A steamer is considered by many to be a unique device that cooks healthy food on its own. However, any mechanism is only a tool, and the result of its work depends primarily on you.

Myth 1. An electric steamer is indispensable for those who care about proper nutrition.

I must say right away that there is no functional difference between a desktop electric steamer and a “pot + grate + lid” system. The electric device does not add any special magic. The principle is the same: water is boiled in the lower container, products that are cooked under the influence of water vapor are laid out on the grate.

Myth 2. A double boiler is universal for all types of dishes and products.

Eggs, soups, dry pastas and legumes that require a lot of liquid to boil will not get any bonus benefit from steaming. Some dishes can be cooked in a double boiler, but only in the so-called rice container, which in fact is not an analogue of a “grid + saucepan”, but a very ordinary saucepan, exactly the same as on the stove.

Myth 3. Steamed food cooks faster.

This is not true. Non-contact heat treatment methods require more time to bring the product to readiness.

Myth 4. In a double boiler, food is healthy, but tasteless (fresh).

Not certainly in that way. Steaming only reveals the true taste of the product, without masking it with fat or baked crust. It is in your power to emphasize this taste with the right spices or sauce. By the way, it is better to cook especially delicate sauces just without contact - on a steam or in a water bath, they will not boil, they will not burn.

Myth 5. An electric steamer is suitable for those who do not know how to cook or are simply too lazy to cook. It is very easy to use - threw vegetables and meat and pressed the button, then it's on its own.

Like any kitchen unit, the steamer is friends with those who understand the essence of the process and feel the products. Because even with such a magical device, you still need to calculate the optimal cutting of ingredients, the time and order of the bookmark yourself. Meat is usually put in the bottom bowl because it takes longer to cook vegetables that can be put in the top.

Myth 6. It is impossible to “digest foods” in a double boiler.

More as possible. No steamer will come up with the ideal degree of cooked ingredients for you. But this is where it will win over the “pot + grate” design: the steamer will turn itself off if the water boils away in the tank. One of the main advantages of this electrical appliance is that it is not a fire hazard.

Myth 7. All electric steamers work on a similar principle. The difference is only in the power and the number of containers.

In the steamer family, steamers stand apart in which heat treatment is carried out under pressure. Such a device is more like a pressure cooker. Thanks to the sealed lid, the temperature of the pressurized steam reaches 120 degrees. In such a double boiler, food cooks faster and turns out to be more tender and juicy.

Myth 8. Only water is suitable as a vaporizing liquid for steamers.

No, you can try to play with other cooking liquids or add a few drops of grape vinegar, spices, aromatic herbs to the water - this will diversify the taste of your dishes.

Myth 9. Steam cooking, unlike other methods of heat treatment, retains all the vitamins in the products.

Steamed food does preserve vitamins and minerals better, but be aware that some vitamins are destroyed by any cooking method - for example, vitamin C.

A steamer is a wonderful invention that allows you to achieve full readiness of products and at the same time preserve all of them. useful material and vitamins. Steam cooking is recommended for people who want to lead healthy lifestyle life and those for whom food subjected to other heat treatment (for example, frying or baking) is contraindicated.

About what dishes can be cooked using this unique appliance, the article of our resource will tell, and in this article we will discuss how long meat, fish, vegetables and some other products should be cooked.

Cooking time in a steamer for different foods

By and large, the cooking time of different products in a double boiler depends on the power of the device itself and on the size of the portions that you are going to cook. Also, each steamer comes with instructions that clearly state the weight and cooking time of each type of dish. But in general, all these indicators are close to each other, and we will take the most frequent value for medium-sized portions.

Meat

Meat in a double boiler should be cooked for at least 60-90 minutes, provided that it is thinly chopped flesh. Large pieces will not steam even if you double the cooking time. Minced meat dishes, such as cutlets, meatballs, manti or zrazy, also need to be cooked for at least an hour, with the exception of chicken meatballs, they can be cooked in 20-30 minutes.

You can slightly reduce the cooking time when it comes to chicken, rabbit and turkey (meaning pieces, not a whole carcass). Their double boiler can cook in 45-50 minutes.

Fish

Fish in a double boiler turns out to be very tasty, juicy and not as high-calorie as if it were fried in a pan. It cooks much faster than meat, and you can get a healthy and nutritious dish in just a few minutes. So, the mullet will be ready in 30 minutes, a piece of fatty salmon - in 15 minutes, catfish steaks - in 30-40 minutes. But there are fish dishes, the readiness of which will have to wait a little longer. So, stuffed pike will please with its delicate taste only after 70 minutes.

