Talk:Pressure cooking

Pressure

I am currently in an experiment using a pressure cooker. I am trying to figure out what amount of pressure (on a normal stove) a pressure cooker can get to. Does anyone know? :)

Maximum pressure should be 15psi. On some new models, especially those sold in Europe, the maximum pressure may be lower than the industry standard 15psi and may be as low as 11psi, which will require longer cooking times and the results will be "hit and miss" compared to 15psi! The manufacturer's instructions should tell you the maximum working pressure and it should be the same regardless of the stove top used, unless you are using the pressure cooker at a very high altitude above sea level. If you don't have the manufacturer's instruction book, look for the maker's name and model printed or embossed on the pressure cooker and look online to see if you can download an electronic version of the instruction manual, which will require Adobe Reader to be installed if you can't open it after downloading. I know these discussion pages are not supposed to be used as forums for help on the subject, but if you feel the Pressure cooking article on Wikipedia is not giving you enough information, please discuss that here. Also, please add one space and ~~~~ after your comments. Thanks. TurboForce (talk) 11:59, 12 November 2011 (UTC)

Pressure cooker canning

I am new to the whole pressure cooker/canning thing, and I have learned that there is a combination pressure cooker/canner. Since I have recently purchased an electric pressure cooker, I would like to know if it can be used for canning. Haven't been able to find that information. Teresaweinberg (talk) 19:42, 20 April 2012 (UTC)

I would not recommend canning unless you know exactly what you're doing! Normal pressure cookers are NOT suitable for canning. Read more about canning with pressure canners by clicking here. Canning is not as popular here in Europe and I've never tried canning foods. I think the risks of home canning outweigh any benefits. TurboForce (talk) 21:00, 20 April 2012 (UTC)

I do a lot of home canning including pressure canning. The main rule for using a pressure canner is to make sure it is at least 12 quarts and can hold 7 canning jars. Anything smaller than that, though, will be too small to be useful. Mateinsixtynine (talk) 21:02, 1 July 2012 (UTC)

As long as anyone who does pressure canning follows tried and trusted methods, follows the times exactly and ONLY uses a pressure canner and NEVER attempt canning in an ordinary pressure cooker, you will cut the risk of lethal botulism poisoning. I will provide the link again for anyone who has not read all the text above, please click here to read more about pressure canning and its risks! Also pressure frying should NEVER be done in an ordinary pressure cooker. Maybe I should mention in the pressure cooking page that ordinary pressure cookers are not suitable for pressure canning and also not suitable for pressure frying? TurboForce (talk) 22:40, 1 July 2012 (UTC)

These 2012 Talk contributions reads like a forum on a subject not found in the article. Perhaps canning (as it relates to pressure cooking) could be added to the article as a section, with cited sources (if this were even thought relevant to the subject) but, otherwise, this whole canning debate needs removal. Wiki Talk is intended solely for an exchange of ideas on how to improve an article, not for general chat around any possibly related topic.Humboles (talk) 09:02, 10 December 2022 (UTC)

High altitudes and pressure over the ambient atmospheric pressure

Given that a 15 psi pressure cooker can boil water at 121 °C ABOVE the ambient atmospheric pressure, would that be the case at any altitude? Yes, water has a lower boiling point at high altitudes, but the pressure inside the pressure cooker is always that same pressure level at any altitude. A 15 psi pressure cooker or 13 psi pressure cooker is still going to be 15 psi or 13 psi inside the pot at sea level or at 7000 feet above sea level, but is the boiling point of water the same inside the pressurised cooker at the higher altitude i.e. 121°C at 15 psi regardless of altitude? TurboForce (talk) 11:41, 12 August 2012 (UTC)

Hello from future. Read manual, it sqys add 1minute to published recipee for every 1000 feet of elevation. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2600:1700:CDA0:1060:2D5B:9111:8D9F:B20D (talk) 10:46, 3 December 2021 (UTC)

Feedback page for pressure cooking and its misuse

I would like to make a few points regarding the feedback page for pressure cooking.

