My pressure cooker is hissing. What to do?

By | November 25, 2021

You have been cooking the yummiest dish in the pressure cooker for your precious guests and suddenly noticed the pressure cooker is not that well? It started to make weird sounds and you started to get worried about it? Want you or not you feel awkward and a little worried when we see our pressure cooker hissing while cooking something in it. I will hurry to calm you down, as you have nothing to worry about.

The hissing your pressure cooker might produce is because of the process that goes in it. When there is heat inside the pressure cooker and it gradually gets higher and higher the water inside starts to boil at extreme temperatures. The pressure is extremely high and any possible leak or an escape of steam makes you scared when the top start to pop. Depending on the price and quality of the pressure cooker the hissing can be less or more. There are many types of pressure cookers available that make no sound of hissing.

The lids of the pressure cooker are designed with the purpose to release steam in order to maintain a safe level of pressure to be in measure. When pressure becomes rather high in the cooker, safety valves open up in order to release even more pressure and as a result of this a hissing sound. Of course you can always choose an electric pressure cooker to avoid the noise it may make.

In fact, electric pressure cookers are considered to be the quietest ones as they generally regulate pressure more actively and even if it makes a little hiss, it is quite normal.

This hissing sound is very similar to that of a tea kettle we used to have. The steam coming out of the pan gets so hot that its force lifts the lid on the kettle and the whistle happens because of this. This way you can realize that the water is ready in the cooker.

The reason of the hassle for both the cooker and the kettle is the same but this does not indicate that the food in the cooker is well prepared and it is ready.

The steam in the pressure cooker creates heat and the food gets warmed very quickly. This also minimizes the time you spend on cooking food.

The pressure cooker has boiling point of water that sometimes goes beyond the 200 degrees. The moisture that is present inside the pressure cooker makes dry foods like tough meat absorb moisture into it making the preparation course far faster and the meat ends up being very tender and gets ready in a short period of time. Pressure cooker is multifunctional and it can also caramelize food quite fast, in no time.