Pressure cookers are one of the best cooking appliances you can use to cook food.
They are highly efficient in cooking food and they also retain a lot of the flavour for a long time.
There are many aspects of the pressure cooker that help it function so well. You need to take good care of them to ensure your cooker works fine for a long time.
Most time cookers become unusable not because of any physical damage but the parts wear out with regular use.
One of the most important parts in the pressure cooker are the pressure cooker seals or gaskets as they are called.
These gaskets are invariably made from rubber and are designed to seal the cooker when closed. This seal ensures that the steam generated in the cooker stays in and does not leak.
Retaining the steam within the cooker is absolutely vital to ensure proper pressure cooking. Hence seals are important parts on the cooker.
Since the seal is made from rubber, the most common problem that people face is that with time and regular use the gasket hardens and is not as soft as it originally was.
As a result, its sealing capabilities are compromised and you cannot get the same performance from the pressure cooker.
There are some simple steps you can take to ensure that they seal is in good condition and continues to work effectively.
Always use care and caution with placing and removing the seal on the lid. Never use force unnecessarily on the gasket.
Many times people tend to tug at the gasket to free it from the lid. While this looks a quick way of getting it out, every time you pull the seal, you are damaging it marginally and reducing its life.
Never leave the seal on the lid after cooking, you must remove it a clean it after every use.
Take care while cleaning the seal. Use warm soap water and soft sponge to clean the gasket.
These are some simple tips you need to follow to increase the longevity of the pressure cooker seals.
Cleaning these seals is another important task that needs to be done with a lot of care.
Here are the steps to cleaning the pressure cooker seals.
Take the seal out from the lid carefully, do not tug it too hard.
Fill the kitchen sink with warm water and add a few drops of dishwashing liquid.
Immerse the seal in the warm water and let it soak for some time.
Using a soft sponge wipe it clean of any dirt or food particle on the seal.
Wipe the cleaned seal with a clean towel and place it inside the cooker for future use.
These are some simple steps that you can take to ensure that the pressure cooker seals last a long time.
One last point to remember about these seals is that you must check regularly for cracks or signs of hardening.
If you can determine a worn out seal faster, you can get the replacement earlier. One simple check is to look for cracks on the gasket, if you see any; it means the seal is worn out.
Another test is to press the gasket with the thumbnail. If the gasket comes back to original shape quickly, you know the seal is good, if it does not return or takes exceedingly long time, then it is close to getting worn out.