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Comment by ArtWomb | Hacker News Reader

At the risk of giving away some closely held secrets here. An absolute pro-tip: use a Pressure Cooker when making meat based curries. In 20 minutes, you can have a dish that tastes as if it were slow roasted all day long. Can only speculate as to the science involved. But for goat and lamb that desired result of a tender, rope-y texture is readily achievable by even though most inexperienced cooks. Consult YouTube for technique. It even works great with that Japanese-style "Golden Curry" base you can find in the international foods section of your local grocery for $2.99 ;)

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Haha, pressure cookers aren't really a secret. They are found in most households in India. In the U.S., for years there was an irrational fear of pressure cookers exploding so they never really caught on until the Instapot came along (which some people don't realize is a pressure cooker). The fact is, pressure cooker tech is very old and remarkably safe. It's been "beta-tested" by millions of people in India.

The science is simple: water vaporizes at 212F/100C at atmospheric pressure. But if you increase the pressure, the boiling point increases [1]. This means instead of cooking temperatures maxing out at 212F, the cooker lets one achieve higher temperatures. This is why pressure cookers are able to cook faster -- the temperatures are simply higher.

Meats cooked with pressure cookers tend to come out more tender (if you don't let them dry out) in a shorter amount of time.

[1] Water phase diagram. Notice that on the vaporization-condensation part of the curve, when P increases, the T crossover point also increases https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-chem-atoms-first/chap...

>In the U.S., for years there was an irrational fear of pressure cookers exploding so they never really caught on until the Instapot came along (which some people don't realize is a pressure cooker). The fact is, pressure cooker tech is very old and remarkably safe. It's been "beta-tested" by millions of people in India.

I have a feeling that the recent popularity of the InstaPot will make pressure cookers much more popular in years to come.

The funny thing is the Instapot was invented by a bunch of laid-off Nortel engineers in Canada (the owner has a Ph.D. in CS).

Those guys somehow managed to figure out how to sell boatloads of pressure cookers to Americans when so many before them have tried and failed.

I don't. The instapot still takes plenty of time for the actual eating to be ready as you have to wait for the pressure to release.

With electronic pressure cookers, there are usually two modes: quick release and natural release.[1] Natural release is slower but tends to produce better results for large cuts of meat. For most other food, quick release should work just fine.

(the principle is the same for non-electronic pressure cookers; quick-release there simply means running cold water on the pot with the lid closed to depressurize)

[1] https://www.pressurecookingtoday.com/quick-pressure-release-...

Why not twist the valve to release pressure quickly?

1. It fills the room with steam. 2. It makes the food bubble up onto the lid so you have to clean it (the lid usually remains perfectly clean because only steam touches it).

I only use quick release for delicate foods like steamed vegetables.

> The science is simple: water vaporizes at 212F/100C at atmospheric pressure. But if you increase the pressure, the boiling point increases [1]. This means instead of cooking temperatures maxing out at 212F, the cooker lets one achieve higher temperatures. This is why pressure cookers are able to cook faster -- the temperatures are simply higher.

The science, it seems, is not quite as simple as you think:

https://genuineideas.com/ArticlesIndex/pressurecooker.html

I don't think the article is accurate. It really isn't density that is directly responsible for the faster cooking (though the increased impingement is a contributing factor). The more direct cause is heat.

Cooking is the result of heat transfer. When you raise the vaporization temperature (by raising the pressure), more heat is transferred in the process of getting to that temperature and vaporizing the steam.

To verify this, we can do an enthalpy calculation. Specific enthalpy (h) for water at 25C, 1 atm is 104920 J/kg. At 1 atm, the enthalpy for gaseous steam at vaporization is 2.676e6 J/kg. For pressure cookers, at 2 atm, the enthalpy is 2.707e5 J/kg. That is an extra 31000 J/kg.

Err beta-tested?

I guess tested-in-production? They've had a long safety track record in other parts of the world, in particular India.

Can you recommend some good youtube channels or specific resources for Indian/Pakistani cooking?

Chef John/Seriouseats et al. I feel are not so great when it comes to this cuisine, unfortunately I cannot find anything better. Grateful for any tips on getting a good CTM!

My favorite is VahChef: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_R8qIXaTKpkAJuuiZhHTmA

Sanjeev Kapoor has been a famous Indian celebrity chef for a long time: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmoX4QULJ9MB00xW4coMiOw

And then there are several village-style cooking channels that are just fun to watch:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1of9ELYwB623fWaAMRDVFA

https://www.youtube.com/user/CrazyIndianFood

Manjula: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCb75CvYbm5BXpbEkGqFKABw

She's been around for at least a decade and is reliable.

It sure is the preferred way in Brum it seems. Though now I mainly cook my chicken/fish/beef by flash broiling and removing from the heat at the point when the meat is just cooked through. Super juicy, and quick because the sauce/onions can be simmered to golden brown in less than ten minutes, simultaneously.

> But for goat

I believe the marketing term for this in much of the world is _mutton_

Goat and mutton are different to English speakers. The first is goat, the second is the meat of an adult sheep (cf lamb, the meat of a young sheep). However, apparently in India, mutton can mean goat meat.

Mutton means goat for the vast majority of people involved in the preparation of South Asian cuisine. That native English speakers use the terms differently when talking about cutlets and ribs has zero bearing on how you should expect your curry to be labelled.

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