Canning is the process in which foods are placed in jars or cans and heated to a temperature that destroys microorganisms and inactivates enzymes. This heating and later cooling forms a vacuum seal. The vacuum seal prevents other microorganisms from recontaminating the food within the jar or can.

Yes, it is very important to allow steam to escape for 10 minutes before closing the valve, or placing the weight on the vent. If the canner is not exhausted, the inside temperature may not correspond to the pressure on the gauge.

If the pot is not exhausted, the inside temperature may not correspond to the pressure on the gauge. Steam should be allowed to escape for 10 minutes before closing the valve.

Yes, the pressure canner can be used as a boiling water canner. Refer to our BOILING WATER METHOD section for more information. Parts and accessories for Presto products are available through our PARTS and SPECIAL ACCESSORIES pages.

When ever you boil daal in either pressure cooker or utensil, always add little oil. It will prevent the overflowing. Always store your dough in an airtight container or covered with wet muslin / cheese cloth to avoid the hard layer and keep it fresh for a longer period.

It is vitally important to allow steam to escape from the canner for 10 minutes before placing the pressure regulator on the vent pipe. This ensures that all air is exhausted from the canner as well as the jars. It eliminates any air pockets in the jars of food that would cause an uneven heat treatment to occur.

Canning destroys the enzymes, molds, yeasts, and bacteria that cause food spoilage. Most of these microorganisms are killed by processing food at boiling temperature (212°F) for a specified time period. The temperature and time required to destroy bacteria is determined in part by the acidity of the food being canned. Along with heat, the natural acid in fruits and tomatoes retards bacteria growth.

Immediately after use, remove the gasket and wash the lid by hand thoroughly inside and out. The exposed inside edge of the lid should be given special attention. The gasket should be cleaned, dried and returned to the lid. If the pressure cooker lid is hard to turn when closing, the gasket has become dried out and should be lightly rubbed with cooking oil. The bottom of the pan is dishwasher safe.

Healthy meals! Because very little water is used in pressure cooking and because the pressure cooker is a "closed system," few vitamins and minerals are lost to the cooking water or dissipated into the air. Because they are not exposed to oxygen, vegetables not only retain their vitamins and minerals, but their vivid color as well. Low fat, high protein beans and legumes, healthy additions to any diet, are frequently avoided because of their long cooking time under normal cooking conditions.

Steam is to cook with steam, if it is under pressure, the temperature is hotter than a water-based liquid can ever be. Water will not get hotter than 212?F (100?C) no matter how hard you boil it. However, steam under pressure of 5 psi (pounds per square inch) reaches 225?F (105?C) or more, and at 15 psi it will be 250?F (120?C). Therefore, steam cooking under pressure is considerably faster than cooking in liquid. The pressure steameris fast, easily controlled and is safer overall.

Immediately after use, remove the gasket and wash the lid by hand thoroughly inside and out. The exposed inside edge of the lid should be given special attention. The gasket should be cleaned, dried and returned to the lid. If the pressure cooker lid is hard to turn when closing, the gasket has become dried out and should be lightly rubbed with cooking oil. The bottom of the pan is dishwasher safe.

Gaskets are engineered to last a very long time. A gasket, when properly cared for, should last between 1 and 6 years under normal use. What are the variables? The number of times per week you use the cooker, what you cook, and how you clean your gasket all are considerations. If you cook everyday with a lot of chilies, or beans (which contain enzymes) and are careless about placing your gasket next to your knives in the sink, you could will replacing it more often! Hand washing is recommended.

The Duromatic pressure cooker can go into the oven at settings below 300° F. Most foods prepared in a pressure cooker do not require placement in an oven for cooking. Sometimes you may want to put the smaller pressure fry pan into the oven to keep it warm, and that may safely be done at temperatures below 300° F.

Yes. Many people have gotten away with making BRF Jars and sterilizing them in boiling water with success. Problem being, a pot of boiling water cannot get the jars to the internal temp that is needed to successfully kill the contaminants that would survive boiling. When working with grains, a pressure cooker is essential and grains contaminate much easier than BRF. You will also find a pressure cooker useful to sterilize your scalpel, syringes, jars, lids, water, etc…

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We are glad to answer any questions you may have. We can be contacted by email or by calling 1-800-714-3391. For more information on pressure cookers you can visit Kuhn Rikon's web site.

Yes, you can use a pressure cooker to emulate an autoclave, but pressure cookers are not really designed for the precision operation that is required, and their effectiveness cannot be guarantied. (more coming soon)

The principle of pressure cooking is really quite simple. Because a pressure cooker is airtight, pressure builds up inside the pressure cooker as the liquid inside comes to a boil. The resulting trapped steam causes the internal temperature to rise beyond what it would be capable of doing under normal room pressure. Then, simply, food cooking at a higher temperature and under pressure cooks faster. sea level (where the normal atmospheric pressure is 14.