Steaming

For other uses, seeSteaming (disambiguation).

Steamingis a method ofcookingusingsteam.This is often done with afood steamer,a kitchen appliance made specifically to cook food with steam, but food can also be steamed in awok.In the American Southwest, steam pits used for cooking have been found dating back about 5,000 years. Steaming is considered a healthy cooking technique that can be used for many kinds of foods.

Traditional rice steamers inLaos

Compared to full immersion inboilingwater, steaming can be faster and more energy-efficient because it requires less water and takes advantage of the excellent thermodynamic heat transfer properties of steam.

History

Bamboo steamersat a restaurant inHong Kong

Some of the world's earliest examples of steam cooking were found in China'sYellow River Valley;early steam cookers made ofstonewarehave been found dating back as far as 5,000BCE.And also inGunma Prefecture,Japan,created during theStone Age.Some of the earliest examples of steam cooking have been found inItalyandSardinia,created during theBronze Age,and inCochise County, Arizona,where steam pits were used for cooking about 10,000 years ago.From the eighth centuryCE,thin cypress strips were used to make steamers; today, their slatted bases are constructed frombamboo.The classic steamer has a chimney in the center, which distributes the steam among the tiers.

While steaming has not caught up in the west for assorted dishes, the technique has been heavily popularized worldwide by Chinese and East Asian cuisine.The two main classic steamers feature the ancientbamboo steameras well as the modern metal (aluminium or stainless steel) steamer, with the difference being that the bamboo lid takes longer to heat up but absorbs excess moisture and allows heat to condense again over the delicate food.Other developments were the creation of microwaveable silicone steamers and plastic-hybrid steamers.

Method

See also:Bamboo steamer

Two types of steaming vessels, metal and wood with bamboo

Steaming works by boiling water continuously, causing it to vaporize into steam; the steam then carries heat to the nearby food, thus cooking the food. The food is kept separate from the boiling water but has direct contact with the steam, resulting in a moist texture to the food. This differs fromdouble boiling,in which food is not directly exposed to steam, orpressure cooking,which uses a sealed vessel but is capable of pressure steaming or submerging.

Such cooking is most often done by placing the food in a food steamer, typically a circular container made of metal, wood, or bamboo. The steamer usually has a lid that is placed on top of the container during cooking to allow the steam to cook through the food. When a steamer is unavailable, food can be steamed inside a wok, supported over boiling water in the bottom of the wok by a metal frame. Some modern homemicrowave ovensinclude a structure to cook food with steam vapor produced in a separate water container, providing a similar result to being cooked on a stove. There are also specialized steam ovens available.

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  A simple hearth with a metal pan holding two wooden steaming vessels and a wooden lid used in Japan
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  A makeshift steaming vessel with lid removed; a frozen dish is placed on a metal frame in a single handled wok with water.

Steamed foods

Cantonese cuisine, steamed fish, seasoned withsoy sauce,corianderandWelsh onion

See also:List of steamed foods

In Japan, glutinous rice is steamed to preparemochirice cakes. Traditional Japanese sweets orwagashimaking involves steaming rice or wheat dough for making mochigashi and manju.

Chinese steamed eggs

In Western cooking, steaming is most often used to cook vegetables—it is rarely used to cook meats. However,steamed clamsare prepared by steaming. WithChinese cuisine,vegetables are usuallystir friedorblanchedand seldom steamed. Seafood and meat dishes are steamed. For example: Steamed wholefish,steamedcrab,steamed pork spare ribs, steamedgroundporkorbeef,steamedchickenand steamedgoose.

Ricecan be steamed too, although in Chinese cooking this is simply referred to as "cooking" rather than "steaming". In Thailand steaming is the definition of minimalist cooking.Wheatfoods are steamed as well. Examples includebunsand Chinese steamed cakes. Similarly, inMexicanandCentral American cuisine,tamalesare made by steaming a dough made fromnixtamalizedmaize(calledmasa) in wrappers made from corn husks or banana leaves; the dough can be stuffed or left plain.

