The high temperatures in an instant pot produce a Maillard reaction, or caramelisation, in the pot. In almost all cases, we are thus talking about Malliardisation. This reaction creates flavours and aromas that do not normally appear when cooking in liquid, since the temperature is too low.

Pressure cooker

A pressure cooker is a pot with a tightly sealed lid and a vent that regulates the pressure inside. We know that water under normal pressure (1013 hPa) boils at 100°C. But if we want to boil water on Mount Everest, where the air pressure is very low, the boiling point is not 100°C but around 63°C. That means: if we want to raise the temperature of boiling water above 100°C, we have to raise the pressure. In a pressure cooker, we do this by building up steam. The water heats up, just as in a normal pot, to 100°C. This creates steam in the space between the lid and the liquid. The rubber ring in the lid of the pressure cooker creates a hermetic seal, and so the heat particles cannot escape. As the pressure rises, the water temperature can reach a maximum of 120°C.

Advantages of the pressure cooker

With a pressure cooker, you can very quickly create characteristic flavours and textures. Thus, you can prepare a tasty chicken stock in just 90 minutes. Because you are cooking under high pressure, you draw all the flavour out of the meat and bones without making the stock cloudy. All ingredients remain intact and are not cooked to a mush.

We can also affect and enhance the process of Maillardisation by adding baking soda (sodium bicarbonate): not baking powder, but just one of its components. This way, we draw completely new flavours out of vegetables, for example, and even cream.