How to cook steamed meat in a pan. Do-it-yourself steamer: assembly steps and cons of the device. How to cook steamed meatballs in a slow cooker

Today, more and more people are switching to proper and healthy nutrition. If you are one of them, then you have often come across various recipes for steamed dishes. But unfortunately, not everyone can afford to purchase an electric steam cooking device, so sooner or later the question may arise,?

In Soviet times, cooks got used to steaming almost all dishes without a double boiler: chicken and meat cutlets, vegetables and fish, casseroles and much more. As a result of such heat treatment, dishes are low-calorie, ideal for young children and people on a diet. Therefore, below you will see how to replace a double boiler at home.

The most affordable option is to cover a pan of the required diameter with gauze folded in several layers. Securely fasten the ends of the gauze (you can use a rubber band for this purpose) and hide them inside the pan. Cover the pan with a lid or basin of a suitable diameter. So you can cutlets and vegetables.

If there is no gauze at hand, then you can use two pots of different diameters (choose either enameled or stainless steel dishes). Put fish, meatballs or vegetables (pre-cut as you like) into a saucepan of small diameter, pour in a small amount of broth or water.

In a large pot, pre-boil water (take about a third or half a pot of water, depending on the size of the smaller container) and place a small saucepan over boiling water. Now cover everything with a lid and cook your dish until cooked. This is the easiest way how to replace a steamer at home.

Instead of gauze or a small saucepan, you can use a colander. Steam without a double boiler so you can steam rice, vegetables, fish or steam cutlets for twenty minutes to half an hour (depending on the meat and fish chosen).

Steamed vegetables are cooked very quickly: in ten to twenty minutes you will get a tasty and healthy dish with a minimum of lost vitamins and minerals.

Steamed food is tasty and healthy. It preserves the natural color and taste of products without loss of vitamins and microelements, and meat, fish and vegetables do not lose moisture and turn out juicy. In addition, steamed meals are considered low-calorie because they are not fried in oil. If someone in your family is forced to follow a diet for medical reasons or for weight loss, cook food for a couple, and then it will never occur to anyone that they are limited in some way. It's so delicious!

Boil or steam

Steamed is healthier than boiled, stewed or baked in the oven. The fact is that when steaming, the temperature does not rise above 100 ° C, so the beneficial substances are completely preserved in the products. During cooking, many water-soluble vitamins pass into the broth and are destroyed more quickly. In addition, during the process of boiling and stewing, vegetables and meat lose their natural color and become paler. There is an opinion that steamed dishes are tasteless unless seasoned with spices. But this is not so, and you can be sure of this. The fact is that steamed natural products have a wide variety of flavors, and you can also use spices that add richness and piquancy to dishes. However, you will need much less spices than for cooking stews and boiled dishes. After a while, you and your loved ones will get so used to steam food that everything else will seem tasteless.

What is best for steaming

You can steam any dish - meat, fish, seafood, vegetables, omelettes, casseroles, dough products, cereals and even desserts. Steaming is not only healthy, but also very convenient and practical. For example, scrambled eggs and porridge will never burn in a double boiler, so you do not need to monitor them, the soup will not boil over. Liquid dishes are usually steamed in special bowls, and they are cooked in the usual way, only not by boiling, but by the action of steam.

What should not be steamed? Pasta in a double boiler boils soft and sticks together, and legumes remain raw. But even if you pre-soak peas or beans and, with patience and adding water, wait 3 hours until they are cooked, you will be disappointed. The taste of legumes cooked in the usual way is no different from a dish cooked in a double boiler, including in terms of benefits. Definitely do not steam mushrooms and offal, as they require pre-cooking for a long time.

Steam cooking with kitchen appliances

The simplest appliance for steaming is a mechanical steamer, which is a special insert on legs or a steam basket that is placed in a pot filled with water. Food is laid out on top, the pan is closed with a lid and put on fire. The water in the pan boils, evaporates, and food is cooked on this steam. Once upon a time, housewives used a colander or a sieve instead of a double boiler, but now we steam food using special tools that make it easier to work in the kitchen and save time.

How to cook in a steamer? Everything is very simple. At the base of this kitchen appliance is a container into which water is poured, and then brought to a boil using a heating element, as in an electric kettle. One or more steam baskets are installed on top, into which steam enters, and all the condensate flows into a special pan. Modern double boilers are powered by the mains, so you can cook several dishes in them at the same time without constant control and presence in the kitchen.

