how to fix safety valve in prestige pressure cooker made in china

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There is no international pressure cooker  organization that sets a global standard.  Pressure cooker UL Rating, which is an American Appliance Testing standard, only states that a domestic pressure cooker “operate at a nominal pressure of 15 psi (103 kPa) or less.” While in Europe the CE rating, the equivalent to the American certification, state that a “simple pressure vessel” can be above .5 bar (7.2 psi) and below 50 bar (720 PSI) . American manufactured pressure cookers adhere to a standard for pressure canners set by USDA in 1917 – 15 psi.

While some European pressure cookers are sold world-wide many of these manufacturers make a separate model specifically for the American market that reaches 15 psi.  Some European manufacturers are switching to a single model distributed world-wide that reaches 15 psi. At the writing of this article,  American pressure cooker manufacturers only sell their pressure cookers in the United States.

All recipes and cooking time charts on this website are written to accommodate both “standard” and “non-standard” pressure cookers.  When necessary,  times are written in a range – standard pressure cookers should use the shorter cooking time (13 minutes) and non-standard pressure cookers the longer (20 minutes).

This comes down to the difference in measuring systems between the United States (imperial) and the rest of the world (metric).  Pressure in the rest of the world is measured  inkilopascals (kPa) and bars while the U.S.it is measured with pounds per square inch (psi).

European manufactured pressure cookers are designed to cook at 1 bar or 100 kpa (metric pressure measurements) and that translates to 14.5 psi (this is rounded up to 15 psi) but American manufactured pressure cookers are designed to reach a full 15 psi (see below, for information on electric pressure cookers).

The rise in pressure inside the pressure cooker directly correlates to the rise in boiling point – the maximum cooking temperature that can be achieved at a given pressure.

The pressure cooker adds pressure above the current atmospheric pressure. Since there is a pressure difference in the atmosphere between one altitude and another, the pressure cooker’s pressure will vary accordingly.

Moving up in the atmosphere, or going to higher altitude, the atmospheric pressure decreases.  So in Denver Colorado (about 5,000 feet) the atmospheric pressure averages only 12.2 psi- add 15 psi of pressure generated by the cooker and there the food is cooking at just 27.2 psi of absolute pressure -almost 3 psi less pressure than pressure cooking at sea level!

The same 15 psi pressure cooker will cook 15 psi in San Francisco, California (sea level) but only 12.5 psi in Denver, Colorado (5,000 feet).  Now, “standard pressure cooker” has become “non-standard” in Denver.  This means that the recipes will need the same timing adjustments used  for non-standard pressure cookers (see pie chart, above).

Increase pressure cooking time by 5% for every 1000 ft above 2000 ft elevation (see table, below). Multiply the recommended cooking time by the number on the table. The result will likely be a decimal value just round that up to the next minute.above...increase by..or multiply by..

The transformation from a Renaissance “bone digester” invented by French scientist Denis Papin (in 1689) to pressure canners (1905)  and finally to the pressure cooker we know today began in 1926. The Home Exhibition in Paris introduced the first model for home use. The pressure cooker made it out of Europe and into the United States via the 1939 New York Fair where the National Pressure Cooker Company launched the first U.S. model.

Aluminum pressure cookers took off in the U.S. and many companies began producing them. Then, America’s involvement in WWII halted the production of pressure cookers and their factories were dedicated to producing munitions for the overseas war.

Once the war ended, European and American pressure cooker manufacturers began to develop and produce pressure cookers independently from each other. While in America unscrupulous factories made and sold sub-standard pressure cookers – that eventually went on to mar the cooker’s reputation and halt innovation- European manufactures continued to develop, perfect and innovate their designs adding multiple redundant safety mechanisms, selectable pressure levels and more features.

The 90’s started the trickle of European manufactured pressure cookers, and their features into America. It’s also when the patent for the first electric pressure cooker was filed by Chinese scientist, Mr. Yong Guang Wang.  The electric pressure cooker was developed independently from stovetop pressure cookers in that they were based on the ever-popular electric rice cookers (hence the resemblance) and are manufactured in a range of pressures – depending on the manufacturer or design team.

At the time of the writing of this article, most electric pressure cookers reach 15 psi but they do not cook at 15 psi.  As illustrated by the graphic below – electric pressure cookers reach 15 psi briefly during the warming process.

Electric pressure cookers build pressure up to 15 psi but then maintain a lower pressure during the cooking.  In the  graph below the “operating pressure” is 11.6 even though the cooker reaches 15 psi while it’s building pressure. “Operating Pressure” is the true pressure at which an electric pressure cooker cooks.

Most instruction booklets have this information written in them. The number may be written in kPa, bar or PSI (use the table in this page to decode the approximate PSI).  There may be several terms used in conjunction with those numbers and they include:

Valve Release Pressure – the pressure at which the main regulating valve releases pressure (2 to 4 psi more than the operating pressure depending on the manufacturer).

Electric pressure cookers will have the “valve release pressure” written in very small text on the underside of the pressure release valve either on the plastic housing, or the metal part of the valve.

The present invention in general relates to the microwave compatible cooking system to be used as home appliance for cooking foods and it more specifically relates to pressure cooking system to be used inside a microwave oven for cooking food containing steam at a pressure above the ambient pressure. The microwave pressure cooker described in this invention can be used to cook foods safely in various situations for domestic pressure cooking. This is a complete self contained system that can be used with any microwave oven provided with a chamber large enough to accommodate it and more specifically which has a safety lock means to manage safely pre-operation, during operation and post operation condition of the cooker. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Microwave ovens use microwave energy to heat or cook food in a fraction of the time needed to cook with conventional ovens. Unlike conventional ovens, a microwave oven heats food without applying the external heat i.e. any flame or direct heat sources. The microwaves readily pass through many materials, such as glass, most plastics, paper and china clay, with little or no effect. Generally, these materials are used for making utensils which can be used for cooking in a microwave oven.

Nowadays the use of number of microwave oven in public has grown at very high rate. There has been an increase in demand for specially designed and configured cooking vessels for use in microwave ovens to provide easy and convenient way of preparing foods in microwave ovens. Many attempts have been made in the manufacture of various types of cooking vessels, casserole dishes, various types of bowls, pressure cookers for microwave and the like, to be compatible with use in microwave ovens. PRIOR ART

U.S. Pat. No. 4,796,776 discloses a pressure cooker for use in microwave ovens includes a microwave permeable bowl-shaped container, a microwave permeable dome cover, and a steel locking ring permanently attached to the cover for maintaining the container and cover in fluid-tight seal during use. A safety-valve, formed of flexible tubing, encounters a projection of the container and is deformed into a closed configuration responsive to movement of the cover, relative to the container, toward a locking position. A pressure regulator valve, consisting of a metal core surrounded by an elastically deformable casing, which is positioned over a pressure control opening in the cover to maintain a selected operating pressure level in the pressure cooker.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,853,509 discloses a rice cooker for preparation of shaped foods of rice in a microwave range is made of microwave permeable synthetic resin such as polypropylene and internally provided with mutually separate confined spaces of a fixed capacity and adapted for accommodating rice with water. As the rice cooker containing uncooked rice with water is heated in the microwave range, compression acts on the boiled rice due to pressure contact of the boiled rice swelled and water with walls defining the spaces and the boiled water is automatically shaped in the spaces. Absence of direct contact of the rice with user"s hand during the process enables preparation of shaped foods of rice such as rice balls without any keen pain and blemish on the hands.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,229,563 discloses a pressure cooker and a process for making the same, wherein the pressure cooker includes a pressure container for accommodating food to be cooked, a cover for covering the container in an air-tight manner, a pressure control device for adjusting the internal pressure in the container. The container or the cover or both are partly or wholly made of a composite resin consisting essentially of polyphenylene sulfide resin and 30 wt. % to 50 wt. % glass fiber.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,310,981 discloses a microwave cooker capable of cooking an assortment of foods by a variety of methods while maintaining constant pressure.

