Tips to Save with Pressure Cookers


Are you Losing Rs.400 in your Kitchen Every Month?


Pressure cooking raises the cooking temperature – therefore, the cooking is much faster! Well-made Pressure Cookers generally cook food at 121°C (250°F).

Do you know how much this time saving translates into  fuel saving with a good quality pressure cooker?

The Hawkins R&D Centre did some scientific cooking trials that were supervised and certified by the Institute of Hotel Management, Catering Technology & Applied Nutrition, Mumbai, to establish this on a scientific and methodical basis.

Some widely-cooked Indian foods were selected for these trials. The fuel consumed and the time taken were measured for two types of cooking – in an open pot, and in a 6.5 Litre Hawkins pressure cooker. The heat source used was the large burner of the domestic LPG gas stove that is commonly found in kitchens across India. Thanks in part to the efforts undertaken by the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana social welfare scheme launched in 2016, LPG is now the most widely available source of cooking fuel in homes across India, as per reports published by the Ministry of Petroleum, Government of India.

The certified results of these Trials are tabulated below.

Fuel Saving: Pressure Cooker vs. Open Pot – Results of Certified Trials

Item Cooked Qty. (Kg) Fuel Used (Litres) Fuel Saved (Litres) Fuel Saved (%)
Open Pot Pressure Cooker
Mutton 1.8 37 13 24 65%
Tuvar Dal 0.5 39 16 23 60%
Channa 1.0 51 29 22 44%
Potatoes 2.0 22 14 7 34%
Average 5.2 147 71 76 52%

We see, hence, that about  52% fuel is saved just by switching from Open Pot cooking to Pressure Cooking!

For an average family using one gas cylinder a month (the average price of which, in January 2025, is about Rs.800), this translates into a saving up to Rs.400 per month!

PCRA (Petroleum Conservation Research Association) a national government agency engaged in promoting energy efficiency in various sectors of economy, has in some campaigns encouraged homemakers to “use pressure cooker to cook faster and save fuel”.

Pressure cooking can reduce normal cooking times by as much as half. Foods which take a long time to cook such as dal, pulses, dried peas, beans and tough cuts of meat can be cooked well in a fraction of the normal time. Because food cooks faster in a pressure cooker, you save time, fuel and therefore money.


See more useful tips for saving with pressure cookers below:

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Issued in the public interest by Hawkins Cookers Limited
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