Pressure Cooking

[SurferShane]

Originally Posted by SurferShane

Still glad I got my med/large cooker free off the street cause a neighbours misses freaked it might kill half the family!

Other big drama I can see is that the thing is made of aluminium which is reputed to cause Alzimers or something similar. What I want to know is why the I Italians can’t make their stove top percolators out of stainless; how much I appreciate an amphetamine strength brew without the risk of real brain damage.

[harmonytek]

If you fill a pressure cooker with water and heat to 150psi, it is very very dangerous. The super heated water will flash to steam if the pot bursts.

[Bergovoy]

not sure if your family is old school or not, but a lot of older generation was kinda spooked by them.... but many arent... my mother and grandmother loved teh thing

[Minggat]

Originally Posted by Bergovoy

umm, confused, but not sure why...

when i forget to take my soda out of the freezer the spray is all over.. it would spreay across the kitchen if there werent freezer walls... you can tell by the splatter...

Im guessing that the gas isnt frozen and when the can ruptures, it starts off with small hole in teh can and the spray comes out faster and further, and as the failure in the can increases in doesnt spray as far, and the crack in the can continues to open until the pressure no longer pulls on it and it can escape without restriction...

a bit more slower then a tire erupting, but still 'uncontrolled'..

That is all correct. The gas in the can is the driving force. The lack of air in the glass jar means lack of driving force. So the jar breaks without flying glass. If you soda were in a glass bottle, the expanding gas/released pressure would send glass flying.

[Bergovoy]

but i am still not sure what hte point is...

in the soda example, the pressure still exists, where as the glass jar, the pressure is released in sucha fashion that the damage is not limited to a small breach, but rather one that ruptures the glass more quickly and more area

the key, here in both examples is that pressure, no matter where it comes from will release catostrophically until there is no longer sufficient pressure to do more damage...

if we go back to the PC examples, no matter if you have boiling water creating steamn, i.e. pressure, or you insert air, to create pressure, if and when you go past the failure point, the pot will deform until it fails and releases sufficient pressure that the damage will stop..

if you want to say that the pressure cooker is devoid of air, and your inserting water or liquid until it fails, similar to the frozen water in a glass jar, then the pressure cooker will react similarly.. it will expand, and if the liquid continues to expand past the failure point, then the damage will probably be minimal and lmited to just teh exmnpansion of the liquid

but if you boil water, and all the safety devices fail, and the pressure builds past the failure point, then the pot will expand until it , the PC fails and it will probably react simlar to the soda can.. it will find the weakest point and start to fail, and spray the contents, hot water, steam, split peas, whatever, until the pressure is reduced by way of escaping from a small failure point or until the pot fails in multiple areas, or the failure point expands to let out the pressure and it stops spraying at that point...

still not sure of your examples... as they seem to match my theorys?/explanations?

[Minggat]

[QUOTE=Bergovoy;602435]but i am still not sure what hte point is...


the key, here in both examples is that pressure, no matter where it comes from will release catostrophically until there is no longer sufficient pressure to do more damage...

QUOTE]

It's my middle of the night here, and my brain won't trun off if I don't respond.

Trouble I have is that you're not wrong.

The point is trying to clarify what Brent was saying about bursting high pressure water pipe.

I only used the above portion of your words here to try and see if we could not reach common ground. That's not the same as agreeing to disagree. I don't think we disagree. But "catostrophic" is an adjective that needs definition. To a frozen jar of water, it means an instaneous and complete release of pressure, which breaks the glass but does not send pieces flying because there's no expanding gas driving it. So jar broken, nobody hurt. Gravity is the only driving force remaining.

But I will say that you should not use "liguid expanding" because the frozen water is no longer liquid.

Wish me luck getting to sleep now.

[Bergovoy]

go to bed, will respond later, maybe...

[MarkJ]

I looked at some in a shop today. 4 quart (4 liter) for $48.
Alaminum so it will corrode with salt faster than SS.

I thought do I need to have another bit of junk in the kitchen? (thats the Galley to sailor-types).
Do I need to save on 2 microns of Propane gas?
Will it make my cooking better tasting?