Vegetables

Not only meat and fish, but also vegetables are excellently cooked on steam. Their vitamins and minerals, when steamed, are not destroyed, unlike cooking, when everything useful just goes into the water. With medium portions of vegetables cut into medium-sized pieces, their cooking time in a double boiler is 30-35 minutes.

You can combine different foods and cook, say, potatoes, carrots and asparagus together. In a double boiler, you can even make hard-boiled eggs, it is enough to keep them there for 20 minutes.

Secrets of cooking in a double boiler

The steamer consists of several bowls, and this is not in vain. The presence of two or even three containers allows you to cook several dishes at the same time. In order to interfere with the process as little as possible during cooking, you need to worry in advance about what exactly and in which bowl you will cook.

Products with a long cooking time (meat, some fish dishes) should be placed in the lower bowl, since it will get the most intense and hot steam. Vegetables can be placed a tier higher, they have less cooking time, which means they will have to leave the double boiler earlier.

For each tier placed on top, add five minutes to the main cooking time. So, for bowl No. 2, the increase will be five minutes, and for bowl No. 3 - ten minutes. This is necessary so that the products are thoroughly steamed, because the steam, passing through the lower bowls, loses part of its temperature.

More useful information you will find about the methods and timing of cooking different dishes in a double boiler on our website in an equally informative article.

Many people treat steamed food with little enthusiasm, and they can be understood: choosing between a juicy kebab straight from the grill and steamed broccoli, it is difficult to make a voluntary choice in favor of a green vegetable. Steam cooking to themselves is sometimes criticized even by supporters healthy eating- they say, food cooked in a double boiler is, of course, healthy, but it would be great if it was also as tasty as fried. Meanwhile, not too expressive taste - a common complaint that is made against this cooking method - is far from a necessary result of steaming.

Building on a theme I started a few years ago, I want to look at steaming as a cooking method that is as complete as frying or grilling, but more beneficial. I hope this article will be of interest to both those who have been on steam for a long time, and those who believe that steaming is the last refuge of people faced with a difficult choice between delicious food and their own health. How to cook for a couple, how to make the taste of dishes cooked in a double boiler brighter and richer, what stereotypes about steaming should be written off as scraps - read about all this below. But you have to start with the well-known, but still vital basics.

What is steam cooking?

Steam cooking is very close to conventional cooking, the only difference is that the temperature transmitter in this case is not boiling water, but hot steam. This is where the fundamental difference between the two related methods lies: since steaming does not involve contact with liquid and the dish is prepared solely by steam, this allows you to save most of the substances contained in them - both useful and flavoring. If we talk about the benefits, then the content of folic acid and vitamin C in products after steaming is reduced by 15%, while during conventional cooking it is reduced by 35% and 25%, respectively - what can we say about other methods of heat treatment!

I also said about flavoring substances for a reason: if you put a piece of meat or fish into boiling water, in addition to the finished product, you will also get, in most cases, too light to be of serious culinary value. However, this broth is a sure sign that the flavor compounds have passed into the water, which means that they are no longer in the product itself. Often they try to avoid this by using ready-made broth for boiling, but if there is an easier way: steaming. Without a doubt, steaming is the most delicate of the traditional culinary methods, and second only to modern ones.

There are many different devices for steaming, from Chinese bamboo steamers to modern electrical appliances, however, in principle, you don’t need any complicated or expensive equipment - you can quite “figure out” a steamer using a pan with a colander placed in it, which is covered with a lid . These are the three really necessary components of a steamer:

• a container where water will boil;
• stand for products, which will pass the rising steam;
• and a lid so that the steam does not go outside, but circulates inside.

To steam food, bring water to a boil, then place a steamer with food over it and cover with a lid to ensure steam circulation and even heating of food. Steaming, like most other healthy things, was originally invented in the east, so Chinese bamboo steamers are often used, which are set in a wok over boiling water. Such double boilers have several levels - baskets are placed one on top of the other, so that you can cook different products at the same time. I also use a bamboo steamer - in addition to the fact that it does its job perfectly, it also looks very stylish, so you can serve ready-made meals right in the steamer. In addition, you can buy an inexpensive metal steamer in the store or look for a more modern device - electric pressure cookers, multicookers and other appliances usually have a built-in steam function.