Not everyone knows how to steam in a slow cooker, but it's even easier than using a double boiler. Despite the absence of a multi-storey structure, the food is prepared very quickly, it turns out tasty and fragrant. In a slow cooker, you can also cook two at the same time - one in the usual way in a bowl and the second - for a couple.

Steam cooking functions are also available in some models of microwaves and air grills. Choose what suits you best!

Use only fresh quality products, which must be thoroughly washed before cooking and cleaned if necessary. Cut food into large or medium pieces, because small pieces will cook very quickly and turn into porridge. Vegetables or meat slices should be the same size so that the dish cooks evenly. Also, do not stack the pieces in several layers - the more food in the double boiler, the more time it will take to cook the dish. Leave small gaps between the pieces for free air circulation.

The steamer must be tightly covered with a lid. If there is at least a small gap in it, the cooking time will increase. Also, make sure that the water does not boil away, and add it if necessary. Pour boiling water over the grits before cooking, and cover the seafood with foil to make them especially tender.

If you are cooking several foods at the same time, put meat or beets on the bottom tier of the steamer so that they get the hottest steam, and leave the upper tiers for fish and other vegetables. Beets are also best cooked at the bottom because they often produce juice that can color the food underneath. By the way, when calculating the cooking time, keep in mind that for each tier located above, you should add 5 minutes, because the steam, passing through the lower tiers, cools down a bit.

How long to cook in a double boiler

All require different cooking times, and much depends on the power of kitchen appliances and the size of the product. Cooking time is usually indicated in the instructions. Root vegetables are boiled for about 30 minutes, non-starchy vegetables - 15-20 minutes, green vegetables - 3 minutes. Thinly sliced ​​pieces of meat are cooked for about 1.5 hours, meatballs, meatballs, zrazy and other minced meat dishes - 60 minutes, and chicken meatballs reach readiness within half an hour. Chicken, turkey and rabbit cook quickly - about 45-50 minutes. Cereals are usually boiled for 25-30 minutes. Fish is steamed faster than meat, and after 10-15 minutes it will delight you with its delicate taste and aroma. However, some varieties of fish are cooked longer - for example, catfish or pike.

Cooking fish at home for a couple

Take fillets of trout, pink salmon, salmon and any other fish you like, sprinkle the fish with lemon juice and olive oil, rub with any spices, salt, black pepper and fish herbs and leave for 15 minutes. The fish, saturated with the aroma of spices and dried herbs, will turn out fragrant and piquant. You can lightly pickle it in a sauce of lemon and orange juice, soy sauce, dry wine or beer.

Put fish steaks in a double boiler or slow cooker on lettuce leaves, place onion rings, slices of tomato or bell pepper on top, decorate all this splendor with greens and lemon slices. You can sprinkle the dish with grated cheese, and then turn on the double boiler mode for 10-15 minutes. At the same time, some housewives add spices, a little wine vinegar or dry wine to the water for steaming. Serve steam fish with lemon, herbs, vegetables, rice or mashed potatoes.

How to steam meat

Rinse the chicken breast, let it dry and make small cuts in the flesh. Cut the garlic into thin plates, stuff the meat, pour two glasses of water into the multicooker bowl and cook the breast for 35-40 minutes. You can cook beef in the same way, only it should be pre-marinated in wine or salt water for 2-4 hours. A glass of water requires 2 tsp. salt. After the meat is marinated, sprinkle it with spices and herbs and steam for 40 minutes. Some housewives say that if you rub a piece of beef with dry mustard 2 hours before cooking, it will turn out very soft and tender. Keep in mind that the dish will be quite spicy, so such culinary techniques are not suitable for children's cuisine. Cut the meat into slices and serve with any sauces and side dishes.

Steamed vegetables with sauce

Prepare chopped cauliflower or broccoli, diced zucchini, bell pepper rings, and onion rings. If desired, you can add any vegetables here - pumpkin, potatoes, carrots. While the vegetables are steaming, make a light sauce with a cup of low-fat yogurt, 2 tbsp. l. honey and 1 tsp. mustard. Add any fresh and dried herbs, spices, salt, pepper and one minced garlic clove to the dressing. Pour vegetables over before serving and enjoy their aristocratic taste.

Steam vegetables, meat and fish are eaten with herbs, sour cream, grated cheese, butter or olive oil, cream or sauce. Steamed dishes go well with any seasonings, complementing their exquisite taste with new shades. Be picky gourmets and feed your family tasty, healthy and stylish!

Steamed dishes are indispensable in dietary nutrition and the diet of those who seek to eat healthy food. Steam heat treatment of products preserves the maximum of their useful components, natural taste and juiciness, without saturating them with excess fats or harmful carcinogens.

