From Practical Sanitary and Economic Cooking by Mary Hinman Abel (1890): The Papin Soup Digester is the predecessor to the modern pressure cooker. (Early pressure cookers were also called "digesters".) This example is made of porcelain. The Digester was named for its inventor, Denys Papin, a fellow of the Royal Society in England, who described its abilities as transforming the "oldest & hardest cow beefàmade as tender as choice meat." The Digester consists of a metal vessel of cast brass into which meat and water were placed. The lid was screwed or fastened tightly on and the vessel was put over a fire where the temperature reaches above boiling point and pressure builds up. This cooking method was said to reduce the meat to pulp in 6 to 8 minutes. Using the Papin Soup Digester was very dangerous as it frequently blew up and caused injuries. (Linda Campbell Franklin)
