Save with Pressure Cookers

Hawkins Test Kitchen

Tips for better cooking

Tip 1

Reduce gas after the first whistle, Save up to 25% fuel!

This simple action shown above can reduce your fuel cost by up to 25% compared to cooking on high heat throughout (see details in the tables below). Once the cooker has reached full pressure, high heat is a waste of fuel. The pressure can be maintained as well at lower heat. Over the life of a pressure cooker, this simple tip will save around Rs. 6,000/-. It also saves precious fuel and energy resources for India. Even if 10% households in India change their habit of cooking on high heat throughout, the country can save more than Rs.5 crores per day.

How are these savings worked out?

We know that a cooker saves over Rs. 3.25 per hour of cooking on LPG using a simple action of reducing heat from high to medium after full operating pressure (FOP), as compared to leaving the heat on high throughout (see table below). If the average home uses a cooker for 2 hours each day, this works out to Rs. 6.50 each day. Assuming 300 days usage each year, over 5 years, the savings will be = Rs. 6.50 x 300 x 5 = Rs. 9,750. As per Census 2011, the number of households in India is 24.7 crore. 10% works out to 2.47 crore households. We have seen that each houshold can save about Rs. 6.50 each day using a pressure cooker. So, 2.47 crore households will save Rs. 16.0 crore each day! Taking a very conservative assumption (some of these households may have less than average usage, or go some days without home cooking) we reach a saving for the nation of over Rs. 8 crore per day.

Fuel Saving with Pressure Cookers

Many housewives cook in their pressure cookers on high heat in the mistaken belief that high heat cooks faster. So the Hawkins Test Kitchen tried the method of keeping the cooker going on High heat throughout. This is Method 1. In Method 2, the heat is reduced from High to Medium after the first whistle. This is the sign that the pressure cooker has reached Full Operating Pressure (FOP). From this point, the remaining time at pressure is called the Pressure Cooking Time (PCT). The results are tabulated below.

Dish	Fuel saved *
Colam Rice	9%
Parboiled Rice	23%
Mixed Veg. Pulao	12%
Tuvar Dal	7%
Rajma	27%
Ma Ki Dal	51%
Gajar ka Halwa	0%
Masala Gobi	6%
Potatoes	36%
Kozhi Kuttan	17%
Mutton Biryani	24%
Murgh Musallam	11%
TOTAL	25%
* Fuel saved in Method 2 compared to Method 1

METHODOLOGY: The Hawkins Test Kitchen did various trials in the 5 Litre Hawkins Classic Pressure Cooker on the large burner of a domestic gas stove to establish how much time is taken to cook a variety of Indian dishes − rice, dal, vegetables, meat and poultry.

The Hawkins R & D Department established through separate trials how much fuel is consumed on average when cooking on the large burner of a domestic gas stove at High and Medium heat settings.

How much gas is used?
Gas used in grams/minute Domestic Stove, Large Burner
High	Medium
3 g/hr	1 g/hr

So we know how much gas is used per minute using different heat settings of the large burner of a domestic gas stove. Applying these facts to to the cooking trials gives us the following comparison of fuel consumption between the two Methods:

Sl.	Item	Method 1	Method 2
1.	Method	FOP on High PCT on High	FOP on High PCT on Medium
2.	Time on Flame (minutes)	335 min	335 min
2.1	On High Heat	335 min	213 min
3.	Gas Consumption (g)	335 x 3 = 1005 g	(213 x 3)+(122 x 1) = 761 g
4	Gas saved per Hour of cooking (%)	-	25%
5.	Net Weight of LPG Cylinder (g)	14200 g	14200 g
6.	LPG total Hours of Use	14,200/180 = 78.9 Hrs	14,200/136.3 = 104.2 Hrs
7.	LPG Cylinder (Rs.) without subsidy [Delhi, May '21]	Rs. 1053	Rs. 1053
8.	Cost of LPG used per hour (Rs.)	Rs. 13.35	Rs. 10.10
9.	Gas saved per Hour of cooking (Rs.)	-	Rs. 3.25
9.1	Gas saved per Hour of cooking (%)	-	25%

For more details about the dishes cooked, please see the charts below: