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Comment by adlpz | Hacker News Reader

I've seen rice done in videos by (I believe?) heating them under pressure and then releasing the pressure suddenly, causing max puffage.

An example: https://youtu.be/ZyJoqS__7O0

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Puffed rice is made differently in India. They use a hot pan and black sand with no pressure release. Example: https://youtu.be/36GKVfo5PUA

To be clear, it’s black salt which is possibly in sand sized particles not black beach sand. So he doesn’t need to worry about leaving grit in the puffed rice.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kala_namak

Great link. Watched the whole thing! Fascinating!

Last year I got into a bit of a habit of eating bhel puri for breakfast - took a while before I realised probably why it occurred to me as something to do, that bhel is basically 'Rice Krispies' or similar. So for someone who doesn't like milk, (on its own/in large quantity like that) but loves spice, bhel puri is the ultimate breakfast cereal. :)

I've seen this device in videos before, I wonder why I never see them at like Farmers markets here in the US. They'd probably make a killing.

I think safety may have something to do with it, it's pretty much a bomb

I… don’t think that’s it.

I’m tempted to find and buy one a pressurized popcorn popper like that, and set up at my local farmers’ market. It might be popular, or it might not - but it would definitely be fun.

You inspired me... I went ahead and ordered one.

Let me know how it goes! I recognize your name, and I’m only a couple of hours north of you. I might drop down there sometime and check it out if you don’t mind.

Sure thing! Message me on twitter or email me at gmail so I can contact you back.

I've been contemplating using a pipe-bomb shaped vessel to cook things in super-heated water, which would require very high pressures. Imagine getting water to 400F and how golden brown and moist things would be that cook that way! It would be like deep frying food in water.

Looking at the temperature/pressure chart on the Wikipedia page (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pressure_cooking) any plant or animal tissue, perhaps even bone, would maybe be reduced to a thin sludge long before reaching 400F.

The Wikipedia page mentions pressure ovens, though, which seem designed to achieve the effect you're looking for--fast cooking with browning (Maillard reaction). Personally, this is why I love the Kuhn Rikon fry pan pressure cooker. It has a tri-ply, dimpled bottom for excellent browning; then you can just deglaze, add remaining ingredients, and slap a lid on for pressure cooking. It only holds 2.5L, though, so in practice limited to dishes of about 8-10 servings at the very most (typically more like 4-8 servings).

Dave Arnold tried this and was not impressed: https://cookingissues.com/2009/06/11/maillard-pipe-potatoes/

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As you can see from the photo, the potato turns a dark mahogany all the way through (cause it is 355° all the way through). Even the water turns mahogany.

This experiment taught me that not all Maillard reactions produce good flavors. The Maillard pipe potato tastes awful and smells acrid. Damn it’s bad—but it’s instructive.

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So, a pressure cooker would do?

Home pressure cookers tend to be safeguarded against instant release. Some models of the Instant Pot of an optional accelerated quick release using an ice pack, but its still much more gradual that what seems to be used for this purpose.

You can run cold water over the lid of a pressure cooker, and it will release abruptly. Most modern cookers include this in the instructions. Old cookers may not be safe to do this, if they don’t have a geometry that directs a sudden blast of steam downward.

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