Pressure and temperature modes in a pressure cooker

Modern pressure cooker provides an excellent opportunity not only to quickly prepare the desired dish, but also to make it as tasty and healthy as possible. The main advantage of using a pressure cooker when cooking is considered to be the preservation of the maximum amount of vitamins and beneficial trace elements in the prepared food. After all, with traditional cooking in a saucepan, while interacting with oxygen, not only the taste changes, but also part of the ingredients. To achieve this effect, specially selected temperature and pressure help, and which parameters of these parameters in the pressure cooker - we will try to figure it out.

Design features

First of all, it is worth noting that each of these indicators directly affects not only the technical characteristics, but also cooking speed. Externally, the pressure cooker resembles a rather capacious container, which is provided with a tight-fitting lid. Thanks to the latter, in the process of cooking inside does not get oxygen.

Despite the complexity of the design, the work of the pressure cooker is very simple. Due to the tightness of the lid, pressure is created inside the device, which is responsible for the increase in temperature, which together speeds up the process of cooking.

Instrument pressure

From the fundamentals of physics, we all know that the temperature of a liquid directly depends on atmospheric pressure. If the mercury column increases by 10 mm, the temperature will increase by approximately 0.3 C. The boiling point of water under natural cooking conditions is unchanged and does not exceed 100 ° C, and it is almost impossible to influence. But thanks to the hermetic lid, the miraculous helpers were able to achieve with increasing pressure and increasing temperature, thanks to which food is cooked much faster.

On the basis of this particular law, a modern pressure cooker was created.

Each model has more than one mode. In any model, there are two fundamental:

• operation mode at 0.7 barwhich makes it possible to very quickly cook meat, cereals, beans and other dishes from foods with a fairly dense structure;
• and here is the mode at 0.3 bar recalls the use of multicooker.

The latter option will be ideal when cooking products with a porous soft structure, for example, fish, vegetables, poultry.

There is such a thing as absolute pressure in a pressure cooker. Typically, this is 0.7 or 1 bar. When the device reaches this level, it is necessary to stop further heating - this is fraught with an explosion, even despite the presence of a safety valve. For mechanical units that are heated on the stove, the user is responsible for the temperature adjustment function. You need to carefully read the operating instructions to know what pressure is considered to be absolute for this device. In electric pressure cookers, automatics is responsible for maintaining the temperature, which is certainly more convenient.

Temperature during cooking

As already noted, the principle of operation of the device is based on the effect of pressure inside the pan on the temperature. With increasing pressure, respectively, the temperature regime increases, which speeds up the immediate cooking process.Most housewives who use a miracle pot in their kitchen do not even think about the temperature in the pressure cooker during cooking. But such knowledge will be useful, because knowing the temperature, it is much easier to determine the right time that will be required for cooking.

As already noted, most often, most models use two basic pressure modes. Accordingly, there will be 2 temperature conditions.

1. At 0.3 bar, the scale of the thermometer will show about 109 C. This mode of operation is the most gentle, and is suitable for cooking a large range of products.
2. The second mode significantly speeds up the process of cooking, especially meat. At 0.7 bar, it allows you to achieve 116 C.

Comparative characteristics

To understand the feasibility of using such a device, it is necessary to compare the cooking time of various dishes. If we consider the most common products, we get the following picture.

1. When cooking Chicken in a pressure cooker, it takes 15 minutes of its work, while a slow cooker will spend about an hour on a similar dish.
2. Rice porrigewhich requires about 40 minutes of cooking, in a pressure cooker will be ready in just 12 minutes.
3. For cooking brawn In a miracle pot it takes only 40 minutes, and the slow cooker will cook all the ingredients in only 2-3 hours.

Cooking in a pressure cooker is a pleasure. But before embarking on such a case, it is worthwhile to study all the characteristics of the device and understand the features of its work. Knowing the pressure and temperature in the pressure cooker, you can make the most of its potential.