There are also more exotic methods of steaming, for example, this: products that require a particularly delicate approach (say, swallows' nests) are placed in a ceramic vessel with water, and this vessel, in turn, is placed in a double boiler, usually for several hours. Needless to say, this approach - in some ways, the predecessor, by the way - was also invented by the Chinese? ..

What can be steamed?

Oddly enough - almost anything! If you think that only unleavened vegetables can be steamed, then know that in Chinese cuisine, rice, fish, various dumplings and buns, and even meat are steamed. As for dumplings, this type of cooking has spread throughout Central Asia, it’s enough to recall manti, which are somewhat closer to us, for cooking which they use a mantyshnitsa - in fact, the very same Chinese multi-storey double boiler, only slightly modified. In China or Korea, you can try steamed buns, both regular and stuffed with vegetables, pork or beef: the dough turns out to be the most ordinary, except for obvious reasons, without a ruddy crust. In addition, Chinese cuisine invites us to steam pork ribs, duck, chicken, goose, eggs, as well as vegetables, rice and much more.

A fish that is considered useful product, are also often steamed: in the selection of recipes that completes this article, you will find recipes for steaming both whole fish and fillets. Of course, you can cook seafood in the same way, and steamed shrimp will have a richer taste than boiled in water.

However, what is Asia to us? Let's take more understandable and familiar products, say, the same potato. If we are all accustomed to boiled potatoes, then European and American chefs and housewives mostly steam them. The reasons are the same as described above - potatoes retain more of their own taste and nutrients that would otherwise go into the water. The same goes for other vegetables: unless you're making broth, there's absolutely no reason to boil your vegetables in water instead of steaming them. Apparently, in our country, until recently, no one was interested in steaming - I can’t imagine other intelligible reasons that we are used to boiling vegetables for or olivier in water.

Steam cooking: not only healthy, but also tasty

I hope that they work as a couple healthy meals I already convinced you. But what about the main drawback of steaming - the pale taste of finished products? .. Let's start with the fact that its significance is somewhat exaggerated - steamed dishes have a richer taste than boiled in water, for reasons that have already been described above. And if you adopt a few tips outlined in this article, your dishes will not only be healthy, but also tasty.

• Experiment with spices and spices. In such dishes, their taste comes to the fore, and to reveal the aroma of spices, they can be pre-calcined in a dry frying pan. Of course, this does not apply to salt, but you should not neglect it either: as you know, it has the ability to enhance the taste of seasoned foods.
• Marinate food before cooking. By adding soy or other seasonings with a strong own taste to the marinade, you will thereby enrich the taste of the products that you plan to send to the double boiler.
• Flavor the water. Of course, using a rich broth for steaming would be insane waste, but adding bay leaf or dried herbs, you will cook food with fragrant steam, and this will affect the taste.
• Finishing touches. If you often eat steamed foods, do not neglect sauces. The sauce doesn't have to be complicated - combine herbs, garlic, lemon juice and zest with olive oil, or make pesto by adding nuts and blending it all in a blender until smooth.
• Cook in a sauce or marinade. This is also possible - put the fish in a deep plate, sprinkle it with soy sauce, season with ginger and green onions and put the plate in a double boiler: such a fish will have all useful properties steamed product, but no one will reproach her for an inexpressive taste.

Delicious steamed products retain a maximum of vitamins, microelements and appetizing appearance!

Many people think that steamed food, have a dietary taste and, to put it mildly, an amateur. In fact, a good steamer allows you to cook a variety of fresh and frozen main dishes, soups and any side dishes, including rice, potatoes and broccoli. Can be steamed cereals, eggs, soufflés, creams and sauces. So, we cook full-fledged meals for a couple and lose weight!

delicious product steamed, Your guests will also like it very much, because all the food has retained excellent taste and all vitamins.

Types of steamers

There are three types of steamer models- compact, full-size solo and built-in. The compact and inexpensive electric steamer is about the size of a large pot and will come in handy in the kitchen as an aid if you only occasionally steam or just decide to try it. The design is simple: at the bottom there is a heating element and a water tank, on top there are 1-2 food containers with steam outlets and a tight lid.

How to cook for a couple?

It is enough to pour about a liter of water, load the ingredients, cover with a lid and set the timer to the desired time.

Then you can forget about the double boiler for the duration of cooking: it will notify you with a sound signal on its own - the dish is ready. Of course, you can keep an eye on the process of steaming the dish, stirring and turning the food, adding salt and spices. Just be careful: open the lid away from you! Steam temperature - 100 °C.

