a Kuhn Rikon Duromatic stainless steel pressure cooker aboard (the 20cm one, which is a good size on a small cooker), on an almost daily basis. It 's perfect for boat cooking, as it has a spring-operated regulating valve. Mine is getting elderly, but is doing fine. It doesn 't need its rubber parts renewing too frequently, but when I was waiting for some parts to be sent to me, I bought an aluminium Presto, with the wobbling weight kind of valve. Not good, on a boat. It 's this type of valve which sprays food when it comes unseated - which it will do, in a rough sea.

My cruising diet relies heavily on dried pulses and grains, as I can carry large quantities aboard, very easily. Having set beans to soak at breakfast time, they only take 10 minutes to cook in the evening. There are so many one pot meals and pulse-based meals from different parts of the world - red beans and barley (tchulent) from the Jewish culture, chick peas and couscous from N Africa, dhal and rice from India, maize and beans (githeri) from E Africa ... all so much nicer than tinned meat and fish, when you 're well into a passage and the fresh stores are finished.

When you make bread directly in a pressure cooker, you 're really only using it as a dutch oven, removing the gasket and valve. I 'd advise making bread (and other things that need heat greater than boiling point, such as popcorn) in a dedicated thick cast aluminium pan of the Anolon or Circulon type, which are hard anodised. Make a small quantity of rather wet dough with only one or two cups of flour, and flip it over halfway through. You can get a good crusty loaf this way.