Pressure Cooker Disaster

[RushIsRot]

I just tried to cook a roast in a pressure cooker. It is an older cooker and I've done this before, but this time I used a jiggler from a smaller cooker because I forgot mine in my move. I cannot remember how I did this last time, but this time I put in the meat after pouring in enough water to cover the cooking rack. (About 1/4 inch deep or maybe a little more.)It seemed to take an unusually long time to start jiggling. I got a timer and was watching the cooking time and heard the pressure release safety valve pop open. I'm afraid I burned the roast and I cannot even get the cooker open now. I was cooking with the jiggler set at 15.

Tell me how I went so wrong please.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

1. I can't help you

I'm afraid of pressure cookers. My mother used one once to make split pea soup.

The explosion coated our kitchen ceiling green, and our cat dropped dead of a heart attack.

I'm glad you only lost the roast. I'm telling ya, those things are dangerous.

[eridani]

4. The split peas foam and can clog up the little hole

I always used to use 5 lbs instead of 15 lbs pressure for split peas for that reason. I now have a Cuisinart pressure cooker with a little spring device which can't get clogged. Still has a aafety blowout option though. Never have come close to needing it, though.

[Shakespeare]

10. Oh, no. I know this isn't funny, but having just read the dogs-in-elk post in the lounge, this...

...made me laugh all over again. Poor kitty.

And if you haven't read the elk post (in one of haruka's threads, posted by somebody else), this is worth reading:

http://www.webtree.ca/tree/keeper/dogs_in_elk.htm

[Warpy]

2. If the jiggler from the other pot was constructed the same

as the one from the pot you used, there shouldn't have been a problem. However, if it seated improperly, you could have either lost all the water inside or created too much pressure inside. In any case, it sounds like an inadequate amount of water. You cooked your cooker by overheating it.

Chances are that you've lost the pot and the contents.

You might be able to heat the top with boiling water enough to free it from the base and get it open (the base sitting in ice might help the process).

The other possibility is that you cooked the O-ring inside the lid (if it has one), and that ring is gluing both sides together. I once managed to free one like that with a screw driver stuck in where I could to unstick what I could, but that ring needed to be replaced.

In any case, the pressure release worked exactly the way it was supposed to and you had neither shrapnel nor roast on the ceiling.

[RushIsRot]

3. Some good news

I finally got the pot open and since the roast was sitting on a rack, it was cooked and not burned. Only the juices were charred, so I took a large cooking pot, added some beef bullion cubes plus one vegetable bullion cube, some red cooking wine and some worcestershire sauce and poured in my veggies. Now they're cooking along in that broth.

I may pull this meal out of the fire yet...:)

[pengillian101]

5. PLEASE be careful and don't deviate from the instructions, especially with older equipment.

One of my very first jobs was working in the office of the famous pressure cooker plant decades ago. They are safe if all parts are used correctly. I used them myself for decades. If you buy a used cooker - go on-line and find the maker and buy a user's book.

Rubber parts dry out and need replacing every once in awhile. Don't switch parts from one-sized cooker to another. Use caution and don't experiment. Use tried and true recipes. Many pressure cookbooks are sold cheap on EBay. Or download a pamphlet from the manufacturer's site.

My caution is due to this: The office of the pressure cooker manufacturer where I worked in 1971 had a separate, LOCKED room that had file cabinets of disasters. Lawsuits pending. Folks who didn't follow the directions.

Pressure cookers are safe - IF you follow all directions/recipes and replace parts when needed and don't swap parts from one cooker with another.

[eleny]

6. You share good advice

I like pressure cooking so much. It's too bad that people don't read and follow instructions like they should. The cookbook that comes with a cooker should be handy and referred to often.

[RushIsRot]

7. I have two different sized Mirros. Glad you mentioned about not

switching parts because I was going to transfer the safety valve from the smaller one to my larger one. Now I have looked up the part online and see that I can order a new one. I think I might even have seen them for sale at a local hardware store.

[Warpy]

13. You might find that your models have an identical

pressure regulator. The size of the pot doesn't matter, the regulator goes by pounds per square inch of steam, which is why a small weight sitting on a point can balance fifteen pounds per square inch of pressure in the pot.

If the hardware store stocks them, take yours in and compare them. You might be able to save yourself a few bucks until you lose the one you've got.

[Warpy]

12. I'd advise people not to use the old ones, at all

and use only the ones with the emergency vent that will release pressure before the thing turns into a bomb.

Pressure cookers should be attended to at all times. No, you don't have to sit and stare at it, but you do need to be within earshot of the ones with the jigglers and within sight of the ones with a pressure dial.

However, shit happens. Kids fall out of the apple tree and drunks can wreck their cars in front of the house. That pressure valve makes sure another emergency doesn't create a worse one in the kitchen if you have to run so fast you don't have time to hit the burner control first.

People got into trouble with those old cookers because they didn't have that fail safe valve. The accidents could be horrific. If you've got an old one, display it as a curiosity or shitcan it. Just don't use it.

[TygrBright]

8. Glad to hear it sorted out alright!

Couldn't help you because although I love my pressure cooker (INDISPENSABLE for high altitude cooks!) I don't have a jiggler type. Mine has a pop-up button. I have learned, though, to go by the evil hissing rather than the button.

It has always been utterly reliable and I have replaced the gasket once in two years (it got damaged in a sink full of dirty dishes.)

I have learned to make a number of one-pot meals by p-cooking the ingredients in serial batches, viz., starting with the toughest beans, then the less-tough beans, then the carrots and longer-cooking veg, then the sausage and chicken chunks and fast-cooking veg for a lovely stew.

You simply can NOT cook most dry beans at this altitude without a pressure cooker.

ruefully,
Bright

[hippywife]

9. When I saw that thread title

it scared the bejeezuz outta me! Glad it wasn't what I thought it would be and you're okay and not injured. Hope your roast is okay, too.

I did buy an older pressure canner, which I will be using next spring, but I went on-line and ordered replacement parts for the exact model just to be safe. I almost ordered a new ring for a smaller one that I picked up from the leavings of an estate sale at work but then I noticed that the top and bottom are two different makers. Not going to be using that one!

Hope all is otherwise well out your way, friend. :hi:

[RushIsRot]

11. It all worked out pretty well. The roast was cooked perfectly and

the veggies I had expected to add to the roast were cooked in another pot. They came out fine as well. Life goes on and I've had a "learning experience." :hi:

All is well and thanks for your concern.