pressure cooker

noun
1.
a reinforced pot, usually of steel or aluminum, in which soups, meats, vegetables, etc., may be cooked quickly in heat above boiling point by steam maintained under pressure.
2.
any situation, job, assignment, etc., in which a person is faced with urgent responsibilities or demands by other people, constant deadlines, or a hectic work schedule.
Also, pressure-cooker.
Origin
1910-15
Examples from the web for pressure cooker
  • Everybody knows that academia is a pressure cooker, but that excuse only goes so far.
  • Reduce your kitchen time further by bringing a crockpot or pressure cooker with you.
  • The confined, barren stage space of that tacky motel room has the effect of a pressure cooker.
  • No ordinary pressure cooker can achieve such compression.
  • We all chuckle quietly, beginning to bond over being thrown together into this extraordinary pressure cooker.
  • Shut off the steam supply and wait for the pressure to equalize before opening the lid of the pressure cooker.
  • Reduce pressure at the end of the cooking time by running cold water over the lid of the pressure cooker.
  • For stove-top cooking, consider using a pressure cooker.
  • Samples will be cooked in an instrumented pressure cooker modified to permit steam injection for rapid heating.
British Dictionary definitions for pressure cooker

pressure cooker

noun
1.
a strong hermetically sealed pot in which food may be cooked quickly under pressure at a temperature above the normal boiling point of water
2.
(NZ, informal) a trainee student attending a shortened qualifying course
Slang definitions & phrases for pressure cooker

pressure cooker

modifier

: flung into the pressure-cooker existence of live TV

noun phrase

A place or situation of great personal stress: the pressure cooker on the Hudson (1958+)


Encyclopedia Article for pressure cooker

hermetically sealed pot which produces steam heat to cook food quickly. The pressure cooker first appeared in 1679 as Papin's Digester, named for its inventor, the French-born physicist Denis Papin. The cooker heats water to produce very hot steam which forces the temperature inside the pot as high as 266 F (130 C), significantly higher than the maximum heat possible in an ordinary saucepan. The higher temperature of a pressure cooker penetrates food quickly, reducing cooking time without diminishing vitamin and mineral content.

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