When you are lying in bed at night are you asking yourself the important questions about life like, “who invented pressure cooking?” or “how does a pressure cooker work?”, “why can it cook food so quickly?” and obviously the most important question of all, “is this a magical device straight from Harry Potter’s wizarding world?” These are all great questions and today the Pressure Cooker Passion Team is going to try our best to answer them.
Who invented pressure cooking?
According to the good people at the Pressure Cooking Wikipedia Page, pressure cooking was invented in 1679 by French physicist Denis Papin, better known for his studies on steam. Denis like many people today was looking to reduce the cook time of food and invented the “steam digester”, which is considered to be the first pressure cooker.
How does pressure cooking work?
Science and cooking are tied together in every way and physics is the real muscle behind pressure cooking. Trapping steam in a pressure cooker allows the water temperature to reach 120˚ Celsius. Trapping the steam causes the molecules move faster and faster, resulting in the temperature of the water climbing higher than what is normally possible (The Succulent Science of Pressure Cooking). This is 20˚ Celsius hotter than an “unpressurized cooking” environment, AKA the temperature of boiling water 100˚ C. Unfortunately, we cannot afford to hire a physicist at the Pressure Cooking Passion offices, but here is a video, How to Pressure-Cook With Steam – and Good-Old Science from Wired that can better explain how it works.
Why can it cook food so quickly?
Now we know that with a pressure cooker we are cooking at a much higher temperature than we ever could with a stove or pots and pans, how does that translate to cooking time? This high temperature cooker allows food to cook 16x faster than normal! Looks like old Denis Papin was on to something with the Steam Digester, it did in fact reduce the cook time of food. If you did not pay attention in math and are thinking, “What’s the big deal about cooking 16x faster?” Here are a few examples to help drive this home:
Short Ribs – Time Saved: 2 hours and 40 minutes
- Oven Roasted at 350˚F – Cook Time 3 Hours
- Pressure Cooker – 20 Minutes
Whole Chicken 3lbs – Time Saved: Over 1 hour
- Oven Roasted at 350˚F – Cook Time 1:15 – 1:25
- Pressure Cooker – Cook Time 12 – 18 Minutes
Garbanzo Beans – Time Saved: 1 hour and 55 minutes to over 9 hours!
- Stove Top Plus Soak – Long Soak (8:00) OR Short Soak (1:00)+ Cook Time 1:30 – 2:00 = Total Time 2:30 – 10:00
- Pressure Cooker – Cook Time 35 – 40 Minutes
Is this a magical device straight from the wizarding world of Harry Potter?
This was our final and arguably most fun question. After carefully reading all of the books (which took much longer than making and eating multiple pressure cooker meals!) we can definitively say that owning a pressure cooker is as close to having your very own House Elf as muggles can get. While Pressure Cookers may seem like magic, they are simply devices for those looking to cook like a wizard at super charged temperatures and speeds.
We hope this has answered all of those pesky questions keeping you awake at night. If not feel free to send us any questions (serious, fun or ridiculous) about pressure cooking and we will do our best to answer them.
Check out more from Pressure Cooker Passion:
Instant Pot Guinness Chili Recipe
7 Health Benefits of Pressure Cooking
