If you have watched someone cook dal in a pressure cooker, you may have noticed a small steel katori sitting inside along with the dal. While it may look like an old-fashioned kitchen practice, it serves a practical purpose.

According to Kanikka Malhotra, Consultant Dietician and Certified Diabetes Educator, the katori can help manage the froth that forms when dal is cooked under pressure. It may also help retain some of the cooking liquid that could otherwise escape from the cooker.

DISCLAIMER: This article is based on information from the public domain and/or the experts we spoke to.

“This is a genuinely clever kitchen hack, not just a habit. Placing a small empty or oil-filled katori inside the cooker, usually wedged upside down or floating, acts as a physical barrier that breaks the surface tension of boiling dal, preventing the frothy overflow that clogs the pressure valve ,” Malhotra explains.

This can be particularly useful when cooking dals that produce more foam.…