• Wikipedia does NOT and will NOT provide "how to" information on any subject, including pressure cooking.
• Pages on Wikipedia exist for providing information about a subject, NOT recipes, commercial content, where to find parts, where to buy pressure cookers etc.
• The feedback pages are used for improving Wikipedia articles and feedback should be written about improving the article, instead of silly "one word" entries or nonsense, like this (quoted): "I am looking for a cloth cover for my electric pressure cooker!!"
• Usage advice on suitable heat sources, safety features etc. are specific for each make/model of pressure cooker. This information is included in the manufacturer's instruction manual for your pressure cooker; Wikipedia cannot provide information about specific pressure cooker makes and models.

By now, I'm sure you understand what the feedback page is and how to use the feedback page for its intended purpose. If you would like to discuss the pressure cooking page, please use THIS page rather than the feedback page.

Please encourage other people with knowledge about pressure cooking to contribute towards the pressure cooking page, such as providing diagrams, technical information and improving readability. I can't do everything myself and don't forget I've been editing the pressure cooking page for several years. TurboForce (talk) 23:54, 19 November 2012 (UTC)

Pressure cooking

Can u put cans of say like tuna in the cooker to extend the shelf life — Preceding unsigned comment added by Captenweb (talk • contribs) 20:00, 28 November 2012 (UTC)

Simple answer: NO. Don't try it! TurboForce (talk) 00:53, 29 November 2012 (UTC)

These discussion pages are not forums. Please use the discussion pages only for improving Wikipedia articles. TurboForce (talk) 00:56, 29 November 2012 (UTC)

Tuna may already be pressure cooked in the can? Note 100 percent sure but to speed up their whole cooking line they might do it 209.205.67.99 (talk) 02:19, 21 February 2024 (UTC)

15 psi?

The article claims that pressure cookers operate at 15 psi. An anonymous editor seems to dispute this and has left the following comment in the article: the working pressure of a pressure cooker is rounded UP to 15 PSI from 1 bar - so if you START with incorrect information, a converter is not going to give you the right information, please look it up or ask a manufacturer and correct. Is there a reliable source that we can use to either verify or correct the 15 psi claim? Deli nk (talk) 12:58, 20 March 2013 (UTC)

Pressure cooker manufacturers use different pressure UNITS to refer to the SAME pressure level. For example, Fagor will sell the same pressure cookers in the US, Europe and worldwide, but refer to the pressure level as "15 psi" in the US and "1 bar" in Europe, but the pressure regulator on these Fagor cookers are exactly the same. Annoyingly, here in the UK, we see more examples of European weights and measures which most people are unfamiliar with e.g. kilometres instead of miles and yards, the "bar" unit instead of "psi" (pounds per square inch) and so on. The pressure cooking page shows the different pressure units and their values, which are all correct. The values are rounded because this is how the pressure cooker manufacturers do it. The anonymous editor is not checking the ref link page properly. TurboForce (talk) 16:49, 20 March 2013 (UTC)

Use by "terrorists"

It is being reported today that the two bombs used in the Boston Marathan were "pressure cooker" bombs, and that pressure cookers were used for their timers - and this is what is used in places like Afghanistan. My question - do pressure cookers have electronic timers on them??? Does the heat not fry the electronics??? I am sure this stuff is already all over the internet (they know about it in Afghanistan), but don't know how to find it. I would have thought they would have been used because they can hold/build-up pressure (but I guess you would use a pipe for that with a screw-on end. Thanks in advance to anybody who knows. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2.99.59.2 (talk) 18:50, 16 April 2013 (UTC)

Pressure units

Hello. I find this page, and specifically the section called "the science of pressure cooking" too much americanocentric; I think the metric system units (bar or atm) should be given before the american unit psi, and not the other way around. Andraaide (talk) 18:31, 12 March 2014 (UTC)

I agree with you. MetalFusion81 (talk) 16:36, 14 March 2014 (UTC)

Remove lengthy text

The article needs to be shortened. Please help remove excess wording and trim it down. By the way, can you please refrain from removing valid British English and replacing it with American words - it's totally unnecessary. Why the previous editor has done that I have no idea! MetalFusion81 (talk) 20:54, 12 December 2014 (UTC)

electric cooker image

the wmf pot pictured has no internal heating, it is just an ordinary pot with a batterypowered digital countdown timer 176.0.0.29 (talk) 22:32, 10 June 2015 (UTC)