This pressure cooker boils and steams foods continuously without pressure build up and without the need to shut off the microwave oven. Food spattering and spillage are prevented by a unique internal baffle rib design and a mechanism that releaseably locks the top cover. The top cover and inner cover of the pressure cooker have the same outer diameter and each have a plurality of vent holes or apertures. Both the top cover and inner cover are positioned within container and each have a skirted edge. The skirted edges form an enclosure within the container member, specifically designed to obstruct and contain escaping food particles.

Application no. 46/CHE/2010 of the applicant itself provides a unique pressure microwave cooker but with a lock means which is different from the existing invention. DISADVANTAGES OF RELATED ART

In many of the prior art, the pressure cookers comprising container and cover that have been constructed to allow operation of cooker i.e. attempting to cook without built in features for confirming to the user himself that the closing the cooker cover over the body of the cooker is proper and complete. Similarly in the prior art, the pressure cookers do not provide for built in features on the cooker for confirming to the user himself the suitability of or attempting to open when there is a pressure buildup inside etc. Further many attempts have been made in prior art to achieve an efficient pressure cooking system, but still all suffer from drawbacks of not achieving a very safe operating system, as the focus is generally on the efficiency in cooking or on fuel saving or on cooking time.

Further most of the cookers do not give attention to the issue of actually controlling the opening and closing of such cookers in a very reliably and very safe manner. OBJECT OF THE INVENTION

The primary object of the present invention is to provide a most reliable and safer lock system pressure cooker, comprising of sub-assemblies, all of which are designed to be compatible with corresponding energy and provided with all required safety features for cooking taking into account many typical mistakes that may be made by an user during using the cooker.

Further, the object of the invention is to provide pressure cooker mounted with safety locking devices prescribed in appropriate standards and having a fool proof locking means, thus eliminating the mistakes that may be made by an user during using the cooker.

It is another object of the invention to provide a lock means for the cooker which shall prevent erroneous closing and/or opening of the cooker thereby ensuring safe operation condition at all times.

It is another object of the invention to provide a simple, attractive and light weight pressure cooker in which all parts and subassemblies may be made up of materials that is compatible with microwave oven including the referred lock means.

It is another object of the invention to provide a simple, attractive and light weight pressure cooker in which all parts and subassemblies may be made up of either above referred lock or metal that is compatible with the corresponding used oven including the referred lock means. Both plastic and metal can be used for metal cookers.

It is another object of the invention to provide a pressure cooker with an improved pressure responsive locking device made of elastomeric material or of any suitable metallic material. It is attempted herein to provide a pressure cooker with an improved composite visual pressure indicating cum lock device made of corresponding material including the use of elastomeric material or metal or combination thereof for indicating the pressure that is developed inside the cooker. Yet another feature in the present invention is that it is provided with a specially designed visual pressure indicator cum lock means which is essentially capable of ensuring that when the cooker is under pressure the cover removal is not operable by user and further also ensures proper closure of the cooker prior to commencing the pressure buildup inside the cooker and additionally performs as a visual pressure indicator.

It is further object of the invention to provide an effective, easy and composite means of releasing the pressure quickly, if so desired by the user by pushing down the visual pressure indicator.

This cooking system more specifically the lock means may be absolutely metal free and made of filled or unfilled polypropylene, delrin, polycarbonate or any polymer compatible with microwave energy at a working temperature of 100 -125° C. including the lock device.

However use of metal is also possible as long as the material meets the working condition demanded by the cooking system. The material so used does not restrict the performance of the lock means. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to the present invention, the pressure cooker may be a conventional pressure cooker or a microwave pressure cooker. If it is microwave pressure cooker then it needs to be made-up of microwave compatible material like polypropylene with the use of silicone for sealing and safety devices and otherwise, the same or a metallic lock means may be designed.

