Using steam to cook
You probably have heard the expression “steaming hot”. When you hear that phrase you know it means intense heat. When steaming food you capture that intense heat to “flash cook”.
There is nothing new about using steam to cook
Steam has been a reliable method of cooking for a long long time. And why wouldn’t it be? You can use any heat source, it provides an even, all around heat and keeps your food moist!
When people think about steaming food many think of it as a way to cook vegetables. It is a great way to cook vegetables but that is just the beginning of what you can cook with steam. Seafood is often steamed. Dumplings are often steamed. Steamed puddings are moist and delicious. You can even cook cakes and breads using steam!
When I was young, stovetop steaming seemed to be used a lot more than I see it being used today. At least in my small world. Perhaps that is due to the many kitchen appliances that are available today offering various other methods of cooking.
Steaming has not been overlooked in the development of kitchen appliances. There are electric steamers out there. But you don’t need a special appliance to get the benefits of steaming. It can be done quite successfully the old fashioned way.
It’s simple, quick and easy.
A healthy way to cook
Saving calories
Many people are looking for ways to cut unnecessary calories from their meals. Steaming does that.
Sautéing and oven roasting often require using fats or oils. You can make healthier choices in the oil you choose but all oils have a pretty high caloric count. When you are cooking with steam there are no added calories.
Retaining nutrients
If you are trying to get the best bang for your buck when it comes to nutritional value that’s another reason you may want to consider steaming. Especially vegetables. They cook quickly and no additional ingredients are introduced, so most all the vitamins and minerals stay intact as well as the original taste and shape.
Boiling your vegetables won’t add calories but it can zap foods of vitamins and minerals. Nutrients leach out into the water and then what do we do? We pour that water down the drain and all those nutrients go with it.
Steaming is a great way to get more nutritional value onto your dinner plate instead of sending it down the drain.
The basics
When steaming food you suspend it over boiling water using a steaming basket. The steaming basket has holes that let the steam from the boiling water penetrate the food. To capture and use the steam you need a tightly fitting cover.
Generally speaking, the more room around the food you are cooking the more evenly cooked the food will be. You should spread the food out as much as possible especially if you are steaming something that can get mushy if overcooked. If you are steaming something such as clams that hold their own space and are not going to collapse when fully cooked you don’t need to worry about stacking the basket in multiple layers as long as the cover is on tightly with little to no steam escaping.
Remove the cover as little as possible during cooking. Keeping the steam and pressure at a consistent level is important to the process.
CAUTION:
When cooking with steam you can burn yourself easier, quicker and worse, than with any other method of cooking. You need to be prepared before you lift the cover off. The cover itself is hot and the pressurized steam shoots out immediately once you remove the cover.
There is no lag time between taking the cover off and burning yourself if you haven’t prepared for it. Your forearm will be placed right over where the steam is going to be shooting out once the cover is removed. You need to make sure your hand and forearm are protected before you lift the cover.
A long oven mit is best, but wrapping your hand and arm in a thick dish towel works too. Getting burned with steam is a painful experience. Be careful.
More about steaming
The only “art” to cooking with steam is maintaining a consistent tempeature, hot enough to cook your food without allowing all the liquid in the pan to evaporate. Keeping the temperature and pressure consistent means leaving the lid on. So how do you monitor your water level without removing the lid? By reading the steam by sight and sound.
If you have lots of steam pouring out from under the cover it means you are losing water. It is evaporating into the air. No water means no steam and no cooking.
On the other hand you need to keep the water boiling. Without the boil, there is no steam. When your water is hot enough to create a good amount of steam and you have the cover on the pan you can hear the “turbulance”. There’s a lot of pressure that has built up under the lid and you can hear it.
If you are using a pan that came with a fitted basket as an accessory you probably don’t have to worry much about steam escaping. The pan is usually made so it can hold plenty of water beneath the basket.
It’s when you are using a steaming basket that restricts you to using a minimum amount of water that you need to be more dillegent in making sure you don’t have excessive steam escaping. Steam is water so when you are losing steam you are losing water.
