Electric Pressure Cookers?

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fabindia
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Electric Pressure Cookers?

Post by fabindia »

We gave our Prestige 'Hi-Dome' pressure away before we left on our travels and had used it on and off for about 40 years.

In India, we found that a pressure cooker is essential for Indian cookery. So when we were living there, I went to our local market and bought what I think was a second hand one, though being India it may well have been new, it was just the box was a bit battered. The guy blew through the top, as a kind of safety check, and declared it OK. I was surprised that you can actually still buy this style of pressure cooker, with its oval lid and strange handle lock in UK - see picture of ours below. When we moved on to Thailand at the start of the year, we just had to bring it with us, as we found we can't live without one these days.

But, I digress, I have seen you can buy electric pressure cookers that are supposed to be safe and clean, and do away with all that whistling and steam that comes from the traditional designs.

Anyone got one? Are they any good?

Our Indian Pressure Cooker
Image

... and one available to buy in UK
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Michael
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lancashire lass
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Re: Electric Pressure Cookers?

Post by lancashire lass »

fabindia wrote:I was surprised that you can actually still buy this style of pressure cooker, with its oval lid and strange handle lock in UK


have to admit I've never seen one of these for sale in the UK, just the more traditional lid on the top and twist it round to close. I have seen similar but with a bigger pot (without the handle) used as small bench type autoclaves in biology laboratories (they sit on top of big gas burners)

fabindia wrote:I digress, I have seen you can buy electric pressure cookers that are supposed to be safe and clean, and do away with all that whistling and steam that comes from the traditional designs


Well, you'll need steam as it is a requirement to increase pressure (and consequently the temperature) to cook though I'm not sure how an electric kitchen appliance would be designed. Automated autoclaves in laboratories (the big ones) have exhaust pipes for the steam directed to drains, and a thermostat turns the heating element on and off to maintain the temperature on a set timer (usually 121oC which gives a pressure of 15 psi or 1 bar which is held at 15 minutes but can be set up to 134oC for shorter cycles). There's hardly any steam released into the room during a cycle unless the door seal is damaged (it's rare for a boiler to leak and more likely to end in a catastrophic breach if it fails ... I have a story to tell about when one of those happened to me!) When the timer ends the cycle, steam is not suddenly released (anything liquid in bottles and flasks are in a state of steam during the cycle - dropping the pressure suddenly causes instant boil over and loss of contents!) Instead, cooling fans blow onto the big chamber where items for sterilizing are kept to quickly condense the steam which brings down the pressure, and only when the temperature reaches about 85oC do the safety locks on the door release (safety regulations to prevent accidents from scalds) ... depending on chamber size, it can be up to an hour. Maybe there's a similar process for an electric pressure cooker?
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manda
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Re: Electric Pressure Cookers?

Post by manda »

We've got a Sunbeam PE6100 Aviva multicooker (so it is a pressure cooker and rice maker and can saute). The link below is the one we've got.
https://www.sunbeam.co.nz/Cooking/Press ... ooker.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I don't have anything to compare it with - to be honest I've resisted getting one for years....and now wish I'd had one sooner :-D
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Gwenoakes
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Re: Electric Pressure Cookers?

Post by Gwenoakes »

Oh this brings back memories for me.
Years ago when I was very young we bought a pressure cooker and I distinctly remember me almost climbing the walls in the kitchen to get away from it. Whether I did not read the instructions correctly or what, but after a few times of trying to cook with it I gave it away.
I remember thinking that it was not a very safe way for me at least to cook. LOL
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