When choosing a steamer, pay attention to the fact that you have the opportunity add water during cooking: if there is an external hole, then the device will not have to be "disassembled" by removing the upper container to add water.

Preferably models with containers made of plastic resistant to staining, which do not leave marks, for example, from beets and carrots.

Built-in steamer

Embedded models outwardly resemble microwave or oven- It is a solid and expensive technique.
The built-in steamer does not take up space on the table, it has a huge volume, sufficient for cooking dinner on big family, allows you to use the usual dishes, and not the trays from the kit. Built-in models are equipped with baking trays for stewing dishes in marinade or filling. They have a maximum of useful functions, and consume a little more water and electricity.

Steam cooking rules

1. Before placing food in a double boiler, you need to let the water boil. Since you cook, but not on water, but on steam, the boiling water should not come into contact with the food.

2. When filling the base of the steamer with water, make sure that the basket is at least 2 cm above the water. There should be a distance of at least 2-3 cm between the surface of the water and the bottom edge of the steamer.

3. Always use large kitchen gloves to avoid burning your hands with steam when opening the steamer lid and foil envelopes.

4. Put food in one layer on each level of the steamer. Fish, meat or succulent products - to the lower level so that moisture does not drip from them onto the products below.

Dishes - recipes for a couple

Steamed pumpkin puree

Ingredients:

1 kg pumpkin,
- 50 g butter,
- salt pepper.

Cooking:

Peel the pumpkin, cut into pieces, remove the core and seeds, cut into squares. Fill the steamer 1/3 full with water, boil it and season with salt. Put pumpkin. Close and cook for 5 minutes. Throw in a colander and pour over cold water. Melt the butter in a saucepan and fry the pumpkin in it, turning carefully with a knife or spoon.

Steamed salmon with dill

Ingredients:

600 g salmon fillet,
- 1 carrot,
- 1 celery,
- 1 fresh pod of hot pepper,
- 2 leeks,
- 1 teaspoon of minced garlic,
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- salt pepper.

For the broth:

1 liter of water
- 1 carrot,
- 1 leek,
- 1 root celery,
- 1 parsley root,
- 1 lemon,
- 1 glass white wine,
- parsley, dill, bay leaf, allspice, sugar, salt, pepper.

For sauce:

1/2 cup olive oil,
- 2 tomatoes,
- 1 teaspoon of anchovies and capers,
- 1 lemon,
- a bunch of dill.

Cooking:

Boil peeled vegetables, lemon, dill and parsley in water with white wine and spices. Steam salmon fillet for 15 minutes over boiling broth. Cut vegetables into strips and fry with fresh garlic and hot pepper. Then put the vegetables and steamed salmon on a dish. Decorate with green shoots and season with tomato-dill sauce.

Steamed buckwheat with artichokes

Ingredients:

For 4 servings:
- 1 glass of buckwheat,
- 4 small artichokes
- 3 small onions
- 3 glass of water,
- juice of 1 lemon,
- salt,
- 1 teaspoon of olive oil.

Cooking:

Peel the artichokes, cut them into 8 pieces. Steam with lemon juice (you can also boil in salted water with lemon juice) until done. Boil buckwheat.
In a preheated frying pan, add finely chopped onions with 1 teaspoon of olive oil, then add the artichokes and, lastly, crumbly buckwheat. Mix well.
Instead of buckwheat, you can take rice, other cereals to taste.

Steamed lazy potato dumplings

Ingredients:

For 4 servings.
- 4 tubers of potatoes,
- 300 g of cottage cheese,
- 2 eggs,
- 2 tbsp. spoons of flour
- 1 tbsp. a spoonful of starch
- 2 tbsp. butter spoons,
- salt to taste.

Cooking:

Peel the potatoes, put in a double boiler and cook for 8-12 minutes. Mix cottage cheese with potatoes and rub. Add yolks, flour, starch, whipped proteins, mashed with butter, salt and knead. Form lazy dumplings from the resulting mass, put them in a double boiler and cook for 5-8 minutes. Drizzle with melted butter when serving.

Steamed rice with mushrooms

Ingredients:

- 200 g of mushrooms,
- 2 tbsp. tablespoons of olive oil
- salt and ground black pepper,
- 1 cup white rice
- 2 cloves of garlic.

Cooking:

Put rice in a bowl and add water according to the instructions. Then add mushrooms, garlic and olive oil. Cover and cook for the recommended time. When the rice is ready, salt and pepper it to taste. Serve hot.

