I did a search for "pressure cooker" in the search here at B&B. But, none of the posts talked about using one out in the field. I saw one being packed in the video/film that OutdoorEnvy posted in this topic here: Winter Camping: "Sub-Artic Winter Bivouacking"
But, we never packed or used one, back when I was in doing CWT, & since no one seems to have mentioned using one out in the woods/bush, I thought I would ask here in this topic, about "Trail foods & Camp Cooking", started by Moe, rather than start a new topic.
Anyone ever used a pressure cooker when out in the woods/bush?
I've never used a pressure cooker in a camp setting, I have seen pressure cookers made for camping advertised, but no reviews.
However, while watching Dave Canterbury's series ' The journal of the yurt' he mentioned in passing when reviewing some of his pack gear, that he's used his MSR Seagull pot as a pressure cooker.
I do have and use a more modern electric pressure cooker at home so I was a bit intrigued by the thought of using a common covered pot as a make shift pressure cooker.
As OP mentioned in one of his posts above, pressure cookers depend on a tight seal that holds the steam created in the pot to do the actual cooking, BUT, a pressure cooker also has a pressure relief valve to insure that the pot doesn't blow up when too much pressure built up.
I have the same MSR Seagull pot that he was referring to, in looking it over and doing a little testing I found that the pot lid fits pretty tightly, it has no seal or gasket
that would cause a real seal, but it does have a handle that folds over the top of the lid, the handle is notched and fits over a raised lid lifter protrusion on the lid which kind of acts to keep the handle centered on the lid, the end of the handle is held tightly in place by a hook and toggle type lock.
I filled the pot half full of water, put the lid on the pot and latched it closed, then I turned the pot over and was surprised to find that I had very little leakage of water from the lid, next I put the pot over my small single burner Coleman propane stove and brought it to a boil, what I got was a minimal amount of steam escaping from the pot during the boil time, I'm assuming that the little steady escape of steam would prevent any danger of the pot blowing up and causing any injury, it just wouldn't be as efficient as a real pressure cooker.
A pressure cooker is designed to raise the temp of the cooking liquid past the 212 degrees at which water turns to steam to about 240 degrees or so I believe, and the pressure relief valves are most likely designed to achieve the proper temp while eliminating the danger of too high a pressure.
That done, I emptied the pot and put in about one cup of water, a cup full of stew meat (beef) and a cup full of chopped celery, carrots, and onion, and 1/2 a diced medium potato, some salt, pepper, and 1/2 a teaspoon of granulated beef bullion, I brought the water to a boil, reduced the heat and placed the cover on loosely, and let it simmer for about one hour.
At the end of the hour I took the pot off the heat and checked my stew, it was cooked, the veggies were tender and the meat was cooked through but still a bit chewy, which is typical for cheap cuts of meat that need longer braising times, over all it was very good.
Next, I assembled the same ingredients in the pot, then brought it to a boil as in the previous test, but this time I took the pot off the heat and lowered the flame to where it was in the simmering process, I placed the cover on the pot and this time I latched the handle down over the lid causing a pressure fit to the pot and cover, then I put it back on the stove and timed it for one hour as in the previous batch.
After the hour was up I shut the burner off and continued to get steam escaping from the pot for about 40 seconds after the burner was Shut off telling me that I did have some trapped pressure left in the pot, the end result was that everything in the pot was a bit more tender and the meat was no longer chewy, the flavor of the broth seems to be more intense than the first batch was.
So my thinking is that while the little Seagull pot didn't equal a pressure cooker, it was a definite improvement over just a pot and loose fitting lid.
