Damon,
From my experience with
OPs, there are three kinds of lids:
One lid with a mushroom-like knob,
A lid topped with a split circle,
and a completely smooth top lid
My guess is that you are working with the knob topped lid and so what you do is wind the rope around it once and that will hold the lid securely.
With the split circle lid, you lay the rope across the split and then turn the lid until the rope tightens or is taut.
The smooth top lid was designed for a tiny 2.5 Liter pressure cooker that is no longer manufactured by Kuhn Rikon.
The "rocker" is my description for the "jiggler valve" or "jiggler top" type weight that rocks back and forth when excess steam is released through the vent valve that it sets on
first generation pressure cookers.
When pressure cooking food such as brown rice, we place the pot (with the lid secure and the jiggler weight secure on the vent valve) of uncooked rice on the stove, and then turn the flame on high and wait for a pressure valve to pop up and the jiggler weight to violently rock back and forth and on a second burner in which we have place a flame tamer and have the flame turned to very low, we place the violently jiggling pressure cooker on the flame tamer (making sure to simultaneously turn the flame off of the first burner) and then set the timer for 50 or more minutes.
When the timer rings, we turn off the flame and wait for the pressure valve plug to drop before we open the pressure cooker (also called natural release).
On
second generation pressure cookers there are no jiggler weights to set on top of the lid but instead an elaborate spring valve which allows either natural release or quick release by the twist of a dial.
If your pressure cooker inside is made of stainless steel, you don't have to put a trivet in the bottom of the pot to protect the inside pot bottom from the OP's violent movement.
After the flame is turner down, the OP will settle down.
If for some strange reason you have an aluminum pressure cooker and you cant get a stainless steel or enamel lined pressure cooker, then use a smooth surfaced trivet on the bottom to keep the OP from scratching the inside bottom of the pressure cooker (and still make sure that you have up to 2 cups of spring, well, or purified water in the pressure cooker outside of the OP!).
The enamel lined pressure cookers like the
Silit Sicomatic, are such an excellent non-reactive surface, that one doesn't usually wish or need to use a OP in it but I imagine that one can use an OP in it but be sure to inspect the inside bottom after each cooking to see if there are any surface scratches and if there are, discontinue the OP use in that pot, or if you are making something like amasake, then use a smooth surfaced
trivet with it as well.
Enough insight, yet?
Thank you, very much.
Bruce Paine
Quote:
Originally Posted by damon
Hi Bruce!
Opps, sorry for missing that. I meant a half cup of rice.
Anyway, thanks for the detailed response! My first attempt at using the OP involved a gross misunderstanding and my cooking half a cup of dry rice without any water. Needless to say, that didn't work very well 
How do you tie the lid to the OP? The rope on mine isn't long enough to loop around the lid's knob. I can pull the two ends of the rope, making the rope lie across the top of the lid; however, this doesn't really secure it much more.
Also, what is this "rocker" you mentioned? Is that part of the pressure cooker or some other piece of kitchenware?
One last question: after the water in the PC reaches a boil, the OP starts to jiggle side-to-side and is quite loud. Is this normal or should I be placing the OP inside some sort of suspended tray?
As always, I greatly appreciate everyone's insight here!!
Damon |