The comparison diagram

Ummm... what exactly is this, and how is it to be interpreted? 2601:141:200:1A28:295E:F907:49BF:2926 (talk) 23:44, 14 November 2015 (UTC)

I edited the lede

The lede stated that steam increases the unit's internal temperature. This is simply wrong. There is some heat (or energy) source; electric coils, gas burner, induction, microwave, magnetic field (exotic) which causes the heating and temperature rise. Since steam does transfer that heat to the food, it could be argued that the claim isn't completely wrong. I disagree, it confuses the source of the heat (some source external to the chamber (if not the unit)) with the internal transfer of that heat from the steam to the food. Food may also be heated by conduction thru the vessel walls, for example. In some cases the heat transfer may be from the food to the steam, as another counter to the claim. I think the lede should mention how efficient steam is at heating food, but steam doesn't increase the unit's internal temperature except arguably in the case of microwave direct heating of the water molecules in the gas phase (ie steam).Abitslow (talk) 23:45, 12 April 2016 (UTC)

First generation pressure cookers

It is said that only newer style pressure cookers have adjustable weights. My mother had a pressure cooker with adjustable weights at least in 1972, if not earlier. You can hardly call 45 year old technology 'new style'. Hippocrocopig (talk) 11:56, 18 February 2017 (UTC)

 — Preceding unsigned comment added by Hippocrocopig (talk • contribs) 11:36, 18 February 2017 (UTC) 

These types of pressure cookers are still being manufactured today, albiet with improved safety features compared to decades' ago. MetalFusion81 (talk) 12:56, 20 February 2017 (UTC)

Pressure cooking saves energy?

I don't agree. Although the cooking time is reduced, the amount of heat (energy) required to raise the temperature to the set-point of the valve is much higher than for open pan cooking. Furthermore, heat loss to the atmosphere is proportional to the difference in temperature between the pan and the atmosphere; therefore a pressure cooker actually loses MORE heat to the atmosphere (per unit time) than a pan boiling at 100 degC does. Hippocrocopig (talk) 11:55, 18 February 2017 (UTC)

Compared to boiling the same food at 100°C, you normally use more WATER (which takes longer and more energy to reach boiling point) and require more TIME. Pressure cookers use much less water and — provided the heat is kept low enough to maintain pressure — use no more energy. When I've used a pressure cooker on gas, I've been able to maintain 15 psi pressure on the lowest flame (this will vary depending on the wattage of the burner, higher wattage gas burners produce more heat, sometimes considerably more!). The secret is using much less liquid, otherwise the pressure cooker will use the same amount of energy or maybe even more if too much liquid is used. Also consider that some foods release their own juices into the liquid during pressure cooking, so you won't need as much to start with and there is very little loss of liquid in the sealed environment of the pressure cooker; if the heat is kept too high energy will be wasted and more liquid will be lost. MetalFusion81 (talk) 12:56, 20 February 2017 (UTC)

Pressure cookers' comparatively lower energy usage is attested by lay discourse and Google search results. Here's a source of scholarly origin but intended for lay consumption: [1]. 174.22.2.175 (talk) 00:33, 8 March 2017 (UTC)

External links modified

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on Pressure cooking. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20120726201738/http://missvickie.com/library/altitude.html to http://missvickie.com/library/altitude.html

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

This message was posted before February 2018. After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{source check}} (last update: 18 January 2022).

• If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
• If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.

Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 09:41, 14 January 2018 (UTC)

Pressure cooking

The whole article seems to take a rather disparaging tone toward classic pressure cookers and favors the newer European style countertop units over the stove top units. The "First Generation" "Second generation" classification seems inherently wrong. The use of derogatory terms like "jiggle-top" instead of "dead-weight pressure regulator" seems biased to me.

Many old pressure cookers had features like selectable pressure settings that are ascribed to newer generations.

Was the basic article layout and outline put into place by a representative of a manufacturer of countertop self-contained units?

