Pressure Cooker Always Burns Food at the Bottom? 4 Troubleshooting Tips to Avoid Failures

Has your pressure cooker ever encountered problems of complicated operation and poor cooking results?

A few days ago, my best friend complained to me that she was in a hurry after work and wanted to use an electric pressure cooker to cook multigrain rice to save time. But when she opened the lid, there was a thick layer of burnt food at the bottom of the pot. She soaked it all night and scrubbed until her arm ached but still couldn’t clean it completely. She originally bought the cooker to reduce her burden, but it added a lot of trouble instead. I went through 56,140 real user reviews and found that 22% of negative reviews focus on complicated operation and poor cooking results – either there are too many buttons that are confusing to operate, or the food gets burnt at the bottom or is half-cooked every time. Many people buy it home, use it twice, then stuff it in the corner of the cabinet to collect dust. Does that sound exactly like your experience?

Why are the operation complicated and cooking results poor? – Figure out the reasons in 2 minutes

Actually, you can’t totally blame yourself for not knowing how to use it. There are essentially two reasons: either you haven’t gotten the hang of the pressure cooker’s “temper” and missed operation details, or the cooker itself has design flaws that are innately prone to problems. It’s just like driving an electric car: either you step on the accelerator without releasing the handbrake, which definitely won’t make the car move and will damage it, or the car’s own power system has problems, so it doesn’t drive smoothly no matter how you operate it. I saw two very representative user comments before: one said “I added rice and water at a 1:1.5 ratio as instructed in the manual, but it got burnt all three times I cooked. The customer service sometimes said I added too little water, sometimes said I turned the heat too high, but it still didn’t work after I adjusted everything according to their suggestions”, the other said “There are twenty or thirty buttons, the options for porridge and soup look almost the same. I chose the wrong one last time and half the pot of rice soup overflowed, I wiped it for half an hour”. Does that perfectly speak your mind?

Practical Guide to Solve Complicated Operation and Poor Cooking Results

Tip 1: Check the ingredient ratio and placement first to reduce the probability of burnt bottom from the source

How to do it: The rice-to-water ratio for ordinary white rice should be controlled at 1:1~1.2, and for multigrain rice and brown rice, it can be increased to 1:1.5 at most, which is 1/5 less water than you usually use for rice cookers. For starchy, high-density ingredients such as beans, sweet potatoes and yams, do not lay them directly at the bottom of the pot, just place them on top of the rice. Why it works: The airtightness of a pressure cooker is much better than that of a rice cooker, and almost no water is lost during the cooking process. Using the amount of water suitable for ordinary pots will definitely cause overflow. The bottom of the pot is the area with the most concentrated heat, heavy ingredients sink to the bottom and contact high temperature for a long time, which is naturally easy to burn. Adjusting the placement can directly avoid this problem.

Tip 2: Check the accessories before each use, don’t waste ingredients due to small mistakes

How to do it: Before closing the lid, touch the sealing ring to make sure it is fully snapped into the groove of the lid, no warping is allowed. After closing the lid, turn the exhaust valve to the “seal” position, do not leave it stuck in the half-open exhaust position. Why it works: I stepped on this pit before: the sealing ring was not fastened tightly, the water in the pot evaporated secretly along the gap, I obviously added enough water but ended up dry burning and burnt the bottom. If the exhaust valve is not closed tightly, the pressure in the pot cannot rise, the cooking time is forced to be extended, and it is also very easy to burn or get half-cooked food.

Tip 3: Choose the right heating mode, don’t use the wrong gear and work in vain

How to do it: Choose the high-pressure gear for dry ingredients (rice, ribs, braised meat), choose the low-pressure/non-pressure gear for liquid ingredients (porridge, soup, tremella soup). Don’t manually force exhaust immediately after cooking rice, wait for 5~10 minutes of natural pressure release before opening the lid. Why it works: The heating power and internal pressure of different gears are matched. If you use high-pressure gear to cook porridge, the heat is too strong which is easy to cause overflow and burnt bottom. If you use low-pressure gear to braise meat, the pressure is not enough and the meat won’t be tender even after cooking for a long time. If you exhaust immediately after cooking, the moisture of the rice will escape with the gas, and it is also easy to stick to the bottom of the pot and form a burnt layer.

Tip 4: Do these two steps well for daily maintenance, no burnt bottom even after years of use

How to do it: After each use of the inner pot, not only wash the inner wall, but also wipe off the water stains and rice grains at the bottom of the inner pot before putting it back into the cooker body. If more than one piece of the non-stick coating of the inner pot has fallen off, just replace it with a new inner pot directly, don’t keep using it reluctantly. Why it works: If there are foreign objects stuck to the bottom of the inner pot, a gap will be formed between it and the heating plate, resulting in excessive local temperature, which is not only easy to burn the bottom, but also damages the heating plate. After the coating falls off, the non-stick effect fails directly, even if the ratio is correct, it is very likely to stick to the bottom of the pot.

How to avoid complicated operation and poor cooking results when purchasing?

Core Indicators to Focus On

① Prioritize pressure cookers with multi-stage pressure adjustment function, with at least two adjustable gears of high pressure and low pressure, which have much stronger adaptability than cookers with only fixed single pressure. ② Choose an inner pot with a thickness of more than 3mm, the thicker it is, the more uniform the heat conduction, and it is less prone to local overheating and burnt bottom problems.

Designs Worth Paying Extra For

① Products with automatic pressure release and pressure release completion reminder: you don’t have to wait by the pot for exhaust, and you won’t make low-level mistakes like forgetting to close the exhaust valve. ② Clear menu labels, each function has clear text + icon labels, even the elderly will not choose the wrong gear when using it.

Pitfall Avoidance List

Don’t believe the propaganda of “universal pot that can cook everything”: the more miscellaneous the functions are, the harder it is to distinguish the menus, which is more prone to operation errors. Don’t believe the saying of “you can cook at will without looking at the ratio”: no matter how good the pot is, it is easy to have problems if the water amount is wrong. Don’t buy low-priced models with few buttons and even vague function labels: the operation threshold is extremely high, you won’t know how to use it at all after buying it home.

Summary

In fact, the problems of troublesome use and easy burnt bottom of pressure cookers are mostly due to inattention to operation details or pitfalls when choosing the pot. When using it at ordinary times, grasp the three key points of ingredient ratio, accessory inspection and mode selection, and maintain the inner pot well, you basically won’t have problems. If you plan to buy a new pressure cooker, look for the two core configurations of multi-stage pressure adjustment and thick inner pot, which can avoid most operation and effect problems from the root. If you want to know more about common user pain points of pressure cookers, you can also read the complete pain point analysis report, so that you can avoid detours when choosing and using pressure cookers.