Preparing food using a pressure cooker can help turn the home kitchen into a place where only the finest soups, stews and braised meats are prepared.

Once taking pride of place in every home's kitchen, the pressure cooker has fallen out of favour in recent years, but still functions as an excellent way of quickly steaming vegetables, fish and meats, or offering a flexible way to produce exquisite braised, stewed and even curried dishes.

Headcook and Bottlewasher stocks appliances made by arguably two of the world's most reputable pressure cooker manufacturers: Kuhn Rikon and WMF.

Customers can get their hands on a Kuhn Rikon 3723 five-litre pressure cooker for just £81.95, capable of producing enough food to feed a small party of ten people.

Alternatively, cooks may prefer the seven litre variety, which costs £119.95. All models feature an automatic lid-locking system and a base comprised of a solid thermal aluminium sandwich for rapid heat absorption. The main body of Kuhn Rikon's pressure cookers are also dishwasher safe, for convenient clearing up as well as cooking.

Meanwhile, WMF Perfect Plus Pressure Cookers start from 4.5 litre on the website, costing £99. This German-made appliance features a pressure safety control, an easy-to-clean detachable handle and comes with a three year guarantee.

WMF also stock a 8.5 litre version on Headcook and Bottlewasher, which costs just £129.