This simple technique can reduce your fuel cost by up to 25% compared to cooking on high heat throughout. Once the cooker has reached full pressure, high heat is a waste of fuel – pressure can be maintained as well at lower heat.
Even if 10% households in India change their habit of cooking on high heat throughout, the Nation can save more than Rs.5 crores per day!
How does this Simple Technique Save Fuel?
Many housewives cook in their pressure cookers on high heat throughout, in the mistaken belief that high heat cooks faster. The Hawkins Test Kitchen tried two methods of pressure cooking:
- Method 1: Keep the pressure cooker on ‘High’ heat setting throughout the cooking.
- Method 2: Reduce heat from ‘High’ to ‘Medium’ after the first whistle (the sign that the cooker has reached Full Operating Pressure – FOP). From this point, the remaining time on gas at full pressure is called the Pressure Cooking Time (PCT).
The Hawkins Test Kitchen found that using Method 2 gave equally good cooking results as Method 1, and saved Rs.2.50 per hour of cooking on LPG. The detailed results are given in Table 1 below.
How are the Savings for the Nation worked out?
We have established that a pressure cooker saves about Rs. 2.50 per hour of cooking on LPG using the simple action of reducing heat from High to Medium after full operating pressure (FOP), as compared to leaving the heat on High throughout (Method 2 vs. Method 1).
If the average Indian home uses a pressure cooker for about 2 hours each day, this works out to Rs. 5 saved per day. Assuming 300 days usage each year, over 5 years, the savings will be = Rs. 5 x 300 x 5 = Rs. 7,500 per household.
As per MOSPI, the number of households in India is 29.4 crore, 10% of which is 2.94 crore households. If each household saves about Rs. 5 each day using a pressure cooker, then 2.94 crore households will save Rs. 14.7 crore each day! Taking a very conservative assumption (some of these households may have less than assumed average cooker usage or go some days without home cooking) we reach a saving for the Nation of over Rs. 5 crore per day.