SC - Hard as little rocks

[Lee-Gwen Booth]

> This is a post which will haunt me for years (and has already caused me to
> warn all of my family to NEVER screw around with a pressure cooker).  I
> already knew not to pop the lid, but had never considered that popping it
> into hot water would make it explode.
> Balthazar of Blackmoor

Okay, first of all, according to Seigfreid, the cooker was placed into COLD
water.

Basically, there are two ways of cooling a pressure cooker.  The fast way is
under running cold water (this is advised when you need to stop the cooking
NOW) and  the slow way is to take it off the heat and let it come down from
pressure.  The seriously not advised method (although, I do do it - but not
with foods which might rise and block the valve - don't do this with chick
peas) is to gently (and with an implement) joggle the weight on top of the
cooker to release the steam.

Gwynydd (who has been around pressure cookers all her life and has never yet
seen one explode)