Steam recipes

Steamed dietary dishes for many are monotonous, unattractive in appearance and insipid in taste. However, with a detailed study of the range of such culinary creations and their characteristics, the opposite becomes obvious: dishes attract with their original performance and you definitely want to try them.

  1. Any meat, fish, vegetables are steamed, both in whole slices and in the form of cutlets.
  2. Dumplings, manti, syrniki, buns, and other steamed dishes in a double boiler or slow cooker equipped with a special grill work out great in taste.
  3. In the absence of modern gadgets, you can build a home-made structure by lowering a colander into a pot of boiling water of a suitable diameter and covering it with a lid.

Steamed cutlets - recipe


Which will be presented later, can be prepared from chicken fillet or the pulp of the legs and thighs, passing it through a meat grinder along with onions and herbs. More juicy and tender products will be obtained if, when forming them, put a slice of butter or cheese inside each.

Ingredients:

  • chicken pulp - 500 g;
  • onion - 100 g;
  • breadcrumbs - 2 tbsp. spoons;
  • protein - 1 pc.;
  • greens - 0.5 bunch;
  • salt, pepper, oil.

Cooking

  1. Grind the meat along with onions and herbs.
  2. Add breadcrumbs, salt, pepper, and egg white whipped to foam.
  3. The mass is stirred, beaten a little and cutlets are formed from it.
  4. Put the products in a double boiler and cook for 20 minutes.

Steamed fish - recipe


Which can be performed in a double boiler or slow cooker. Together with fresh dill, it is allowed to use other herbs or green onions, and additionally season the fish fillet with your favorite spices. The finished dish is served with boiled rice, sliced ​​​​fresh vegetables or a light salad.

Ingredients:

  • pollock fillet - 2 pcs.;
  • soy sauce - 2 teaspoons;
  • butter - 60 g;
  • dill - 2 teaspoons;
  • lemon juice - 2 teaspoons;
  • lemon slices - 2 pcs.;
  • laurel - 2 pcs.

Cooking

  1. Pollock fillet is poured with a mixture of lemon juice and soy sauce, sprinkled with dill.
  2. A slice of chilled butter is placed on the wide side of the fish fillet, rolled up.
  3. So that the rolls do not unfold during the heat treatment, they are placed in foil, supplementing each bundle with a laurel leaf and a circle of lemon on top.
  4. Like many other steamed dishes, fish is cooked for 20 minutes.

Steamed dumplings - recipe


The proposed further will turn out to be performed qualitatively even by those who have not previously succeeded in such dishes. The filling can be cottage cheese, berries, stewed cabbage, boiled potatoes, in which, for taste, you can add fried onions or, if desired, finely chopped mushrooms.

Ingredients:

  • kefir - 0.5 l;
  • flour - 1 kg;
  • soda - 1 teaspoon;
  • vinegar - 2 teaspoons;
  • salt - a pinch;
  • filling.

Cooking

  1. Soda quenched with vinegar is added to warm kefir, mixed, left for 10 minutes.
  2. Pour salt, sifted flour and knead the dough, not sticky to hands and soft.
  3. Divide the lump into portions, roll up the sausages, cut them into portions.
  4. From each form a cake, fill it with stuffing.
  5. Cook dumplings for a couple of 5-10 minutes, depending on the size of the products.

Steamed omelet - recipe


Which will be presented next, it will turn out lush, tender and guaranteed to be healthy, which cannot be said with certainty when cooking a dish in a pan with an abundance of oil. The composition of the egg mixture can be supplemented with any fresh vegetables, grated cheese, herbs.

Ingredients:

  • eggs - 2 pcs.;
  • milk - 120 ml;
  • salt, oil, herbs.

Cooking

  1. Water is poured into the bowl, a grate is installed.
  2. Break the eggs into a bowl, add milk, salt the mixture and mix with a whisk until smooth.
  3. Greens and other additives to taste are added to the egg base, the mass is poured into an oiled form and placed on a wire rack for steaming.
  4. Turn on the "Steam" mode for 15 minutes.

Steamed Carrot Cutlets - Recipe


Recipes for a couple of fresh vegetables are most useful and especially valuable for dietary nutrition. Using the idea proposed below, it will be possible to cook appetizing, tasty and light carrot cutlets. Carrot "minced meat" can optionally be supplemented with chopped onions, herbs, and other vegetables.

