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6 Min
27/01/2026
There are a few things we have just accepted. Like heroes running around trees in Bollywood romances. Indian teachers comparing noisy students to fish markets. And pressure cookers reducing cooking time. While we may not be able to decode Bollywood romances and teachers, we can uncover the secret behind pressure cooking.
Chances are, you’ve grown up watching a pressure cooker in action. Or at least been tasked to keep a count of the whistles (and failed), as your mother completed the rest of the household chores. But what makes this tin pot a staple of kitchens across the globe? Is it just because it gets things done quickly, or is it because the whistle acts like an in-built timer? Or is it a third thing altogether? Well, you don’t have to take the ‘pressure’ of answering these questions because we’ve done it for you! Read ahead.
A pressure cooker is a vessel with a sealed top that uses steam (created through pressure) to cook food, typically with water or water-based liquids. Thus, almost any food item that can be cooked through steam can be made in a pressure cooker.
The modern-day cooker is a highly advanced version of the prototype originally developed by French physicist Denis Papin. In 1679, Papin invented the steam digester. It was a high-pressure cooker used to extract fats from bones with the heat of steam. The next 300 years, or so, saw the invention spread across kitchens. Inventors from Germany and Spain to the US came up with versions that used different materials (tinned cookers in the 1800s, aluminium ones in the early 1900s, etc.), and reduced the size to be more adaptable to home kitchens. Soon, exclusive cookbooks on pressure cooker recipes were released, and mountaineers were carrying their cookers with them, because this not-so-tiny (at the time) device considerably reduced the cooking time, especially in high altitude regions.
Today, the humble cooker has gone through three generations of modifications and developments, starting from noisy, single-pressure level cookers to cookers with multiple pressure levels, steam indicators and dials. While the second generation is more common in Indian kitchens, there is a third generation that has also cropped up in global markets. It’s the electrical pressure cooker that uses an electrical heat source.
To put it simply, the original pressure cooker (first generation) had limited cooking control, visible vent release (you could see the steam coming out of the cooker), and no delayed cooking option. The second and third generation cookers, on the other hand, offer delayed cooking and no visible vent release. The latest generation, naturally, has the most advanced features, with many offering preset cooking times. And even multifunctional abilities to do more than just pressure cook.
Clearly, the pressure cooker is here to stay. But, through all the versions, what’s the one thing that makes them so endurable?
Everyone knows a pressure cooker uses high-pressure steam to cook food. But what does that actually mean? Well, water boils at 100 °C (212 °F) under standard pressure. Now, anytime you cook an item in water (or even an item containing water, like tomatoes), some of the water vaporises into steam. If cooking on an open pan or pot, the steam floats away, and the vegetables continue to cook, but at a slow pace.
Since a pressure cooker is a sealed vessel, this stream gets trapped. Consequently, the overall pressure of the cooking vessel rises. This, in turn, ‘supeheats’ the remaining water, i.e. it boils at a much hotter temperature of around 121 °C. Because of the pressure from steam and superheated water, the food cooks faster. Another reason a pressure cooker reduces cooking time is that the steam and water in the cooker rapidly transfer the heat to the food and all parts of the vessel.
It’s important to note that steam does release from the pressure cooker. It’s what the whistle indicates. However, instead of constant release or a sudden release at the end (that happens when a pan is covered with a lid), steam releases intermittently and in a controlled setup. The release is delayed to create a high-pressure environment.
In high altitudes, the atmospheric pressure is low, which causes the boiling point of the water to drop (90 °C at 3,000 meters above sea level instead of 100 °C). However, most food items (vegetables, rice, or lentils) require high temperatures to cook. This means that vegetables boiled in water remain undercooked. A pressure cooker, however, raises the internal temperature of the cooking vessel, allowing items to cook all the way through. In fact, special pressure cookers are designed for mountaineers. These are made from lighter materials (making them easy to carry), and compared to stove-top units, can operate efficiently, even at a lower external pressure.
When it was first invented, the pressure cooker came with the risk of the lid exploding due to excessive pressure. While a small degree of risk exists with most cooking utensils, several design improvements and additions of safety features have reduced the original risks associated with using a pressure cooker.
As a general rule, items that require a significantly long cooking time to soften can be cooked in a pressure cooker instead. Any quick-cook or delicate items that can break down under pressure should be avoided.
Clearly, whoever said fast cooking is inefficient has never met the pressure cooker. From being gifted during Diwali to getting personalised engravings, a pressure cooker has never just been another kitchen utensil in India. But knowing how it functions can help home cooks, and even professionals, better understand and use this handy tool.
