Save with Pressure Cookers (2024)

History of Pressure Cookers

Papin cooking pot late 18th century This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

The Encyclopaedia Britannica says: “The pressure cooker first appeared in 1679 as Papin’s Digester, named for its inventor, the French-born physicist Denis Papin. The higher temperature of a pressure cooker penetrates food quickly, reducing cooking time without diminishing vitamin and mineral content.”

Denis Papin was born in 1647 in Chitenay, France. After studying medicine at University, he moved to Paris and worked as an assistant to two Royal Society Fellows, Christian Huygens and Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz. In 1675, he arrived in London, and worked with Robert Boyle. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society, perhaps around 1680.

Robert Boyle (r.) and Denis Papin (l.)
inspect Papin's steam digester

The connection with Boyle is particularly interesting, as all pressure cookers function on principles based on Boyle’s pioneering scientific work which led to what is now called Boyle's law, that deals with the relation between pressure and volume of air in confined spaces (of which one modern application is the pressure cooker).

“Part of a letter from Papin to Dr. Croune in early 1681 was read at one of the Society’s meetings, ‘wherein he mentioned his having, before his departure from London, left at Mr Hooke’s lodgings his engine for softening of bones, &c, to be presented to the Society’. That ‘bone-softening’ device was the Papin digester. At the same meeting:

“ ‘An experiment was made in Dr. Papin’s engine, wherein were put pieces of ivory, horn, and tortoise-shell; all which were in about the space of half an hour reduced to softness; the tortoise-shell to the softness and pliableness of shoe-leather or tanned leather, the ivory to the consistence of old Cheddar cheese, and the horn to the softness and pliableness of pretty stiff tanned leather.’ ”

Citation:
The History of The Royal Society of London, Volume IV.

“Papin is best known for his work as an inventor, particularly his work on the steam engine. Other inventions which Papin worked on were the construction of a submarine, an air gun and a grenade launcher. He tried to build up a glass industry in Hesse-Kassel and also experimented with preserving food bothwith chemicals and using a vacuum. In 1707 Papin built the first paddle boat and that same year he returned to London where he lived in obscurity and poverty until his death. Papin received little in the way of honours in his lifetime, mainly because the importance of his work was not understood until 100 years after his death.”

MAIN DEVELOPMENTS

In the spread of Pressure Cookers

• In 1864, Georg Gutbrod of Stuttgart began manufacturing pressure cookers made of tinned cast iron.
• In 1918, Spain granted a patent for the pressure cooker to José Alix Martínez from Zaragoza. Martínez named it the olla exprés, literally "express cooking pot".[1] In 1924, the first pressure cooking recipe book was published, titled "360 fórmulas de cocina Para guisar con la 'olla expres'",[2] or 360 recipes for cooking with a pressure cooker.
• In 1935, the Automa pressure cooker was introduced. Mountaineers attempting to climb Mount Everest took it along with them to cook in higher altitudes.[3]
• In 1938, Alfred Vischer presented his invention, the Flex-Seal Speed Cooker, in New York City. Vischer's pressure cooker was the first designed for home use, and its success led to competition among American and European manufacturers.[4]
• At the 1939 New York World's Fair, the National Pressure Cooker Company, introduced its own pressure cooker.
• Pressure Cookers made their way to India in the 1950s, with a few manufacturers, most notably Hawkins and TTK Prestige, introducing the concept to Indian consumers, and it has grown steadily since then.
• From these humble beginnings, pressure cookers have now spread across the globe and are used regularly by millions of consumers all across the world.

Citation:

1. “olla exprés” Boletín Oficial de la Propiedad Industrial (798): 1480. 16 November 1919.

2. Bellvis, Camilo (1924). “360 fórmulas de cocina Para guisar con la “olla exprés” Madrid, Spain: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra.

3. “Icmic, Santosh & Rukmani: The Forgotten Story of India's Original Cookers” The Better India. Retrieved 12 September 2020.

4. Lacalamita, Tom (2002). Pressure cookers for dummies. New York, NY: Hungry Minds. ISBN 9781118053805.

5. Rick Rodgers; Arlene Ward & Kathryn Russell (2000). Pressure Cooking for Everyone. Chronicle Books. p. 12. ISBN 9780811825252. Retrieved 30 June 2016.