Steaming (cooking)
Steaming (also steam cooking ) is a cooking method in steam under ambient pressure at temperatures of up to 100 ° C. Tender vegetables , grain products and low-fat fish , but also tender meat and potatoes, are particularly suitable for steaming .
In addition to a pot with a lid, a suitable steamer insert is required for steaming, which keeps the food away from the water below. Such inserts are offered as wire or sheet metal baskets, in Chinese tradition also made of bamboo. When steaming, there should only be enough water in the pan that it does not reach the food when it is boiling. The pot is closed with a lid on top. After heating to the boiling temperature of the water (100 ° C), the resulting water vapor displaces the air contained until steam emerges from the lid. Then the heating output must be switched back. There is a saturated steam atmosphere in the cooking vessel itself .
Increasingly, different steamers are also being offered for private households , which can be designed both as inexpensive table-top units with integrated heating and a timer and in the form of high-quality built-in devices with automatic cooking and digital temperature and time displays.
In catering for steaming large quantities are also combi steamers used.
Steaming softens the cell walls and fibers, the protein coagulates and the starch swells. In meat, the tough collagen is also broken down, but this can take several hours. The advantage of steaming over boiling is that hardly any aromas are lost from the food, but on the other hand the aromas of spices and herbs are extracted and absorbed by the food. Steaming potatoes and vegetables preserves the water-soluble (hydrophilic) micronutrients such as B. the minerals and vitamin C almost completely in the food. The fat-soluble (lipophilic) micronutrients such as B. Provitamin A (beta-carotene) and vitamin E (tocopherol) are released from the cell matrix of vegetables by vapors and are therefore only available for human consumption. Meat can be seared briefly before steaming in order to obtain additional roasting substances. Cooking times specified in recipes count from the point at which steam emerges, i.e. without the time required for heating.
Cooking in a pressure cooker is related to steaming . Due to the hermetic closure of the cooking vessel, however, steam temperatures of around 120 ° C are reached, which considerably shortens the cooking time.
If the food is in direct contact with the liquid, i.e. partially in the water, it is called steaming .
literature
- Food production technology. Fachbuchverlag Leipzig, 1987.
- Erhard Gorys: The new kitchen dictionary. Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, Munich 1994–2002, ISBN 3-423-36245-6 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ M. Schlich: Steam cooking - wellness for vegetables. In: Focus on nutrition . No. 6, 2006, pp. 190-194.
- ↑ M. Schlich, S. Bernhardt, E. Schlich: Nutrient changes in food preparation in the household. aid information service, Special 3048, Bonn 2008.
- ↑ M. Schlich: Food changes when cooking. In: Food processing in the household. Ed .: aid-Infodienst, Bonn 2010, pp. 185–190.