Kenji/Serious Eats – 30-Min Pressure Cooker Pho Ga • Hacker News Board

Post by cf100clunk » Mon, Aug 03, 2026, 2:09 PM UTC

MengerSponge wrote: post #97

mordechai9000 wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also want to add something. The new pressure cookers, stovetop or electric, are much less risky than the old school version with the rocker switch. Those could get clogged with food and they had no backup relief mechanism, as far as I know, anyway. The ones used now have a primary valve that controls the cooking pressure, a secondary valve that will release if the primary fails, and the silicon gasket for the lid,…

I have both a stovetop cooker (Zwilling) and an electric (Instant Pot). The stovetop gets hotter faster, so it cooks a lot faster too. The trade off is I can't leave home while it's cooking. The electric lets me set and forget and come back to a hot meal hours later.

Exactly, that's the main difference, that the electric is convenient but depends upon... mains electricity.

Post by dghlsakjg » Tue, Aug 04, 2026, 4:48 PM UTC

jpfromlondon wrote: post #100

Larrikin wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kenji worship can be a little weird, but assuming because of his heritage means he can't cook Pho is ridiculous. His contributions to Serious Eats and America's Test Kitchen have immensely pushed food science forward.

I don't think it's fair to say he has pushed food science forward. He piggy-backed on the work of real food scientists and revealed things to the public that have been common in professional kitchens for decades, but then where he adds his own methods the evidence is often "trust me bro". As someone who grew up in the household of two chefs one classically trained the other a development chef I see James Lopez as lit…

As someone who grew up around professional chefs you might not understand the true baseline level of cooking knowledge that many have going into adulthood; following a recipe is a challenge and they have no idea why they do any of the steps.

Kenji Lopez-Alt (weird that you intentionally chose to write his name in a way that he doesn’t) is by definition not an amateur (he worked professionally in kitchens), but more importantly, he is a really good communicator. His work is about explaining the why of cooking instead of the how to people who did not have the benefit of being raised by professional chefs. He may not have pushed food science forward, but he has pushed understanding of food science forward. His writing is for people that have no clue that adding pasta water to a sauce is a thing, let alone why. Of course professional chefs know to do this, and some of them even know why.

Has he had some dud recipes? Sure. That’s a good thing though, it means that he is willing to both try new things, as well as make mistakes.

Kenji/Serious Eats – 30-Min Pressure Cooker Pho Ga

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