In this present invention, the pressure cooker works on the principle of normal pressure cooking like in a conventional cooker used on a gas stove, induction, microwave oven etc. so that the cooking time is less compared to time taken by any non pressure cooking.

According to the present invention, the pressure cooker has specially designed lock device. This may be made with metal or microwave compatible materials as detailed above. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

The Multifunction Safety Lock (MFSL) in FIG. 2 shows the position of locking lever when the cooker is under pressure. Under pressure the visual pressure indicator (rod) is extended above the top surface of the safety lock cover. The lock position of the lock means in the extended state will not allow the cooker to be opened until the visual pressure indicator drops.

The Multifunction Safety Lock in FIG. 1 shows the position of lock means, when the cooker is not under pressure. The visual pressure indicator (rod) is down and the lock position of the lock means in the retract state allows the cooker to be opened.

Safety lock cover means cover in the multifunction safety lock, which can be removed to clean. The cover needs to be replaced after cleaning. The cover needs to be in place when cooker is used for cooking. Cooking without the cover can scald the finger when the user attempts to press the visual pressure indicator (the rod) to release the pressure.

The invention in one aspect discloses a Multifunction Safety lock means which is a pressure indicator cum lock for a pressure cooker. The Multifunction Safety lock means is a pressure response type body. It has a pressure monitoring means comprising of a moving rod between a first state and second state. A silicone sealing washer is mounted on the rod. The rod along with this washer combinedly is mounted freely across a hole formed on the cover of the cooker with the washer positioned underneath the cover. This rod and washer move upward under increasing pressure to lift the rod from the first state and the washer towards the underside of the cover thereby pushing sealingly the circular washer until positioned against the underside of the cover to seal the said hole and simultaneously the rod also extending upwardly above the top surface of the cover to reach the second state of the rod.

Further the rod moves downward under decreasing pressure to drop from the second state and the washer moves downward away from the underside of the cover thereby unsealingly away from the underside of the cover to unseal the said hole on the cover and the rod dropping downwardly until rod head seated against the top surface of the cover to reset into the first state of the rod. The first state of the rod is indicative of zero internal pressure. The second state of the rod is indicative of operating internal pressure of the cooker. It also has a locking means of push rod type operably associated with the pressure monitoring means comprising of first end connected to the top end of the rod and the second end terminating near the peripheral edge of the cover and passing through a hole formed on the peripheral edge of the cover. It is arranged such that the second end of lock means is responsive and representative of the state of the rod with two positions which are extended state and retract state of the lock means corresponding to second state and first state of the rod of pressure monitoring means. Like in any conventional cooker a plurality of locking lugs on the base container associated with matching locking lugs on the cover but has one set of matching locking lugs of the container adapted to engage with the said locking means on the cover.

The said arrangement is characterized in ordinarily securely locking the cover with the container when the said specific set of matching locking lug of the container is engaged with the said locking means and the internal pressure builds up a predetermined value and the locking rod is in extended state thereby becoming visible above the cover. Further it can ordinarily securely unlock the cover from the container when the internal pressure is released entirely and the locking rod is in retract state. It also ordinarily prevents pressure buildup if the said specific set of matching locking lug of the container is not engaged with the said locking means on the cover under partially closed condition the push rod of locking means is positioned against the lug of the container and is therefore prevented from engaging properly and hence prevents further pressure buildup. Further intentional manual downward push motion of the rod of the lock means will allow rapid release of the buildup pressure, which feature is desired very often by user.

In another aspect the invention relates to a pressure cooker with a Multifunction Safety lock means for securely locking the container with the cover prior to cooking and the said lock means which acts as a pressure indicator cum lock means with pressure response type body as described above.

The disclosure is with reference to drawings and illustrations but the scope of the invention covers all the modifications and variations known to the skilled person in the art.

