How to Get the Most from Your Pressure Cooker

How many of you have a pressure that you can’t even remember using? How many households in America have a pressure cooker that has never even been used? Part of the problem extends from ignorance and suspicion. Ignorance of how to operate a pressure cooker and suspicion that that doing so may be dangerous. Those pressure cooker owners who fall into this category just need to learn a few simple truths in order to stimulate the use of a cooking appliance that can be quite useful and, incidentally, rather simple to use and those truths can come best through use. Those who already know that a pressure cooker is no more dangerous than a stovetop when used properly merely need to learn some simple truths about how best to use the appliance.

Cleaning Sticky Food Particles

A common problem with using pressure cookers is that food gets stuck on the inside that is particularly difficult to remove. Even the hardiest of cleaning with the most ample supply of elbow grease may fail to release these stubbornly sticking particles, thus making continued use of the pressure cooker a less than appetizing enterprise. The best way to remove this unwanted effect of regular utilization of the pressure cooker is to cook it off. Fill up the unit with water until the food particles are submerged and then add to this an additional ¼ cup of a liquid in the form of plain white vinegar. Leave the pot uncovered and cook until you’ve brought the mixture to a boil. Once you’ve reached the boiling point, turn the heat off and drop in a teaspoon or two of baking soda. Just allow the interior fluid to cool enough to stick your hand into it and then apply that elbow grease again. This time you won’t need nearly as much and the baked-on food particles should easily clean away.

Keep Food from Smelling Bad

Even if you keep a pressure cooker adequately clean, you can still run into the problem of offensive odors turning your delicious meal into an odiferous risk. The problem of unwanted aromas mixing inside a pressure cooker is raised not by the specter of cooking, but the specter of storage. Get into the habit of storing your pressure cooker with the lid place slightly askew across the top so that you leave an opening. Keeping the lid place tightly on the pressure cooker during storage has the effect of retaining odors from meals past that can infect newly prepared meals like a smelly virus.

Keep Your Overpressure Plug Clean

A sure sign that your overpressure pressure plug has gotten dirty is leakage. Occasional leakage when using a pressure cooker is to be expected, but the minute you realize that this little appliance is leaking every time you use it, you have received an important transmission. Do not allow this transmission to go unacknowledged. A dirty plug should first be given a thorough washing. If the washing fails to stop the leakage, then you need to shell out for a replacement. Even if you don’t notice the signs of leaking, it is a good idea to replace the overpressure plug every couple of years in order to keep your pressure cooking working at peak efficiency and safety.

Avoid Oil Frying

You may have been using your pressure cooker for long enough that you have misplaced the instruction manual. Here is a reminder worth noting: do not use your pressure cooker as a means of frying food. You may be convinced it is better than investing in a deep fryer or you may even think using a pressure cooker for frying is somehow more healthy than frying in oil atop your range. No matter what reason your brain is supplying for trying out your pressure cooker as an oil fryer, it is a bad enough. Do not listen to your brain. Using oil for fry cooking in a pressure cooker is a recipe for extremely serious burn injuries.