In a city where admission to preschool is hypercompetitive, and busy executives are all but shackled to their BlackBerrys, I had nearly forgotten that a pressure cooker is not just a colorful way to describe a high-stress situation, but an actual appliance.

Like the terms “half-baked” and “back burner,” the clichéd use of “pressure cooker” has become far more prevalent than the literal, culinary meaning: a big pot that uses steam pressure to rapidly cook food. And the author of “Miss Vickie’s Big Book of Pressure Cooker Recipes” (Wiley, 480 pages, $22.95), Vickie Smith promises that pressure-cooked food is healthier, cheaper, faster, easier — even greener — than conventionally prepared meals.

Because this appliance cooks so quickly, with little water or air, the food is said to retain more vitamins and minerals than when cooked with other methods. The environmental advantage, the author says, stems from both the reduced cooking time and the fact that “all the heat is trapped inside the pot,” keeping the kitchen cooler in the summer and thus lowering the temptation to turn on, or turn up, the air-conditioning.

Invented at the turn of the 20th century, pressure cookers peaked in popularity during World War II, but then fell out of favor, in part, says Ms. Smith, because a rash of poorly made and explosion-prone cookers flooded the market — giving the entire pressure-cooking industry a bad reputation. Technology has improved, however, and in these health-, environment-, and efficiency-obsessed times, the cookers may well be poised for a mighty comeback. For those tempted to tour Pressure-Cooker Land, Ms. Smith is a helpful, albeit imperfect, guide. And surprisingly, in this age of celebrity chefs, she is a remarkably mysterious personality. The book has no author photo (or any other photos for that matter) and the bio on the back cover describes the author simply as the creator of the MissVickie.com pressure cooker Web site.

But the star of the book is not the author; it’s the appliance, which is a useful gizmo, yet one with a steep learning curve. As Ms. Smith notes, recipes must be followed carefully, as improper timing or substitutions (or opening the cooker before the process is complete) can lead to disastrous and dangerous results. Nonetheless, the speed and ease of Ms. Smith’s recipes — many of which are one-pot meals — is mighty appealing, especially once one gets accustomed to the vagaries of the pressure cooker.

With more than 500 recipes, the book features a wide array of menu options, including breakfasts, desserts, and even a whole chapter devoted to fruitcake. The book would be easier to navigate, however, if, along with the alphabetical index, it indexed recipes by additional criteria, such as whether they are one-pot meals, vegetarian, low-fat, can be prepared in under half an hour, and so forth. To my disappointment, especially since the book extols pressure cooking’s healthfulness and environmental correctness, the recipes were overwhelmingly meat-based. Even many of the rice, vegetable, fish, and bean dishes call for chicken broth or other meat products.

That said, “Big Book” has an impressive selection of beef, chicken, lamb, and pork recipes, ranging from classic American to Moroccan, Indian, Mexican, Italian, Korean, Japanese, Caribbean, and other internationally inspired dishes. The Braised Beef Brisket with Horseradish Sauce sounds particularly promising for Passover (April 19–27), although to make it kosher one must replace the sauce’s sour cream with a nondairy substitute.

I was fairly happy with the Chicken and Saffron Rice I tried, although the chicken turned out overcooked. This was partly my fault, as I may have de-pressurized too fast. But I also hold Ms. Smith responsible because the recipe did not specify exactly how long to sauté the chicken before pressure cooking. (It never turned the “golden brown” the author described as the end point, and without a time estimate, I fried almost until it had cooked through.) Nonetheless, the rice was addictively delicious.

Curried Lemon Rice with Green Beans and Toasted Almonds was less successful, in part because the instructions were confusing, calling for me to make “foil helper handles,” the directions for which were unclear, a problem exacerbated by the lack of illustrations or diagrams. Although I love both ginger and lemon, the recipe contained too much of each, and the green beans turned out too limp; nonetheless, my normally finicky 20-month-old daughter devoured the finished product with gusto. To use yet another kitchen cliché, one man’s (or toddler’s) meat is another man’s poison.