The inside nut (valve cover / end) on the Butterfly brand pressure cooker pictured above (made in India, and brought with the family to the United States when they moved here from India) tested positive for 120,500 ppm Lead when tested with a high-precision XRF instrument. That is more than 12% Lead — on a food-surface component of a cookware item used daily to make rice to feed children!

This particular pressure cooker was identified as the likely source of poisoning of a young boy who had a chronic / persistent low-level Lead exposure — correlated to a BLL hovering around 4.0 micrograms per deciliter for an extended period of time. The source of his exposure had remained a mystery for more than a year — until an exhaustive re-examination of every aspect of his environment revealed the (previously overlooked, mundane and seemingly-innocuous) detail that all of his daily meals included rice prepared in this pressure cooker — and led to the thorough testing of it with a precision XRF instrument].

While the rice is being cooked in this pressure cooker (any pressure cooker), water condenses up on the interior surface of the lid [in this case – where the heavily-Leaded valve nut is located], and then drips back down onto the rice. This perpetual cycle happens for the entire time the rice is cooking (roughly an hour).

The child in this case lived in a newer-construction home — and previous inspectors (from the county and city) who had repeatedly visited with the family had “not been able to find any potential sources of exposure for this child”.

[A similarly-constructed baby food grinder (mainly stainless steel interior) that this family had (also made in India) also had a Leaded brass washer in an area of the grinder that came in regular contact with the food being ground in the appliance. This Leaded-brass washer was on the inside of the bowl of the baby food grinder above the basin and below the blade. This was an possible additional source of exposure for the children in this home.]

One round metal support pole in the basement of the home (part of the structure of the home) that was painted with Lead paint [despite the fact that it was in a newer construction home]…

…and ONE couch cushion on a fairly new [high-quality – not inexpensive!] three-seat-cushion brown leather couch was positive for a significant amount of Lead. [Only one of the three seat cushions tested positive for Lead – even though all three matched – and were in all other ways identical. No other component of the couch had any Lead.]

As a result of this discovery with this particular family [which, if I recall correctly, was in either 2013 or 2014], I always try to check any appliances made in India whenever I encounter them during home consultations with families; in virtually every case, multi-component appliances from India have had at least one Leaded component. Note: single-component stainless steel items from India – like plates or bowls – should be free of Lead contamination (as Lead is unlikely to be present in the stainless steel itself). Since this discovery I have discouraged the functional food use of any stainless steel appliances from India – especially in the absence of XRF-testing data for any particular make or model.

It is unlikely that these items would test positive with a reactive agent swab(such as 3M LeadCheck®)— so practically speaking, they really cannot be tested by a consumer. [Some may test positive with a swab – depending on the levels, specific metal alloys, and finishes — but since the swabs have specifically been designed to test paint (not solid metal) a “negative” result – with a reactive-agent swab – cannot be construed as a reliable indicator of an actual negative for the presence of Lead in an item like this, and additionally, a “positive” result on a swab-test would also not give you any reliable sense of the level of concern – as the low threshold of detection for reactive-agent swab tests used at home is generally around 600 ppm Lead.]

Since first encountering this issue, I have tested many pressure cookers from various countries of origin — Italy, Germany, Switzerland, and others — and consistently found examples of this problematic construction across the board, with very few exceptions. The interior valves on many pressure cookers are often made of Leaded brass, Lead-contaminated aluminum, or other Lead-containing metal alloys – or are sometimes painted with a Leaded enamel.

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The first time the British food writer Bee Wilson used an Instant Pot, it made her cry with joy relief. In her essay in the Women on Food anthology, she recalls coming home after a tiring day of her son’s sports and smelling the vegetable biryani she had put to cook on time delay hours earlier.

