Have you ever seen a pressure cooker blow up? That happened to a friend of mine when a grain of rice got in the hole that was there to release the pressure if too much had built up….
This was a long time ago—maybe the new pressure cookers have corrected the problem. (I don’t own one, so I don’t know………..)
Sorry—wrong thread—LOL!.
Old age has lots of disadvantages……..
Pressure cookers are very popular in my family. I have two which I use occasionally. Both have a small rubber plug which is designed to pop out if the pressure gets too high. That has never happened to anyone I know.
When setting up the pressure cooker, we always examine it for damage. We make sure the vent pipe is not blocked, by looking through it and running water through it. When in doubt, draw something through it, like a small pipe cleaner. I have miniature brush that works well.
We start the cooking process with the pressure regulator (rocker) off, to allow it to vent. We never leave it unattended. If the vent pipe were to become blocked, it would be obvious by the lack of steam escaping. At that point, we could quickly cool it down before the pressure builds high enough to blow the gasket. And even if it was allowed to build to that point, it would make a horrible mess when the gasket blows, but it couldn’t build up enough pressure to explode.
I have a set of 3 aluminum pans with lids that stack on top of each other, and fit inside my large pressure cooker. I can put rice in one, vegetables in another, and meat in the other. When I cook it that way, it’s impossible for the rice, or anything else to clog the vent.
When cooking rice loosely in the pressure cooker, my rule of thumb is never to fill it more than 25%, including rice, liquid and any other ingredients. That way, any foam is unlikely to reach the vent. If it does, the likelihood of a grain of rice sitting on top of a tower of bubbles that high is extremely remote.