I found two in this rented house, so I thought I’d try one for my soup/stew last night.

I checked the valves seemed to be working, then put the lid on. Flicked the switch to ‘cook’ and I came back a few times every 5-10 mins to see if the pressure looked high, by releasing the lever and seeing what happened. No biggie.

So then I left it an hour or so and checked again. Flicked the lever and almost jumped out of my skin as an extremely high pressure steam jet shot out of the thing (away from me) and kept venting at an alarming pressure for seriously about 20 seconds before relaxing.

Scared the beans out of me that did, the pressure must’ve been astronomical – surely it’s only meant to be slightly above atmosphere?

To be honest, its a miracle your still alive. You probably wont sleep tonight and I’d be expecting you to end up going mad.

The ex mother in law gave us one years ago. Cracking little tool and could knock a chunk of cooking fuel bill on the head.

Every little helps eh.?

I must say I’m interested in the idea but not too keen on blowing us all up…

I’ve never had to leave anything for anywhere near an hour – what were you cooking- a brick?

New presure cookers tend to operate at 12 psi max but you can still get 15 psi I think. The old ones, such as you describe, could go up to 18psi.

But they can take a while to release all pressure using the method you did. You could try running it under the cold tap instead, or leaving it to reduce once off the heat.

Lots of pressure cooking advice/recipes on the web.

It was a stew I would’ve simmered for 90 mins or so – I didn’t intend to leave it as long as I did, I just forgot – as I do.

Be-careful it could be child’s face next time.

molgrips – RTFM!

An hour sounds far too long. IIRC Prestige make them so you may be able to find a manual online for exact timings.

When cooking time is complete, straight away immerse in a sink of cold water until pressure thingy has lowered.

HTH. 🙂

Stews etc take about 15 mins max in ours, and yes it’s a good 30 seconds blow-off once it’s been up to temp. No idea what the pressure inside is.

We were bought one as a wedding present nearly 21 years ago. We’ve only ever used it as a ‘big pan’.

Coffeeking – when you say you can do a stew in 15 minutes, what would the same stew have taken at normal atmospheric pressure?

My mum and grandmother have used them for years. Seriously you’re quite lucky – they run at around 10-15 psi from a quick google – not silly high but high enough for an accident and if that steam had hit you it’d have smarted to say the least…

time-wise, an hour sounds way too long but they do have a safety valve so the pressure shouldn’t keep building

molgrips – RTFM!

If I had a FM I’d have read it!

if that steam had hit you it’d have smarted to say the least

Yeah it’s vented away from the handle…

I wouldn’t have left it cook for so long knowing last night what I know now.. although I did forget in actual fact.

Coffeeking – when you say you can do a stew in 15 minutes, what would the same stew have taken at normal atmospheric pressure?

Good question, I’m not sure as I’ve not done it the other way for a long time! Getting the potatoes soft, cooking the meat and veg in different pans etc, probably 30+ minutes. IIRC the pan handle has a guide as to the speeds, I can’t find it now though! A quick scoot around recipes online suggests 2-6 hours for a beef stew done without a pressure cooker.

A stew wouldn’t need different pans tho.. that’s kind of the point 🙂

They are fail safe…if the release valves stick the rubber seal around the lid is meant to deform into a cut-out in the rim to allow the pressure to release. This is why they always say don’t cooking dumplings in them, cos the dumplings can rise and block the valves and the rubber seal.

Is it an electric one or it goes on the hob?

Generally the small valve will lift up as soon as it reaches boiling point, then it will start venting from the second valve when it reaches operating pressure. The idea is you turn it down so this venting is relatively gentle and quiet. If it stops venting, you need to turn it up a bit. If you leave it on max the venting will be fierce and it will boil dry after a while.

You are not really meant to flick the lever to reduce pressure by dumping the steam, though I’m sure 90% of people do. You are meant to turn off the heat and let it cool naturally, or as above, run it under a cold tap. If you want a super fast release of pressure, push in the release valve with the tip of a knife. Not recommended though as the scalding steam will be hitting the ceiling 🙂

Anyone use a pressure cooker?

Yes they make an ideal container for degreasing small bike parts

Is it an electric one or it goes on the hob?

Hob.

I didn’t see it venting when I was checking up on it early in the experiment…

The second larger valve will normally lift up when it reaches the correct pressure, continued heating will cause a controlled venting of steam.

the pressure must’ve been astronomical

surely that would be a vacuum cooker?

No, that would be cosmological.

Pressure inside stars is very high.

Pressure cookers are wonderful. We also received one as a present some time ago and I didn’t use it for ages. Gave it a go a few years back and was amazed at how well it worked. Stews, curries, etc – basically anything that requires a long time to cook does so much more quickly. I usually use 30% to half the normal cooking time as a guide to how long you should cook things for.

My concern would be tahtif you left it running for an hour and it didn’t auto-vent, it’s possible the mechanism has failed/stuck, OR you had a leaky seal.

It was a stew I would’ve simmered for 90 mins or so

So how was the soup … were you distracted by the welding 😆

It sounds normalish but also sounds like you may not have a fail safe or it is blocke dpossibly. As noted you should be able to bring it to the boil then lock it on the handle then it should start venting once it has reached pressure from fail safe. If it does0 not vent automatically [ assuming you have not turned the heat down] I would be nervous tbh
Never open it when it is high pressure steam – it is quite scary!!

I didn’t SEE it auto venting, it might’ve though.

Having a full bowl of the soup tonight.

stick with it you will make a few bits of mush before you get it. Super fast though once mastered.
Check it doe svent when pressurised – if it i sboiling hwne you put tehlid on it shoudl do this fairly quickly – less than 5 mins if not there is an issue. it is not one of those old style ones tightened from the outside is it?

The missus uses one every now and then. She gets some cracking results so I just leave her to it. Not really my bag because I too think I’d end up blowing us all up.

No, not clamped from the outside. Looks a few years old but modern, from what I can tell. I kept checking it after 5 mins, long after I though it would’ve pressurised with simmering stew in in and it all seemed very tame.

Failsafe.

Years ago, in the days of the old “rattle valve” pressure control, a pal got home to find that his wife had been out to the garage and stuck a large socket on top of the valve. After rapidly making the situation safe he (politely) enquired just what was she thinking. “I was fed up listening to the rattling noise”. Nothing is human proof.

But the modern ones are better, having more safety controls.

I’d think so but the amount of steam violently released was terrifying.

I’m going to call the thing Fukushima from now on.

Just eaten a whole bowl of the stew post-pressure inferno.

Bit salty and burnt tasting, but it went down ok.

a mate got hold of some russian pressure cookers he traded for climbing bits on a mountaineering trip. Apart from the fact the look like something that anarchists should have been throwing at Tsars and there is no safety release valve they’re great little things for cooking with a limited gas supply.

Wouldn’t want to leave it too long on the heat though 😯

I would. Camping stove on full, full of something flammable, and a video camera on a tripod with a long zoom.

I’ve never had to leave anything for anywhere near an hour – what were you cooking- a brick?

😆

I find that 20/30mins is enough for soups/stews.