As always with pressure cookers — one of Instant Pot’s many functions — when Wilson opened it, the aromas became even stronger, and the Instant Pot gave a “happy little jingle”, as most electric gadgets now do. “Some thoughtful person had been cooking, and so many hours had elapsed since I sautéed the onion and spices and put the rice and vegetables in the pot that it did not feel as if that someone had been me,” she writes.

Why would an electric cooker with variable heat and timer settings elicit such emotions? Wilson studies the growth of labour-saving devices in the kitchen and finds that these appliances were both more recent and less useful than one might imagine to the women in the kitchen.

Indian Americans were particularly enthusiastic about Instant Pot. Texasbased Urvashi Pitre’s Indian Instant Pot talks about traditional dishes that can be easily cooked using the cooker. The legendary Madhur Jaffrey also joined the party with her new Instantly Indian Cookbook.

For most of human history, women’s work in the kitchen was taken for granted and little was done to make it easier. Kitchen gadgets only started proliferating in the 19th century and they were more important to the (mostly) men who invented and sold them, than the women who were expected to use them, and feel grateful for their help too. In fact, Wilson notes, gadgets simply increased kitchen work for most women, not least because they were sold as replacing the work of the servants who would have shared the burden earlier.

A statue of Denis Papin with his invention, the steam digester, was erected in Blois to honour the French inventor. His device is considered a forerunner of the modern domestic pressure cooker.

Desi online groups raved about the device and Urvashi Pitre, a Texas-based blogger, wrote Indian Instant Pot, which now has more than a lakh copies in print. Pitre’s Instant Pot Keto Butter Chicken, made in less than 30 minutes, was a breakout favourite. The legendary Madhur Jaffrey has joined the party with her new Instantly Indian Cookbook.

Jaffrey writes that pressure cookers were familiar to all Indian cooks since “for at least the last forty years, almost every middle-class Indian household has had one, two, or even three pressure cookers whistling away.”

Instant Pot built on this familiarity but allowed them to do so much more. Writing in The New Yorker in 2018, Priya Krishna described how during the previous Diwali, her aunt “ceremonially threw out all three of her pressure cookers, then went out and bought a second Instant Pot.”

Now Instant Pot is launching in India, evidently hoping its success with Indian Americans can be replicated on a far wider scale. It is already here informally — Krishna writes that a representative from the company tells her that India is one of the most active countries on the Instant Pot Community Facebook group. But it still might seem a hard sell in a country where using pressure cookers come so naturally and kitchen help is still common. Given the vagaries of our electric supply and cramped kitchens, can the Instant Pot really find space here?

After Robert Wang lost his job as chief scientist at a mobile messaging company he had co-founded, he shifted his focus to solving a personal problem: how to cook healthy meals fast. So and two other engineers started working in a project that birthed the Instant Pot.

But the just over 100 years’ history of home cookers shows us that Indians seem particularly ready to embrace these devices. The concept of cooking by steam pressure goes back to the 1670s when French physicist Denis Papin created his steam digester — a strongly sealed pot, with a later addition of a safety valve so that it could be used without fear of blowing up. In 1682, he used it to cater a meal for the Royal Society, the UK’s leading scientific institution.

Papin’s digester was much too powerful and dangerous for home kitchens, but people worked on simpler versions. In 1918, a patent was granted to a Spanish inventor, Jose Alix Martinez, for one version meant for military catering use. In 1934, the Times of India (ToI) published an article titled “Cooking by Pressure: A Revolutionary Method”, with a diagram showing an oven-like device, with shelves for different dishes.

But even before this, around 1910, the Bengali polymath Indumadhab Mallick had created a steam cooker which paved the way for eventual widespread acceptance of home cookers. The Icmic cooker, as it was called, was a tiffin carrier that fitted into a larger cylinder with a coal stove below. Water was placed in the outer cylinder, the stove lit and whole device sealed. The water boiled, condensed and boiled again, creating a steamy slow cooker.

Pressure cookers became an essential kitchen item when women, who did most of the cooking, realised that the cookers could both cut time spent in hot kitchens and the use of cooking fuel that was often in short supply.

