Pressure cooker guideકૂકરમાં કેટલી સીટી?

Why this page exists

The trouble with a pressure cooker is that you cannot see inside it. You put the rajma in, count eight whistles, open it, and the beans are still firm in the middle. Next time you give it two more and they collapse into the water. Khichdi comes out loose, dal comes out dry, and every correction is a guess made a day late. Four things decide the result for any item: how long it soaks, how much water goes in, how many whistles, and what the flame does after the first one. This page keeps all four in one place for about twenty-four everyday items.

How to use it

• A whistle is an approximation, not a unit. One whistle from an old heavy cooker cooks more than one from a new light one. Start from the numbers here and then adjust by a whistle up or down for your own cooker.
• Turning the flame down after the first whistle matters as much as the count. On a high flame the whistles come fast, less cooking happens between them, and the water escapes as steam instead of going into the grain.
• Do not fill past two thirds. Dal and pulses foam, and foam that works its way into the vent will stop the cooker whistling at all. A spoon of oil or ghee in the dal keeps the froth down.
• Throw the soaking water away, add fresh, and work out the water from the dry quantity rather than the soaked one. Soaked rajma or chana has already roughly doubled, so measuring water against the swollen volume gives you far too much.
• Let the pressure drop on its own. Lifting the weight to hurry it throws dal and rice up the vent and breaks the grains. Undhiyu vegetables are the exception: there the steam is released straight away, or the vegetables overcook into mush.

Calibrating whistles for your own cooker

Whistle counts travel badly between kitchens, and no single number is correct. Older cookers with thick bases and heavy weights release pressure slowly, so the gap between whistles is long and more cooking happens in it. Newer, lighter cookers whistle in quick succession, and some designs vent more or less continuously. So it is worth calibrating once. Cook a cup of tuvar dal exactly as listed here and look at the result: still firm, add a whistle next time; broken down, take one away. Better still, note the clock. Start timing at the first whistle and write down the minutes that gave you the right result, because minutes are repeatable in a way whistles are not.

Soaking does more than save time

The real work soaking does is letting water reach the centre of the grain. An unsoaked pulse starts breaking down at the skin while the middle is still hard, so you get a soft outside and a chalky core, and the extra whistles you add to fix the core burst the ones that were already done. Soaked pulses cook evenly, hold their shape, and need less water and less time on the flame. There is a practical bonus too: in the soaking bowl stones sink and hollow or spoilt grains float, so you can pick them out. In hot weather the water turns sour quickly, so soak in the fridge or change the water once partway.

The safety habits that are actually worth keeping

Never try to open a cooker that still holds pressure. Leave the lid alone until the weight drops by itself, and if you are in a hurry, set the cooker aside rather than running it under the tap. After dal or khichdi, wash the vent pipe and the weight: dried froth inside the vent blocks the one route the pressure has out. The rubber gasket stiffens and slackens with use, so replace it when steam starts escaping from the rim or you can see cracks in it. Keep the safety plug in place, intact and clean, and never cook with it removed because the lid seals better without it.

Why cooker water ratios are not pan ratios

In an open pan a good part of the water leaves as steam, so you add extra to compensate. A cooker is sealed, the steam stays in, and the same rice cooks in less. That is why rice is listed here at one to two and basmati at one to one and a half: soaked basmati needs less water and keeps its grain long and separate. Khichdi is one to four because it is meant to be soft and loose, not separate. For whole items like potatoes, beetroot and corn there is no ratio at all, only a requirement: enough water that the pieces sit submerged and the cooker does not run dry before the last whistle.

Questions people ask