Steamed meat dishes (except fish and somedim sum) are less common in Chinese restaurants than in traditional home cooking,because meats usually require longer cooking times to steam than to stir fry. Commercially soldfrozen 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.

Chinese dishes

Steamedhar giaoandsiu mai

Steamedpearl meatballs

Staple foods

• Mantou,steamed buns
• Wotou,Chinese cornbread

Dim sum

• Siu mai,meat dumplings
• Har gao,shrimp dumplings
• Baozi,filled buns
• Lion's head meatballs
• Steamed meatballs
• Pearl meatballs,pork meatballs covered in sticky rice

Rice

• Steamed rice with crab,Fujian cuisinecalled tiệt phạn (蟳 phạn )
• Fenzhengrou ( phấn chưng nhục ): Steamed pork with rice flour

Seafood

• Fish:Chinese perch,grouper,Japanese black porgy
• Crab:Chinese mitten crab,Shanghai cuisinefor the autumn

Soup

• Weitang:Steamed pork rib soup,Jiangxi cuisine
• Buddha Jumps Over the Wall:Fujian cuisine
• Winter Melon Soup: Using a hollowed out and sculpted gourd as a vessel
• Qi Guoji Steamed Chicken Soup:Chicken soup cook in a double steamer,Yunnan cuisine

Sweets

• Double skin milk,said to be made in the 1850s inDalianginFoshan,Guangdong
• Guilinggao:also known as Turtle Jelly, a jelly-likeChinese medicine,also sold as a dessert

Others

• Chinese steamed eggssimilar to custard with local variety of ingredients and vessels.

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  Variety of dim sum
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  Buddha Jumps Over the Wall,or Buddha's Temptation
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  A small bowl ofwinter melonsoup
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  Steamedsilkiesoup
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  Turtle jelly

Japanese dishes

• Glutinous rice.Instead of boiling, glutinous rice is steamed to eat.Okowa(おこわ ( cường phạn ))as it is called, receipts with ingredients and vessel chestnuts (kuri okowa) or wild herbs (sansai okowa) are popular.

• Red rice(Xích phạn,sekihan):served at festive occasions withazukibean and color agent added to enhance red color.
• Mochi:prepared with steamed rice and kneaded.

• Chawanmushi:savory egg custard
• Odamaki-mushi:udonin a cup of chawan-mushi.Osakaspecialty.

There are recipes wheresauceis added to the main ingredients, aiming to control smell or aroma, or keep moisture to the ingredients.

• Awayukimushi: eggmeringueover fish or seafood and keep moisture as well as retain aroma.
• Kaburamushi: grated or shredded turnip covers crabs and fish to keep moisture.
• Sakamushi: add sake to steam sea bream and clams which will reduce fishy smell.

Recipes named after the container.

• Dobin-mushi: matsutake and fish in a pot together with dashi soup.
• Yugama:yuzucitrus is hollowed out into a cupto hold and add zest to the food.

• Sea bream milt steamed in yugama

Sweets:steaming is an important process in Japanese sweets making such asmanjū,yōkan,uirō,karukanorsuama.

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  Chawanmushi (foreground)
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  Manjū
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  Mochi as offering to the deities

Korean dishes

• Gyeran-jjim,a custardy dish

Benefits

Overcooking or burning food is easily avoided when steaming it. Individuals preferring to avoid additional fat intake may prefer steaming to methods which require cooking oil.

A 2007USDAcomparison between steaming and boiling vegetables shows the most affected nutrients arefolic acidandvitamin C.When compared to raw consumption, steaming reduces folic acid by 15%, and boiling reduces it by 35%. Steaming reduces vitamin C by 15%, and boiling reduces it by 25%.

Steaming, compared to boiling, showed 42% higher amount ofglucosinolatesin broccoli cooked for medium firmness.Phenoliccompounds with antioxidant properties have been found to retain significantly better through steaming than through boiling or microwaving.Steaming compared to boiling retainedβ-carotenein carrots.The effect of cooking food may increase or decrease the nutrients.

See also

• Double steaming
• List of steamed foods
• Bamboo steamer,an East Asian steamer made from bamboo
• Siru,a Korean earthenware steamer