The Icmic cooker, and similar versions like Santosh and Anand cookers, were very popular. They could be left alone — since they weren’t pressurised they wouldn’t explode, and after the coal burned out, the food sat inside, ready to be eaten warm. In his memoirs, Indian diplomat BK Nehru recalled an uncle who ate only food cooked in an Icmic cooker which “produced a nourishing but not exactly cordon bleu meal.” The cookers were portable and ornithologist Salim Ali took one in the field with him for a hot meal any time of the day.

In 1944, ToI published an ad extolling “Dr IM Mallik’s… scientific and hygienic cooking apparatus”. But by 1958, these devices were appearing in classified ads seeking to sell off old scrap. Yet a small group of Icmic cooker fans remained, as devoted as today’s Instant Pot users.

Some years ago, when I wrote about what I thought was forgotten kitchen device, I was flooded by letters from users who still cooked in them, or really wanted to revive the practice. Now Anumitra Ghosh Dastidar, a chef who is fascinated by traditional recipes, is planning to use one in Edible Archives, the restaurant she is about to open in Goa.

But the rise of pressure cookers put paid to most Icmic cookers. A version called the Automa Cooker was launched around 1935 and next year, they got a publicity boost when one of the expeditions attempting to climb Mt Everest took along pressure cookers. At high altitudes, lower air pressure makes boiling take longer so pressure cookers are a big advantage. Another advantage is their heat makes them perfect for sterilised canning, and during World War II, a major use of home pressure cookers was to preserve food for the war effort.

This may have backfired though. These cookers were still not entirely safe and many children in particular had vivid memories of erupting pots. With the rapid post-War growth of the food industry and the canned and frozen foods it brought, pressure cookers came to be seen as dangerous old devices and were largely forgotten in the West. But this is when entrepreneurs in India (and other parts of the developing world, like Brazil), saw their potential in countries were processed foods were still limited and expensive.

People started using pressure cookers more frequently only after it was designed with a safety value that would ensure the heat buildup does not lead to an explosion.

But first the safety issue had to be cracked. In TT Jagannathan’s book Disrupt and Conquer: How TTK Prestige Became a Billion Dollar Company (written with Sandhya Mendonca), he writes about how he realised that the safety valves, which were made of tin bismuth that would melt when the heat contained reached critical levels, were regularly being replaced by plugs made of material that would not, inevitably leading to bursting cookers. Jagannathan developed a fall-back design where the rubber gasket which sealed the lid would, when pressure became too high, be forced through the lid, allowing safe release of steam.

Hawkins, the other big Indian pressure cooker company, also had safety deeply engrained in its development. HD Vasudeva, who started the company, had been in the general insurance business. When he thought of getting into pressure cookers, he used his contacts to research their risk aspects thoroughly. This industry focus on safety helped overcome the reluctance to use pressure cookers.

As women, who did most of the cooking, realised that the cookers could both cut time spent in hot kitchens and the use of cooking fuel that was often in short supply, pressure cookers became essential items. In 1969, ToI reported how pressure cookers carried a family planning message — a 10 litre size was sold as ideal for the two child family. In 1969, ToI reported proudly how India was now exporting pressure cookers because “owing to the popularity of instant food in Western Europe”, the manufacturing of these appliances was on the decline in the region.

In 1971, finance minister YB Chavan was heavily criticised for increasing tax on cookers. MPs protested that housewives used them to cook food faster so they were “a necessity both from the point of view of nutrition and the economy.” And as the flow of students leaving India to study and settle down abroad grew, the pressure cooker went with them. In his book India Moving: A History of Migration, Chinmay Tumbe notes that the one necessary item that unites Indians across all communities is the mug for toilet use, closely followed by the pressure cooker.

Indumadhab Mallick’s Icmic cooker, invented around 1910, was a tiffin carrier that fitted into a larger cylinder with a coal stove below. Boiling water in the lower container made it into a steamy slow cooker.

