Science Without Darwin: Pressure Cookers

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen

It was a mite busy at my place the other day, what with Ruby Slippers stopping by for a visit. Stevia Dolce, baker at the Darwin Ranch, also dropped in. While Stevia is having doubts about the stuff they promote out there by Deception Pass, she tends to believe the lie that belief in evolution is necessary for science.

Bill Nye the Propaganda guy and others demand more evolution be taught and the public convinced of  its importance, else science cannot progress: Young-earth recent creation teachings are bad for science. These ideas are believed by the uninformed and by anti-creationists even though easily refuted by Dr. Raymond Damadian and others. How about the science of the pressure cooker?

Pressure cooker, Flickr / Joel Solomon (CC BY 2.0)

Thinking back after my visitors left, I have distant memories of my mother's pressure cooker. Olive green comes to mind. This one had a pressure release valve on top that would rock back and forth, chugging to gradually release steam pressure. Mother warned me about it, not only that it was very hot, but it could explode.

Pressure cookers in history did indeed explode, but they have had safety features for many years to prevent that from happening. Indeed, that very basic model I had been watching had a lid that would slide-lock onto the big part underneath. Accidental explosions were unlikely, but someone who didn't know what he was doing and was not a respecter of heavy, hot kitchen equipment could conceivably cause one.

Way back in 1679, the first know pressure cooker was unveiled. Denis Papin's steam digester impressed people, but had a number of problems to work out. He and others commenced to working on those. Later, interest was on the back burner (heh!) for a long time, the concept would not completely go away. Not only are the science and physics involved as to how it cooks so efficiently quite interesting, it could be practical in saving both time and money.

After the Second World War, interest in pressure cookers was rekindled. It seems that several times the idea was going to fade away, but people wanted it to work. Plus, the market for canning was involved. Nowadays, people can find big, expensive pressure cookers that are a part of the canning process. It may be a worthwhile investment to become skilled in both canning and using pressure cookers (because of the way economies are going). For that matter, pressure cookers can be useful for some of the leftover things that normally get scrapped after regular cooking.

Today, there are many styles, capacities, and a range of prices. (I recommend checking reviews and being cautious about buying the cheapest no-name that can be found.) As I said before, people wanted the concept of pressure cookers to work, so it did not go away completely. Also, these things are important to the canning industry. One need not do both, obviously. My wife and I are seriously considering getting and learning about how to use a pressure cooker. But which intelligently-designed product to get? Basic, programmable, just the Dutch oven, use both...?

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Notice that in all this science and technology, the Bearded Buddha was not consulted. Observational science does not need the philosophical underpinnings of evolution. The article that tripped my trigger after discussing pressure cookers, which led to this here article, is very interesting. The subtitle also has a correct use of the word evolution. Y'all can read it at "The History Of Pressure Cookers (Pressure Cooker Evolution and History)."