If you are losing steam you need to turn the heat down. A covered pan will heat up faster and retain a lot more heat than boiling without a cover. So once you have a good boil going you don’t need as much heat from the stove to keep the boil going. I have found that my stovetop will maintain a good boil on medium heat when the cover is on.
You don’t need to master steaming to use it
If you are new to steaming it may seem like you have to be a master to make it work but that’s not the case. Once you have your water boiling with the cover on you will see and hear what I am talking about.
All these tips will help you cook quickly and thoroughly. But if you don’t have optimal pressure and temperature, as long as your water is boiling your food will cook but it may take longer. Cooking time is the only consequence unless you are baking with steam. You probably don’t want to start your journey into steaming with that 😊.
How long does it take
How long it will take to steam your food depends on what you are cooking. No surprise there. But whatever you are steaming is going to be cooked in less time than it would with other conventional methods.
The easiest and most practical way to use steam in the everyday household is to cook vegetables. So let’s start there.
As with any cooking method, the time it takes to cook your vegetables will depend on the size of the pieces being steamed and how you like them cooked. Do you like your cooked vegetables fork tender or do you like them cooked but still a but crisp?
In order for your food to be cooked uniformly don’t pack a lot into your basket. You need room between pieces. A second layer is okay as long has they are not packed together.
I usually use steam to cook broccoli because it retains a fresh taste and it looks like broccoli when it’s done. Again, depending on how large my broccoli florets are cut, and how much room is around the pieces they will take from 3 to 7 minutes.
When to add your steaming basket with food
Once you have your prepared food and put it in the steaming basket, when to add it to the pan depends on what basket you are using.
If you have a steaming basket with handles, that has been made to fit your pan (like mine is) you most likely have a good deal of space over the water level. I usually add about 3-4 inches of water to the pan and the water level is still a good distance from the basket. I put the cover on the pan and bring the water to a full boil before I add the basket. It’s kind of like preheating an oven. The steam is ready to do it’s job. it makes the cooking process quicker. It also helps to maintain the food’s original flavor, color and shape without getting mushy.
If you are using another type of steaming basket add as much water to the pan as you can, without the water level reaching the bottom of the basket. Because you have to reach down into the pan to place the basket on the bottom you must put the basket with the food in it before you start heating up your water. Steam is hot. Really hot. It’s not practical to think you can lower the basket into a pan with boiling water, without the danger of getting burned. Once you have your steaming basket in, cover the pan and turn the heat to high to get the water to a boil as soon as possible, then turn the heat down enough to keep the steam from puffing out from under the cover.
So if you are new to this process, you must be wondering what these “steaming baskets” are all about.
Let’s look at some steaming baskets
A steaming basket is a kitchen tool that suspends the food that you want to cook, over boiling water. As the name implies it is specifically made for steaming. It has holes that allow the steam to penetrate your food.
Steaming baskets come in lots of shapes and sizes.
Steaming baskets made for your saucepan
The ideal equipment for stovetop steaming is a saucepan with a fitted steaming basket and a tight fitting lid. The steaming basket is removable and only needs to be inserted when you want to steam. Otherwise the saucepan can be used as you would any other.
This is my saucepan with the necessary steaming accessories, a steaming basket and a tight fitting lid.
The perforated steaming basket in front is what is going to hold the ingredients I want to steam. The basket fits snuggly into the saucepan and has a ridge that meets the top of the saucepan to keep it suspended and away from the boiling water.
The cover/lid fits tightly over the steaming basket to capture the steam and maintain pressure.
All three pieces are made to fit together perfectly.
Is buying a saucepan with a fitted basket worth the investment?
There are less expensive alternatives to buying a quality saucepan which has a fitted steaming basket and tight fitting lid. But I think it’s an investment worth making. And I’ll tell you why.
