Pressure Cookers are safe
Pressure cookers are the cheetahs of the cooking world--they're just so darn fast. Pressure cookers are great for cooking food quickly while also retaining the vitamins and minerals that can be lost when food is cooked using other methods. There's still a little bit of a learning curve, though, so if you're using a pressure cooker for the first time, it's important to know how to get started safely. Knowing the basic mechanisms of pressure cooking being able to recognize an unsafe system will make all the difference when you start using your pressure cooker. When the pressure cooker is turned on, heat produces steam which cooks food faster by raising the boiling point. There are two types of pressure cookers. The first is the old style pressure cooker which has a “jiggle top” or weighted pressure regulator that sits on top of the vent pipe on the lid. The second type is the newer style that uses spring valves and a closed system.
Spitting and sputtering, the pressure cooker rattled and hissed on the stove while it worked away. When I heard it going, I stayed out of the kitchen. The stories of pressure cookers exploding confirmed my thoughts that they were too scary to use. Luckily, times have changed. Today’s pressure cookers are safer than their older counterparts, plus, they have many advantages. They cook food up to 70 percent faster than traditional cooking methods, which mean food retains more nutrients; are energy-efficient; and keep your kitchen cooler.
While electric pressure cookers require almost no monitoring to bring, maintain and release pressure, it takes them more time to get there. Although the time to pressure for a electric pressure cooker is just a few minutes longer than stove top (14 vs. 11 minutes)1 the natural pressure release takes more than twice as long (25 vs. 10 minutes) because the base cannot be removed from the heat source (the electric coil needs time to cool). Additionally the thermos-like double-walled construction of electric pressure cookers further insulates heat loss prolonging the time to open. However, the thermos-effect improves efficiency of the electric pressure cooker keeping the heat from the coil in the cooker and not dissipating it in the kitchen – making it 60% more efficient at using electricity than a similarly PSI’d stove top pressure cooker operating on an electric cook top. Lid-locking system while the cooker is at pressure which prevents the cook from opening the cooker. Primary over-pressure release valve which releases excess pressure should the cook forget to reduce the heat. Secondary over-pressure release which is a back-up pressure release valve that will activate to release pressure should the primary fail. Emergency gasket pressure release will buckle the gasket and release extra pressure through a cut-out on the lip of the lid, or down the body of the cooker, should the primary and secondary pressure releases fail. Some manufacturers may have additional safety controls. Proper lid closure detection via sensor. Lid-locking system while the cooker is at pressure which prevents the cook from opening the cooker – mechanical system that will work even if the cooker is un-plugged. Primary over-pressure release valve which releases excess pressure should something happen to the sensor to prevent it from turning down the heat.
Emergency gasket pressure release will buckle the gasket lower the inner pot to release extra pressure in the gap between the inner pot and pressure cooker body, should the primary pressure release fail. Leaky lid detection via sensor which notes how long the cooker needs to reach pressure and switches to “keep warm” mode to avoid burning the food. Extreme temperature and power protection will disconnect power to the cooker should the temperature be detected to be extremely high or the cooker is drawing too much electricity. Automated temperature control is done by the computer logic and will prevent excessive pressure from building in the cooker.
Just as cooking times are lengthened by cooking at the lower air pressure of higher altitudes, cooking times are decreased by cooking at the higher air pressure created by a pressure cooker. That’s why you can pressure cook chicken broth in an hour or two instead of eight or twelve. It’s also why you can pressure cook grass-fed pot roasts in just an hour as opposed to cooking them in your oven for four. Because the boiling point of the water inside a pressure cooker is elevated, you can cook the food at a slightly higher temperature and avoid water loss. In cooking, liquid loss equals over-cooking, drying out, or burning your food. By avoiding water loss while maintaining higher temperatures, your food cooks more quickly. Pressure cookers were extremely popular at the time and there was a huge backlog of demand, but very few companies actually had the know how to engineer and produce them. Unlike today's new pressure cookers that are stamped from a sniffle sheet of stainless steel, the old aluminum pressure cookers were manufactured using a metal casting process, and they were prone to defects and lacked most of the safety features found in the modern cookers.