Tumbhe also notes the creative uses made of pressure cookers. In Slovenia, an Indian doctor at an Ayurvedic centre connected his pressure cooker to a box big enough to seat a person, making a simple sauna. Less happily, in 1973 ToI reported how a young foreigner suffered severe burns from an exploding pressure cooker that he was trying to use to refine ganja into a distilled form. And there has been the constant use, across the world, of pressure cookers to make crude bombs. On the more positive side there is the possibly apocryphal story of the pressure cooker in Siachen that attracted a Pakistani heat-seeking missile away from the soldiers it was aimed at. In gratitude the jawans are said to have made a small shrine to Pressure Cooker Baba.

It will be hard for Instant Pots to overcome such deep and widespread usage. Yet, the enthusiasm and creative way in which NRIs have taken to them does show how they could carve out a niche, even here in India. As the packaged food industry grows and, even more, delivery services make home cooking increasingly less essential, a generation of Indians could now be going through that shift that the West went through, where stovetop pressure cookers were seen as too cumbersome and, despite all their safety features, dangerous to use for daily cooking.

Regular electricity supply is already making induction cooking more popular, and while manufacturers now sell induction compatible pressure cookers, it won’t be hard for many people to make the leap to completely electric cookers, with all their advantages of variable heat and time settings. It is telling how Indian manufacturers have already launched Instant Pot equivalents, so the original is likely to find at least some demand. Perhaps it could invoke the history of Mallick and how he helped create the culture which has made Indians always ready to take cookers into their kitchens.

Thieves Ride The Gravy TrainA father-son duo was arrested for conning five-star hotels in Mumbai. The two would eat and drink and make a run for it, without paying the bill. They aren’t the only people who have entered a life of crime with food as the focal point.

​Sweet EscapeLast month, a Melbourne man was the victim of one of the strangest burglaries. The thief did not make away with the expensive items in the house. Instead, he just ate all the chocolate. The victim was quoted saying, “He ate all my Cadbury Favourites.” The thief also enjoyed several cans of drink, cut his toenails and would have probably fixed himself dinner if the home owner didn’t come home when he did.

​Time For TakingChristmas is a time for giving and taking if this incident is anything to go by. A young nurse in the US said Christmas was a “cursed” time in her family after a series of unfortunate events happened around the holiday season. The final addition to the list was when thieves broke into her home and not only stole her children’s presents, but also the turkey, gammon and vegetables meant for Christmas lunch.

​Something CheesyCheese is globally the top thieving food ingredient. And one of the most sought-after is Parmiggiano Reggiano. In Italy, 330 makers have been the victim of cheese heists. There is a big black market for these delicious cheese wheels and, according to reports, in the past two years, the stolen wheels have amounted to nearly $7 million in worth.

​A Nut Job“Anyone offered large quantities [of chocolate] via unconventional channels should report it to the police immediately.” That was the public service announcement that was issued in April 2018 in Germany when thieves made off with a truckload of Nutella and Kinder chocolate eggs. The stolen treats were worth more than $80,000. The police were clueless about the motive of the robbers and suggested they were after the truck the chocolate spread was stored in.

Large-scale food thefts are not unheard of in this particular part of Germany, as five tonnes of coffee and a truckload of Red Bull energy drinks were also on the hit list.

An entity linked to Vedanta Resources is in talks with bulge-bracket global banks to garner up to $2 billion in bridge loans to finance bond redemptions and debt repayments due for the conglomerate’s holding company and its associates over the next few months, multiple industry sources told ET.

India needs to unleash the animal spirits of the private sector and remain fiscally prudent while speeding up growth further to leverage the unique demographic dividend it enjoys, top industry executives and government officials said.

As many as seven countries will sign up with India to use India Stack’s digital public goods, minister of state for electronics and information technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar told ET.

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