Ingredients:

  • large carrots - 3 pcs.;
  • semolina - 4 tbsp. spoons;
  • eggs - 2 pcs.;
  • salt pepper.

Cooking

  1. Carrots are washed, peeled and chopped on a fine grater or in a blender.
  2. Add eggs, semolina, salt and pepper to the carrot mass, mix.
  3. Cutlets are formed, laid, like all steamed dishes, on the tray of a double boiler or multicooker and cooked for 25-30 minutes.

Steamed roll - recipe


Delicious steamed meat dishes can be presented in the form of an original and appetizing roll. The dish made from chicken pulp will be especially tender, which goes well with absolutely any filling: vegetable, mushroom, nut or multi-component, made with the addition of fresh and dried fruits, berries, herbs.

Ingredients:

  • chicken fillet - 700 g;
  • cream - 70 ml;
  • cranberries - 100 g;
  • dried apricots or prunes - 100 g;
  • greens - 1 bunch;
  • pistachios - 100 g;
  • salt, pepper, spices for poultry.

Cooking

  1. The chicken is beaten off, seasoned with salt, pepper, cream, laid out on a piece of foil.
  2. Cranberries, peeled pistachios, chopped dried fruits and herbs are mixed, seasoned and laid out on the surface of the meat.
  3. Roll the product into a roll, wrap it with a film.
  4. which can be performed in a slow cooker or double boiler for 45 minutes.

Steamed cheesecakes in a slow cooker - recipes


The recipe for steamed cheesecakes presented below will come at a time when you don’t want or can’t eat fried food for health reasons. To ensure that the products retain their beautiful shape, it is preferable to prepare them in silicone or other suitable molds. Dried fruits, berries, nuts can be added to the base.

Ingredients:

  • flour - 100 g;
  • cottage cheese - 400 g;
  • oil - 1 tbsp. spoon;
  • sugar - 2-3 tbsp. spoons;
  • eggs - 2 pcs.;
  • vanillin - a pinch;
  • berries, grated chocolate, jam.

Cooking

  1. Cottage cheese is mixed with yolks pounded with sugar, butter, vanillin, punched with a blender.
  2. Add flour and egg whites whipped to peaks.
  3. If you plan to add fillers, mix them into the curd.
  4. Fill the molds half or 2/3 with the curd base.
  5. Prepare products for a couple of 30 minutes.
  6. Serve with jam, berries or grated chocolate.

Dumplings - a recipe for a couple


Any steamed flour dishes are especially tender and soft. The traditional Czech dish dumplings is more common in European countries. It is served as a side dish for hot meat dishes, supplemented with sauces, added to soups. When forming rolls, you can add the filling if you wish.

Ingredients:

  • flour - 600 g;
  • water - 1 glass;
  • vegetable oil and sugar - 1 tbsp. spoon
  • dry yeast and salt - 1 teaspoon each;
  • egg - 1 pc.;
  • stuffing (optional)

Cooking

  1. Yeast, sugar and 3 tablespoons of flour are dissolved in warm water, left for an hour.
  2. Add an egg, butter, salt and flour, knead a soft dough, leave to rise for 2 hours. They cheat once.
  3. The lump is divided into portions, rolled out each, rolled up and left for 40 minutes.
  4. Like the classic recipes for steaming dumplings in a double boiler, and options with filling, they cook for 20 minutes.

Steamed vegetables - recipes


They will help you cook delicious steamed vegetables and broccoli in a slow cooker with recipes and ideas from experienced chefs for serving dishes. Often, valuable vegetable components are supplemented with seasonings, original dressings, spicy sauces that will qualitatively transform the taste of products and emphasize their taste favorably.

Ingredients:

  • broccoli or cauliflower - 150 g;
  • bell pepper and zucchini - 150 g each;
  • carrots and onions - 1 pc.;
  • green beans and peas - 75 g each;
  • natural yogurt - 1 cup;
  • garlic - 1 clove;
  • honey - 2 tbsp. spoons;
  • mustard - 1 teaspoon;
  • provencal herbs - 2 pinches;
  • salt pepper.

Cooking

  1. Sliced ​​carrots are placed in a double boiler, cooked for 10 minutes.
  2. Add cabbage inflorescences, chopped zucchini, peppers, onions, green beans and peas.
  3. Steam the vegetables for another 20 minutes.
  4. Mix yogurt with garlic, herbs, honey, mustard, adding salt and pepper.
  5. Pour the steamed vegetables with the resulting sauce.