Consider this
The saucepan pictured above was purchased more than 50 years ago! It has a ding or two but this pan has been used most every week for more than 50 years. It has been dropped, charred and used as a drum by two generations of babies. As you can see, it is hardly worse the wear. The surfaces are a bit scratched, but this pan is going to be around for yet another generation and maybe one after that too.
You will never regret investing in quality kitchen tools, and there is no tool more important to your success in cooking than pots and pans.
If you want to do any job well, you need good tools. Your cooking experience and the finished product will greatly benefit from using quality pans.
You don’t need super expensive cookware but there is a solid mid-price range between cheap and super expensive when it comes to pots and pans. And keep in mind, you don’t need to buy a whole set at at once. You can purchase or replace your pans one or two at a time.
My tried and true saucepan
My saucepan is stainless steel. The stainless steel has been clad with aluminum on the bottom. They are bonded together to get the best of what each has to offer. This match up of materials is used commonly in good cookware.
Stainless steel is perfect for cooking purposes. It’s durable and does not interact with foods. Some metals can effect the taste and texture of acidic foods but not stainless steel.
Heavy aluminum has great conductivity but is one of the metals that can effect taste.
Let’s get back to steaming, shall we?
I really got side tracked. But it seemed a great opportunity to share some thoughts about cookware.
Less expensive steaming baskets
Here is a commonly found alternative to a “made for the saucepan” steaming basket.
Once again, here is my 50 year old saucepan. But this time the custom made steaming basket has been replaced by a great alternative for the everyday cook.
In front we have a commonly found “flying saucer like” steaming basket. There are three little feet on the bottom that hold the basket out of the water in the pan. Those fan like pieces along the outside expand or close up according to the size of the pan so your food doesn’t drop in.
Here it what it cooks like when all folded up
This is a picture of the flying saucer steaming basket, all closed up. More than likely it will be packaged like this if you are looking to buy one.
PLEASE NOTE: The term “flying saucer steaming basket”🛸 is purely my own concoction for something to call this. You are never going to find anything labeled flying saucer steaming basket 🤗.
The basket is elevated by three little fold out peg legs, on the bottom.
Using this basket
The major disadvantage to using this basket and most others is the legs are pretty short and don’t hold the basket far from the bottom of the pot. You need to be careful NOT to have the water level hitting the bottom of the basket. Also you have to add the basket, food in all to the pan before the water is boiling. It’s dangerous to try any other way.
AND
While you are steaming, that little bit of water can evaporate pretty easily even with a lid on. You need to be observant to keep steam from escaping from the pan. If you have lost a lot of steam you may need to check the water level. Taking the lid off is something you should avoid when possible. It lowers the temperature and pressure.
My saucepan with the fitted basket holds lots of water underneath. I don’t need to worry that I am going to be evaporating all the liquid in my pan.
And then there is this one
I have a little closing story about steaming baskets. Have you seen our AMERICAN CHOP SUEY post? I introduced you to Doreen in that post. We have been friends since we were 2.
So, what does this have to do with steaming?
I recently stopped over to visit with Doreen and mentioned I was getting ready to add a post on steaming. She popped out of her chair went into her kitchen and came out waiving a floppy red thing announcing “this is what I use”.
In her hand was a red silicone steaming basket. No worries about where to store this baby in your kitchen. It is flexible enough to be folded into quarters. Now, I am going to admit, the little red silicone steaming basket isn’t going to be added to MY assortment of cooking tools. But for Doreen it works.
I guess I have become a bit of a snob when it comes to my kitchen equipment. But this little cutie might be just perfect for you!
And here it is! Doreen’s little red silicone steaming basket.
Hey, what can I say. It WILL DO THE JOB, and that is really all that counts.
Want to try steaming? We have a dinner recipe that’s great for a beginner. It’s an Italian classic BROCCOLI AND RIGATONI that features broccoli and steaming brings out the best in broccoli. The recipe also has you add some ingredients to the water that you are steaming with. Not only is that a convenient match up but the herbs in the water lend a bit of flavor to the broccoli while it is cooking. It is so easy to make and absolutely delicious. 😋
Good luck!