- Food and Cooking
Many people remember summer trips to their Grandparents house. It was a common vacation for families to make a road trip to spend a week with the Grandparents where the children were transported into a world of the past. Butterscotch discs and Starlight peppermint patties were stocked to overflowing in antique glass dishes—and that smell, the indescribable herb, spiced smell of the house.
Then dinner came and Grandma stood in front of the stove where she used her magic rocking spitting pot. That pot was really something; most kids were at once afraid and in awe of it. Their mom did not use one at home and it seemed so…aggressive. But the food Grandma served was always delicious, food mom could never duplicate. Because mom was afraid of Grandma’s magic pot.
Mom could duplicate that food if she was willing to use the magic pot though. So what is that pot? It is a pressure cooker. They were commonly used up until the 1980s. Pressure cookers have since been forgotten. Why have they been forgotten? The old pressure cookers were dangerous and many people were too intimidated to continue cooking with them. But for the brave chef pressure cookers have a number of wonderful advantages.
Pressure Cookers Then and Now
Even the old pressure cookers were useful and safe if cooks knew how to use them in the right way. The old version of pressure cookers had a tight sealing lid that kept steam trapped inside the pot. As the pressure cookers built in steam pressure, the food cooked rapidly. Unlike an open pot, pressure cookers can heat to very high temperatures and cook food quickly. However, if you did not watch the pressure cookers as the pressure built, the lid could quickly have an overload and blast off like a rocket. That understandably made them a frightening tool to use for cooking.
However, the modern pressure cookers have innovations that prevent similar fates. The modern pressure cookers manufactured by companies such as: Presto, Mirro, Fagor and Tefal have safety valves that prevent blowups. If the pressure inside the pressure cookers builds too high, a safety mechanism immediately vents some of the steam. With this innovation in pressure cookers, even cooking novices can enjoy their use. Now that they are safe, pressure cookers are predictably seeing a return to the spotlight. Future generations of grandchildren will again see their grandparents making dinner using pressure cookers. Plus many new styles of pressure cookers are out there like electric pressure cookers.