Manty in a slow cooker for a couple - recipe


Like other steamed dishes in a slow cooker, manti are simply cooked and, if the subtleties of the recipe are observed, they turn out to be surprisingly tasty. To create the classic version of the products, a trivial hard dough is used from flour, water and salt. The filling in the original is lamb with tail fat and onions, but it can also be made from any minced meat with the addition of lard.

Ingredients:

  • flour - 300 g;
  • water - 0.5 cups;
  • minced meat - 350 g;
  • lard - 50 g;
  • onions - 2 pcs.;
  • salt, pepper, oil.

Cooking

  1. And flour, salt and water knead the dough, leave it under the film for an hour.
  2. Minced meat is mixed with onions, bacon, salt, pepper, add 2 tablespoons of water.
  3. Manty is formed from the dough and the filling, dipped with the bottom in oil and placed on the grate of a steam multicooker.
  4. Cook the dish for 40 minutes in the "Steam" mode.

Steamed buns - recipe


Like other steamed dough dishes, Chinese buns are obtained without a blush, which does not at all prevent them from adequately competing with products obtained by traditional baking. If desired, the rolled out layer of ripened dough can be greased with sesame oil or water flavored with spices.

Everyone knows that a double boiler is considered the most convenient appliance for cooking steamed dishes. Nevertheless, remembering the tricks and ingenuity of our mothers and grandmothers, you can completely do without it. How can I cook a steamed dish for a child without a double boiler? Yes, very easy!

How can you make a steamer?

When there is no double boiler at hand, you can make it yourself:

1. Take a deep saucepan and a bowl of the same diameter.

2. Pour no more than half of water into the pan, tie tightly with gauze folded in two or three layers.

3. Put a dish on cheesecloth and cover with a bowl on top as a lid. Inside, the dish will be steamed without a double boiler - just as fast and tasty.

In such a simple way, for example, you can cook tender ones.

Instead of gauze, you can also use a colander or a sieve and cover it with a regular pot lid. But in this case, the dishes must be enameled or stainless.

In this way, you can steam vegetables, rice, fish, meatballs and much more for your child.

Safety when steaming food without a steamer:

The main rule in the kitchen is that appliances should be comfortable, reliable and safe. You must be careful and careful when cooking in a homemade double boiler:

- the slightest contact of the skin with steam threatens with burns - do not put your hands (fingers) inside under the lid, use oven mitts and cooking spatulas,

- when using gauze as a homemade steamer, remember that it can get wet and is also very hot!

- gauze should be tied tightly, and the ends should be hidden up inside the “steamer”,

- plastic colanders should not be used for steaming any dishes without a double boiler, only if they are marked “for high temperatures”, which is extremely rare.

By the way, a very convenient thing for cooking a small amount of food is a removable folding steamer on a pan. It is very similar in meaning to using a colander, only suitable for pots of different diameters due to folding petals along the edge. For example, the Vitesse VS-1261 (Margot) model from the French brand VITESSE

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Steam cooking is perhaps the most gentle method of heat treatment. The product is evenly heated with moist steam, and nutrients and natural taste are preserved in the food as much as possible. And how to steam rice, meat, fish and vegetables? We will prompt

What is the point

A small amount of water is poured into any pan of a suitable size. As a rule, no more than a quarter of the volume, but not less than 250 ml. Then the dishes are put on fire, the water is brought to a boil. And then a banal metal colander or the same sieve is installed on the pan, where the product prepared for heat treatment lies - washed, peeled, chopped, seasoned or even wrapped in cling film. Cover the pan with a colander with a lid - that's, in fact, that's all. It seems to be. In fact, everything is not so simple. Steamed food always takes longer to cook than liquid. A long cooking time gives the chef the illusion that the product cannot be overcooked in this way. More as possible. So let's talk about everything in order.

cultural revolution

Like most kitchen appliances and food processing methods, steaming was invented by the Chinese. And of course, they do not use any metal colanders. Anyone who has seen a movie from Chinese life, where they not only fight, but also eat, must have noticed the characteristic straw baskets that are placed one on top of the other. This is the Chinese steamer. Weave such baskets from bamboo straw. The lower one is placed in a wok pan with boiling water, and the rest - one on top of the other. The convex bottom of the pan allows you to place steamers of different sizes, and thanks to the beveled edges, it is easy to add a little more water if necessary. So you can cook several different dishes, or you can cook one.

