eli5: how do pressure cookers get food cooked more quickly in a way that simply using a higher heat does not?

347 views

obviously cooking on very high heat is faster but it wouldn’t mean you could have a huge hunk of meat nice and tender in a couple hours. but why. i don’t even understand enough to know if i chose the right flair.

In: 2

11 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Science time!

Water doesn’t get hotter than 100 Celcius in a standard environment, no matter how hot the flame under the pot is. That’s just a science fact. If you want to cook something at higher temperatures and it’s in water, you have a problem. Adding salt does raise the boiling point a little bit but not that much.

If the air the water is boiling into were at higher pressures, then water will boil hotter than 100 C. This is what a pressure cooker is for.

You are viewing 1 out of 11 answers, click here to view all answers.