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Fresh or frozen vegetables and puddings are the items most often steamed, and steaming is a method of cooking used quite often in Asian cookery.  Health benefits of your food is greatly increased by steaming as opposed to boiling, as the water will leech out the vitamins and nutrients of your food.

There are four main types of steamers to be found in the commercial kitchen.

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The atmospheric steamer has a boiling water bath in the bottom of the steaming compartment and a free vent so that the steam doesn’t rise much above atmospheric pressure. For this reason, the door can be opened at any time – but of course steam is lost each time the door is opened. All foods may be cooked in this steamer. It’s especially suitable for steamed puddings.

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The pressure steamer has a separate or built-in steam generator. It works at a pressure the door automatically locks and the pressure must be vented before the door can be opened. Because of the pressure, higher steam temperatures are reached and cooking times are therefore shorter. Pressure steamers aren’t suitable for puddings.

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High pressure steamers are similar to pressure steamers but work at a pressure of about 100kPa. For this reason the steam is very hot and food cooks very quickly. They are usually equipped with timers which buzz or which vent the steam automatically when the cooking time is reached. They don’t have a large capacity, and are designed to cook batches of fresh and frozen vegetables in 1-5 minutes.

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Combi steamers are combined convection ovens and steamers, can cook by moist heat, dry heat, or a combination of both, making other steamers obsolete. Steam input can be controlled to obtain a level of saturation required to suit the product being cooked. Controls vary with different models, but cooking conditions are applicable to a very wide range of menu items. They are designed for gastronorm trays, and allow a number of different foods to be cooked at the same time without flavour transfer.

Principles

1.
Steam cookery at low pressure is suitable only for root vegetables and sweet or savoury puddings that require long cooking times.

2.
Vegetables and puddings must be steamed in perforated trays that are either Gastronorm modules or specially made to fit the steamer.

3.
Frozen vegetables should be cooked in high-pressure steamers.

Puddings steamed in atmospheric steamers must be carefully covered to prevent condensed steam from making the pudding wet.

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Posted on October 31st, 2008 under Uncategorized • Tags: asian cookery, boiling, cooking tips, method of cooking, steaming. • RSS 2.0 feed • Leave a response, or trackback