This is often done with a food steamer, a kitchen appliance made specifically to cook food with steam, but food can also be steamed in a wok.

When steam includes these tiny droplets, it is called wet steam. Your food is likely done cooking when it’s tender, pierced easily with the tip of a sharp knife, or in the case of vegetables, brightly colored and just barely soft.

That keeps the steam inside the pot so it can cook your food, as well as maintains the water level at the bottom. High heat transfer coefficient, Requires a smaller heat transfer surface area, allowing a lower initial equipment expenditure, Rapid, even heating through latent heat transfer which improves production and product quality. Even the best boilers may discharge steam containing 3% to 5% wetness.

This post may contain affiliate links. Unlike boiling and simmering, steaming doesn’t agitate food, so it’s a perfectly gentle way to cook delicate items like seafood and shellfish. I enjoy making family friendly recipes while sharing cooking tips and knowledge of food science. Water-tube boiler parts and Working Principle, What is Weldability|Factor Affecting Weldability, Arc welding Definition |Basics and equipment, Brazing definition and How to braze metals, Difference between Centrifugal pump and Reciprocating pump.

If this steam is then further heated above the saturation point, it becomes superheated steam (sensible heating). Steaming is ideal for foods that need moisture, and foods that should be soft and silken rather than crunchy or caramelized. In Western cooking, steaming is most often used to cook vegetables—it is rarely used to cook meats. Individuals preferring to avoid additional fat intake may prefer steaming to methods which require cooking oil. Boiling is suitable for hardier vegetables such as corn on the cob, potatoes, and beets.

Steaming is a relatively quick way to cook food, so stay close.

Great article, thinking of steam cooking my food, also been thinking of steam cooking food for my pets, rather than doing it raw.

Steam is dangerous, because it is very hot, and can cause significant burns if mishandled. If water is heated beyond the boiling point, it vaporizes into steam, or water in the gaseous state. Sakamushi: add sake to steam sea bream and clams which will reduce fishy smell. However, steamed clams are prepared by steaming. Hi Rosemarie- I don’t use a steaming basket to cook the rice. TLV ToolBox - Mobile App for Steam Engineering, Tracing the Causes of Heat Maintenance Issues, How Mechanical Traps Work: A Look at their Mechanism and Merits, How Disc Traps Work: A Look at their Mechanism and Merits, Steam Trap Selection: How Application Affects Selection, Steam Trap Selection: Understanding Specifications, Steam Trap Selection: Safety Factor and Life Cycle Cost, Applications of Different Types of Steam Traps, Don't Get Steamed : Selecting Steam Trap Design, Compare Two Fixed Orifice Venturi Products to a Variable Orifice Free Float Steam Trap. Some of these are: Having said this, it is necessary to be mindful of the following when heating with saturated steam: This is the most common form of steam actually experienced by most plants.

Once you arrive at the boiling point, you can turn the heat level down a bit but not too much that you’ve stopped creating steam. There are also specialized steam ovens available. Saturated steam has many properties that make it an excellent heat source, particularly at temperatures of 100 °C (212°F) and higher. There are receipts where sauce is added to the main ingredients, aiming to control smell or aroma, or keep moisture to the ingredients. If your pot lid is glass, it’s easy to visually check that steam is forming—you can see it filling up the pot—but if your lid is opaque, you may have to crack the lid to check your progress. In Thailand steaming is the definition of minimalist cooking. Answer.

Please read my disclosure policy. [16] Steaming compared to boiling retained β-carotene in carrots. [1]And also in Gunma Prefecture, Japan, created during the Stone Age. Once you decide on the amount of food you’re going to cook, use a pot that accommodates it, with a little room left over so you don’t end up crowding your food. Make sure the lid closes tightly on the pot and that there is some room between the lid and the top of the food. It is a vapor of water. It is a two-phase mixture, containing boiling water particles and dry steam in an equilibrium state. Boiling is suitable for hardier vegetables such as corn on the cob, potatoes, and beets.

For these reasons and others, saturated steam is preferred over superheated steam as the heating medium in exchangers and other heat transfer equipment.

The absolute best way to maintain the heat of steam is to keep the lid on your pot or steamer. Traditional Japanese sweets or wagashi making involves steaming rice or wheat dough for making mochigashi and manju. However, the entrained wet steam will reduce heating efficiency, and should be removed through point-of-use or distribution separation stations, Steam that incurs pressure losses due to piping friction, etc., may result a corresponding loss in steam temperature as well, To maintain the dryness of the steam for steam-driven equipment, whose performance is impaired by the presence of condensate.

It is advantageous to both supply and discharge the steam while in the superheated state because condensate will not be generated inside steam-driven equipment during normal operation, minimizing the risk of damage from erosion or carbonic acid corrosion. When steam is generated using a boiler, it usually contains wetness from non-vaporized water molecules that are carried over into the distributed steam. The steamer usually has a lid that is placed on the top of the container during cooking to allow the steam to cook through the food. When cooking vegetables, steaming is preferable to boiling because the food remains separate from the hot water, allowing it to retain more nutrients in the cooking process. Commercially sold frozen foods (such as dim sum) formerly had instructions to reheat by steaming, until the rise in popularity of home microwave ovens, which have considerably shorter cooking times. Due to the increase in water volume, the piston moves upward.

In Japan, glutinous rice is steamed to prepare mochi rice cakes. Steaming is a method of cooking using steam.This is often done with a food steamer, a kitchen appliance made specifically to cook food with steam, but food can also be steamed in a wok.In the American southwest, steam pits used for cooking have been found dating back about 5,000 years. Dry Saturated Steam absorbed its full latent heat and behaves practically, in the same way as a perfect gas. The food is kept separate from the boiling water but has direct contact with the steam, resulting in a moist texture to the food. Steaming is a delicate process with little if any agitation, so it’s ideal for baby carrots, green beans, cubed zucchini, and delicate greens.