So I left it on the shelf

[rover88]

Stupid question for the pressure cooker pros:

Hard boiled eggs? Can they be cooked in a PC and if so, how long (I like the yoke really hard)? Did not want to experiment on the boat for obvious reasons. Deviled eggs are our general contribution to pot lucks.

Just bought an 2 litre Indian made Stainless pressure cooker off ebay. Solid and appears to be good quality. So far I have only done beans and rice and made a delicious black bean soup.

[Bergovoy]

i am guessing that you could cook them in a pc, but, you arent really gong to save too much time...

5-6 minutes of regular boiling will work just find... (after the water starts boiling)

[jerrymc]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

I looked at some in a shop today. 4 quart (4 liter) for $48.
Alaminum so it will corrode with salt faster than SS.

Buy anodized aluminum..it distributes heat better than SS, will not rust &/or discolor from acidic foods

I thought do I need to have another bit of junk in the kitchen? (thats the Galley to sailor-types).

You will find that you can probably get rid of the pots & pans you already have..chili pot, pasta pot, dutch oven ???

Do I need to save on 2 microns of Propane gas?
Will it make my cooking better ?

It's your call on the fuel savings, but, YES, it will make your cooking better tasting..cheap cuts of meat come out tender & flavorful, veggies taste better & your food retains all the "good stuff" like vitamins & all, instead of going off into the stratosphere or somewhere during the cooking process.

Believe me, once you try it, you'll never go back to boiled 'bits', grey meat & the like.

[hellosailor]

rover-
"Hard boiled eggs? Can they be cooked in a PC and if so, how long"
That could be a wate of time and effort. All you need to do, to cook hard boiled eggs, is bring a pot of water to a boil, TURN OFF THE HEAT and then LEAVE THE EGGS IN IT for about 16-17 minutes. You'll find many recipes online that all say about the same thing. The exact time, or whether you start with eggs room temeprature or in the water, is all up to you and will affect just how "hard" the eggs are cooked. If the yolks are tinged green--that's from cooking them too long.
But it needs to little energy to start a pot of water boiling...whether you use the PC or not, odds are a smaller handy pot will do fine.
Pasta cooks the same way, as will rice. Boil the water, leave it patiently to cool, the stuff keeps cooking as the water cools. No need to keep a flame under it. Some stirring required with the pasta.

[nockerwhite]

As a full time carer for swmbo with Alzheimer's and during last 3 years, cooking for the first time in my life, I've used PCs extensively & now have a S/S PC which is excellent, mind you my cooking times seem considerably shorter than those quoted ie. chicken 2lbgammon 30mins and I get complimented on these, 15min casserole Undoubtedly if I get back to sea the PC will be an essential.

[Bergovoy]

you can cook eggs and pasta like that, but, to keep the eggs from cracking, and to make them easy to peel, you should put the eggs into the pot while the water is cooler, then bring the water and eggs to temperature. this will minimize and avoide the cracking and leaking of egg whites into the water, not that it truly matters.

and to make theeggs easy to peel, (which may not be to easy for cruisers), is to immiedailty dump a LOT of ice into the water.. that is, dump out the boiling water, and add fresh/cool water, and then completely submerge the eggs and water with ice cubes...

fill the pot with ice to the top or over the top, and then come back in ten minutes and peel.. the shells will almost fall off..

also, if you want your devil eggs nice and yellow, then keep the eggs cooking for only 5-6 mintues, then ice them... the longer you cook them the darker the color, until they turn green.. yucky to look at but taste the same...

[BessLB]

Originally Posted by zeehag

some of the wire ones are actually cake coolers-- mom uses those when she bakes me stuff. . they work great and are ancient...even older than i am...seems too many cakes and pies were disappearing off window sills long ago , so someone invented a way to cool the cakes and pies indoors instead of letting the neighbor kids have em anymore--- was a sad day for the neighbor kids, but a great day for aunties and grannies everywhere..LOL...
\ they DO make great supports for steaming home made tamales....and char siao bao (sho bao)(i am gringo--no spellee asianific--besides isnt in kat's vocabulary yet, so he doesnt know how to speel it)) white empanadas from filipines and therebouts..yummmmmy....

Cake rack is what I was thinking too. Thanks!! By the time we go cruising I should be very handy in my galley!! ;-)