> just as the pressure cooker started to go from "geek" to "mainstream" in its adoption curve.
It's really really weird to read that, in europe pressure cookers have been mainstays of most every kitchen for decades, especially after SEB's "super cocotte" (released in '53, they'd sold 10 million by '69).
There are some things like pressure cookers exploding that are just "known", despite them not really being true. Ford cars are less made in America than Japanese brands; an electric blanket won't burn your house down; no one is hiding metal pins in Halloween candy to hurt children.
"Urban legend" describes these sort of thing, but how do you even begin to fight them with marketing in some form.
If Mr Qin had wanted to do marketing at the beginning, some segment of the market is going tune out the instant pressure cooker is mentioned.
Happened to my parents and me, back in the mid-90s. Luckily, nobody was in the kitchen the moment it happened. All I remember is that it left a decent dent in the vent hood above the stove, and Gulasz... Gulasz everywhere.
Then again, I was also right next to an exploding Mokka / Espresso stovetop cooker, so maybe I am simply unlucky :)
I still own a pressure cooker and use it regularly - a cheap one from IKEA at that.
I remember somethin similar with spagetti bolognesa, but it wasn't the pot fault, but a friend that mistakenly thought it was already cold enough. She had some burns and instead of a feast, the guests had to become an emergency cleaning squad.
Fortunately the dessert was saved: a condensed milk can also made in the pot into delicious toffee.
Was wondering the same thing. I had an old one and the pressure relief mechanism looked pretty foolproof. Basically just a weight sitting on top of a vent tube -- when the pressure got high enough, the weight was lifted and the pressure released.
The first time I ever encountered a pressure cooker was when my science instructor had to take a week off to recover from the injuries she sustained when hers ruptured.
I'm an American and I just bought one and I've been kind of wary around it, even going into the other room while it cooks. I know it's irrational, but I find I keep thinking about the Boston bombings.
> I know it's irrational, but I find I keep thinking about the Boston bombings.
It's worse than irrational, unless you've filled your pressure cooker with explosives and plugged the pressure relief valves it's not going to do anything except boil empty.
Was thinking about writing the very same thing, a pressure coocker has always been a common implement in every kitchen I've seen. I realize that there is much more to the marketing, final implementation and other details of these Instant Pots, but all these comments read to me like everybody just discovered that eggs are awesome and you can use them for so many things.
Pressure cookers used to be a mainstay in the US as well, but fell out of fashion and are now coming back. I'm not sure pressure cookers are that popular in Europe either at the moment.
> I'm not sure pressure cookers are that popular in Europe either at the moment.
They're as popular as ever, they're not trendy but it's something you normally get once you're beyond a pair of pans and pots, the smaller models (4~5L) may even replace/obviate a large pot.
It's really really weird to read that, in europe pressure cookers have been mainstays of most every kitchen for decades, especially after SEB's "super cocotte" (released in '53, they'd sold 10 million by '69).