Three generations of pressure cookers

Three generations of pressure cookers

Three generations of pressure cookers

Whenever we enter a new decade, century or even millennium, technology usually has something in-stored for us. It always has a habit of updating and improving things regardless of the niche. Now one of the most important sectors or niche in which it impacts almost yearly is cooking. Technology has made cooking easier over the past decades with the provision of new and improved stoves that do the job that old fashioned stoves used to do at almost half the time. Now one of these stoves is the pressure cooker.

The pressure cooker has made cooking food easier and faster. For example, a cup of rice takes almost 45 minutes to an hour to cook in a normal stove. Now in a pressure cooker, a cup of rice takes from 15 to 20 minutes to get cooked. Why is it faster? It's because it uses a mechanism of adding water in a sealed vessel (with a pressure control system) in which increases the temperature capacity thus cooking the food faster.

I know what you're thinking, with the pressure mechanism, are pressure cookers safe? The answer is "Yes, Indeed!" they have a valve which releases the steam from inside the pressure cooker to maintain the pressure.

History and evolution of pressure cookers

The pressure cooker back in the days wasn’t named as it is now, it was rather known as the steam digester. The steam digester was created by Denis Papin (1679) in the efforts of cooking food faster. The steam digester used the mechanism of raising the water boiling by steaming pressure to cook food faster. Afterward, he made a more improved model in which was able to soften hard food like beans, etc. which was called a new digester. He then later presented this invention to the Royal Society of London.

Now the digesters were rigid in design hence were very unsafe to use especially on the part of maintaining temperature and pressure. Thus Denis Papin aimed at solving the setback by introducing the safety valve. The safety valve had the purpose of regulating the pressure and that sparkled the foundation of the modern pressure cooker design.

Evolution of the pressure cooker

The evolution of the pressure cooker mainly started just after World War 2. This was when people turned into their old way of eating due to the impacts of the war on food and agriculture. Now, this led to an increase in the demands of pressure cooker although many products that were produced by a lot of companies were unsafe and thus made the process dormant. It then went on and picked up in the '70s where healthy eating was a thing back then. And by the '90s the pressure cooker had already established itself as an essential part of cooking foods like rice and beans.

Generations of pressure cookers in their evolution

After the first patent of the pressure cooker was released in Spain in 1918, technology started meddling with the designs of the pressure cookers. Now this led to the pressure cooker having 3 generations in which are

1. First-generation

This was the very first complete model of the pressure cooker and it’s also known as the old type pressure cooker. Its operational mechanism is that it uses a jiggler valve in which is responsible for releasing steamed pressure during cooking.

Features of the first-generation cooker

-First-generation cookers are nosey.

During the cooking process, first-generation pressure cookers tend to release loud noises, especially when releasing steam. They also tend to make vibrating sounds during the cooking process.

-First-generation cookers were safe to cook

They had jiggler valves in which ejected steamed pressure as a way of controlling pressure inside the pot. Secondly, the had a lid locker in which was used to contain the lid and the pot in a sealed manner to avoid the liquids and steam from erupting out the pot due to the pressure inside.

-First-generation pressure cookers had timers fitted on it.

The pressure cookers had timer fitted on the bottom side of the pressure cooker. The timers were operated manually with a rotating switch in which used to estimate the cooking time.

-First-generation pressure cookers are mechanically operated

During the era where they were established, digital technology hadn't reached the leaves that were in now and thus the pressure cooker operated manually. Thus the cooking process mostly involves a person checking on the food and operating the pressure cooker rather than pressing a few buttons and let the pressure cooker do the rest like a ninja pressure cooker.

2. Second generation pressure cooker

After the advancement of digital technology, its impact became massive covering almost all aspects of life including cooking. Now the second generation pressure cookers were directly birthed by the digital era, incorporating digital remote on the pressure cooker examples crock pot pressure cooker

Features of the second generation pressure cookers

-Second generation pressure cookers were safe to use

It had improved a lot of features of first-generation pressure cookers and made them safer. For example, it had sensors that determined the pressure and the temperature of the pot. The sensor could also determine if a lid of a pressure cooker isn't placed correctly. It also had automatic switch options in case the food was cooked to a satisfactory level. Example Geek Robocook as it automatically switches to keep warm mode once the cooking is done.

-Second generation pressure cookers were digital programmed

Most of the commands in which required you to do manually such as setting the timer were transformed into digital commands. Thus this made the usage of the pressure cookers much easier and simpler.

-Second generation pressure cookers had a controlled pre-heating option

This pressure cooker offers a delay in the start process in case pre-heating is done thus controlling the temperature of the pot.

-Second generation pressure cookers are electric

This is also a game-changer in terms of saving the cost of fuel. The previous generations required a lot of cooking fuel when it came to cooking, thus by the usage of electric pressure cookers the amount and cost of fuel have been reduced.

3. Third generation pressure cookers

Now the third generation pressure cooker was an update of the second generation pressure cooker. This was due to the advancement in technology in which took digital technology to advanced levels where these cookers improvised to multipurpose

Features of the third generation pressure cookers

-Third generation pressure cookers are smartly programmed

The technology in the third generation pressure cookers was embedded with microprocessors thus it allowed the pressure cooker to be smartly programmed. Thus it gave the pressure cooker features like regulation of temperatures intensity, cooking time, pressure levels, etc.

-Third generation pressure cookers have advanced safety mechanism

One of the most important updates in this pressure cooker was the pre-heating safety pre-cautions. In pressure, cooking liquids tend to get lost through evaporation or steam release thus the third generation pressure cooker has a mechanism of controlling liquid loss during heating and pre-heating in which maintains the cooking liquid level.


Even though, the third generation seems to be the advanced and likely option for a customer to purchase, all of these generation pressure cookers are still being manufactured and sold to this date. So this means it all comes down to preference and upgrading your kitchen with these smart electric cookers , instant pot, etc.

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