Pressure Cookers

Appears in

Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America

Published 2004

About

Cooking food thoroughly using steam under pressure seems modern, but the French scientist Denis Papin invented a pressure cooker in 1679. Called a “Digester” or “La marmite,” it softened bones and otherwise wasted meat parts. Aware of the potential for explosion, Papin incorporated a valve to let off steam when it reached a level of pressure that was dangerous.

A digester available in America was depicted in the 1854 edition of the American Home Cook Book. It shows a squat cast-iron kettle, bowed out at its center, with a swinging handle, and a clamp-on lid. Sizes ranged from one quart to eight gallons. Bones and gristle softened for soup gave thrifty cooks full value for any cut of meat. Almost identical was one manufactured in 1909 for hotels and restaurants, with sealing gaskets and lid clamps.

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