The steamer should be positioned so that the boiling water is 2-3 cm below its bottom, and the product being cooked is no closer than 2-3 cm from its walls. If the product is juicy, it should be cooked in a deep plate so that the taste and aroma do not disappear. If it is not going to expire with juices, you can put it directly in a double boiler. Cook on more than two tiers bamboo steamer not worth it. In the third, upper tier, the steam is not hot enough for cooking, it is only suitable for heating dishes. By the way, warming up food in a double boiler is convenient and correct, because in this case the food never dries up.

Vegetables, with the exception of eggplant, are not customary in China for steaming (by the way, in vain). But freshly caught fish is generally cooked exclusively for a couple. And yet - a variety of Chinese dumplings.

Steaming takes place over low heat. You can put a few coins on the bottom of the water container; as long as there is enough water, they will ring; the ensuing silence will tell you that it's time to add boiling water.

The main inconvenience of using bamboo steamers is the need to ensure that the edges of the lower basket in contact with the hot wok are not burned. Caring for the Chinese invention is simple: after use, it should immediately be washed with hot water and wiped dry. And since bamboo steamers are usually very beautiful, sometimes dishes are served to the table right in them.

From the point of view of practicality, it is much more interesting to use the Central Asian modification of the double boiler, known to the entire population of the former Soviet Union as mantis. It is made, as a rule, of aluminum and cannot burn. In addition to manti, you can cook anything in it. The product that needs to be heated more strongly - meat, fish - is placed in the lower tier, and the dish that needs less heating - for example, vegetables - in the upper one.

In Search of Perfection

In addition to the usual steam cooking, which takes place at normal atmospheric pressure, there is also steam cooking at elevated pressure. This is how products are prepared in industrial boilers and in household pressure cookers. Although boiling water can never reach a temperature above 100°C, when the pressure cooker lid is closed, the pressure increases and the steam temperature reaches 121°C. Thus, the products are cooked on average 3 times faster than in the usual way, in boiling water. The liquid does not evaporate from the pressure cooker, so it is enough to pour only half a glass of boiling water into it.

To steam food in a pressure cooker, they are placed on a special stand that is included in the delivery of any "speed pot" so that they are processed with steam, and not boiled in water. It is important that the product does not take up more than two-thirds of the volume of the pressure cooker. And one more thing: before use, hold the pressure cooker lid up to a light source and look into the steam hole; it must be closed. And, of course, you need to make sure that the hole does not clog during the cooking process. This is where the safety precautions come in.

If you cook delicate vegetables in a pressure cooker, after the end of the process, put it in cold water - this will cool it down faster and the vegetables will not be overcooked.

But steam cooking at atmospheric pressure has also undergone improvements. In a modern electric steamer, cooking is much more convenient than using a saucepan and a colander. This device is simpler than an iron. At the base is a container in which water is brought to a boil using a heating element. One or more steam baskets are installed on top, the top of which is closed with a lid. Condensate and juice flowing from the products are collected in a special tray. Based on these juices, by the way, you can prepare a sauce for a dish. Moreover, the sauce will turn out to be very elegant - non-greasy, without burnt pieces. The possibility of steam cooking is provided in some models of microwave ovens, thermoprocessors and convection ovens. They are more complex than just steamers. The liquid necessary for the formation of steam is poured, as a rule, into a special capsule; it heats up and steam fills the oven chamber. Sensors located in the chamber monitor the temperature of the steam, its saturation, as well as the formation of condensate. As soon as the cooking conditions deviate from the ideal, either ventilation is turned on, or another portion of steam is supplied.

You can influence the taste of the steamed product by changing the composition of the vaporizing liquid. You can use mixtures of water with wine, beer, various decoctions, and also add herbs to the water. And when cooking meat, a small amount of wine vinegar is added to the water.

Only for and a little against

The main argument in favor of using this ancient technology has always been its purely usefulness. No carcinogens, excess fats, carbohydrates, and at the same time - high digestibility of the cooked product, maximum safety of all nutrients and minerals. The main argument against is a very inexpressive taste. But nothing prevents you from combining several cooking methods in one dish. For example, serve steamed vegetables with steamed fish or even a puff pastry with vegetables. And for steamed meat - some kind of delicate sauce. Also, by the way, you can cook it for a couple - many classic sauces are cooked just like that, absolutely not enduring direct contact with fire. Another argument in favor of steam.

An absolutely amazing result can be achieved by combining two techniques - vacuum and steam cooking. The product is properly seasoned (“properly” in this case means that all seasonings and spices are added at once, up to sauces and evaporated wine), placed in a sealed bag, vacuumized and placed in a double boiler. Cooking takes place only due to the internal juices of the product and absolutely dry heat, practically the product cooks itself.

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