I am a physical chemist and am very familiar with the science involved. I have been using pressure cookers since I was a kid helping mother put up the victory garden produce during WWII — Preceding unsigned comment added by 184.174.129.54 (talk) 17:06, 13 January 2019 (UTC)

Natural Release - Opinion Reads as Fact

There is a sentence in the section on natural release that reads "The texture and tenderness of meat cooked in a pressure cooker can be improved by using the natural release method." However, the cited source for this statement prefaces this assertion with "some cooks believe". It would be helpful if the language could be clarified to make it clearer that this is an opinion and not a fact.

Hidden ads?

Near the end of the section about third generation "electric pressure cookers" it says:

"Since 2018, with the release of the game-changing Ninja Foodi pressure cooker, which became famous for being the first pressure cooker to possess the ability to air fry"

Worlds like "game-changing" and "famous", really? Never heard about those Ninja guys who apparently improved upon a convection oven and are now heroes. Although air frying might be worth mentioning, I don't think there's any need for blatant advertising like this. — Preceding unsigned comment added by MikeHermansen (talk • contribs) 09:26, 11 August 2020 (UTC)

Removal of air

This section is just wrong, it defies the laws of physics. I removed hat part, twice since it was restored and my edit was considered disruptive. I fail to understand why removing something that is wrongm, plain and simple, is deemed disruptive and the original, false, txt is restord. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 95.197.98.224 (talk) 21:30, 10 July 2021 (UTC)

I am no physics expert, but I know you need to remove the air before being able to open a pressure cooker. Just because you say it is wrong doesn't mean others know or believe it to be. If you can provide research, sources, evidence, etc to back it up, then I doubt it will be reverted. Until then, I guarantee you it will continue to be removed as stating "it is against the laws of physics" hasn't been backed up. People like me will interpret it like a "trust me bro" which isn't very trustworthy. If it is "against the laws of physics", then I recommend you re-write the section to apply to the laws of physics rather than blatantly deleting an entire section which becomes suspicious. Even just removing the parts that is not factual and simply stating "to open a pressure cooker you have to release the air" or something would be better than deleting the whole section.

Trust me, I know first hand how frustrating it can be to see blatantly wrong information on an article, but unfortunately when we delete things so impulsively it will be assumed to be in 'bad faith' and therefore may be reverted unless a very good explanation/edit can be made. We don't intend to be mean or rude, I apologize if it sets off the wrong tone. Jebbles (talk) 13:59, 11 July 2021 (UTC)

It's completely unsourced, and has been for five years. It's appropriate to remove material that lacks a WP:RS. This one seems to be WP:OR; if it weren't, it would be easy to find a source; at least one "how does a pressure cooker work" article (and there are a lot out there) would mention the possibility that air needs to be replaced before the pressure cooker can work. As it stands, it is not verifiable -- that you "know" you need to remove the air doesn't mean you need to remove the air, it means you have the same unsourced information as the article does. I will be removing the section if sources don't show up in the next couple of days. Nobody is required to prove something in Wikipedia is wrong; but WP:V does require us to show it's right. MetalFusion81 inserted the material in 2016; perhaps they can substantiate this claim. (Also, how does the valve tell the difference between air and steam?) --jpgordon^{𝄢𝄆𝄐𝄇} 14:27, 11 July 2021 (UTC)

I find this an interesting topic too, and it's unfortunate that there isn't more about this. Old-style pressure cookers remove the air because they regulate the pressure by leaking excess gas (so, as steam is produced and leaks out, the air leaks out gradually along with it). The same goes for volatiles like alcohol, or even volatiles released by the cooking food. However with the new-style electric pressure cookers, they do not leak so much gas (they only leak in the beginning before the float valve pops up). So air/volatiles are trapped inside and thus add to the overall pressure. For a given temperature the pressure might be, say, ~1 atm over that of an old-style cooker. What I wonder about the electric cookers, therefore, is whether they are pressure-controlled or temperature-controlled. If they are pressure-controlled then the amount of trapped air/volatiles could be an uncontrolled error source, leading to unreliable recipes: the more trapped air/volatiles, the less the actual cooking temperature. Conversely if they are temperature-controlled, then they might overpressurize in some situations, perhaps creating a safety issue. I cannot find any good sources that discuss this and yet it seems important. --Nanite (talk) 19:08, 3 April 2022 (UTC)