Heating food ingredients (in one way or another) has several goals:

• increasing the absorption of nutrients;
• partial destruction of pathogenic agents;
• destruction of some toxic substances;
• improving the taste and aroma of food.

Increased nutrient absorption

During heat treatment, many foods soften and are easier to chew, so they are better moistened with digestive enzymes, and as a result, they are absorbed faster and more completely.

The digestibility of protein products (meat, fish, etc.) during heat treatment increases for other reasons. When heated, proteins lose their resistance to the action of digestive enzymes. (Violation of the heat treatment regimen can also lead to the exact opposite result. For example, overcooked meat is less digestible than properly cooked.)

In addition, some products (eggs, potatoes, beans, etc.) contain inhibitors - substances that inhibit the action of digestive enzymes. Heat treatment destroys these substances.

At a temperature of 50 degrees, the development of most disease-causing agents stops, and with a further increase in temperature, they die. It should be borne in mind that spore-forming microorganisms are not completely eliminated during heat treatment, their development is only suspended and, under favorable conditions, can resume in the future. Therefore, it is necessary to strictly observe the terms and conditions of storage of prepared food.

Destruction of some toxic substances
Some raw foods(beans, peas, green potatoes, etc.) contain natural poisons, which are either destroyed during heat treatment or pass into water during cooking and are removed with it.

In addition, heating destroys some allergens. In the event that an allergic reaction is caused by thermally unstable substances, heat treatment of products can save allergy sufferers from trouble.

Improving the taste and aroma of food

During the heat treatment of products, new flavoring and aromatic substances are formed, which stimulate the appetite and contribute to better absorption of food.

Despite the foregoing, one should not think that heat treatment has an exclusively positive effect on products - it can significantly reduce their nutritional value. Heating destroys many biological active substances, including vitamins, aromatic and flavoring substances are lost, prolonged heating reduces the value of fats, when fried, foods can lose their juiciness, when cooked, soluble nutrients pass into the broth. The impact is very high temperature(during frying and baking) leads to the formation of toxic substances, including carcinogens.

Fortunately, the negative effects of thermal exposure can be avoided. This will help right choice method and mode of heating. Nutritionists consider steaming to be the best solution.

About the benefits of steam cooking

It's no secret to most people that steamed food is considered the healthiest food. And indeed it is. The fact is that cooking with steam, on the one hand, makes it possible to take advantage of all the benefits of heat treatment of products, and on the other hand, it allows you to avoid the negative consequences of this process (see above).

More vitamins

Steam cooking is a very delicate way of cooking food. The food is not exposed to very high temperatures, as is the case with frying or baking. Thanks to this, much more vitamins and other biologically active substances are stored in the products.

Fat Free

You can steam very light, low-calorie meals, since you don’t need to add any fat to the steamer (it’s possible to fry without oil, but in practice this is extremely rare, and as a result, the calorie content of fried foods is usually too high).

No carcinogens

In addition, steaming does not lead to the formation of compounds hazardous to health, which can occur under the influence of high temperatures during frying or baking.

L better than boiling or stewing

Steam cooking also wins compared to boiling and stewing, although for other reasons (the temperature in these cases, as in steaming, does not rise above 100 degrees). However, when foods are boiled or stewed, many water-soluble compounds, such as some vitamins, trace elements, etc., pass into the broth. If in the future it is not used in food, useful substances do not enter the body. In addition, even if the broth is not drained, the biological value of dishes prepared by boiling or stewing is lower than when using steam. This is due to the fact that many useful substances that pass into the decoction are less stable in dissolved form and are destroyed faster.

Tasty and beautiful

In addition to all the above-mentioned advantages, the use of steam allows you to preserve the natural look, taste and aroma of food as much as possible. After steaming, the products almost do not lose their natural color and shape, as a result of which the dishes look bright and appetizing. Plus, the food is really delicious. It is a profound delusion to think that food cooked in the park is insipid and tasteless. Although it may take some time for many to appreciate the steam kitchen. Food modern man usually contains so many different odor and taste enhancers that the olfactory and gustatory receptors are forced to adapt to such overstimulation, as a result of which their sensitivity is greatly reduced. Fortunately, just one or two weeks of eating natural food allows you to feel that each product has its own unique taste.

Appliances used for steaming

The simplest device that allows you to cook with steam is a pot with a steam basket - a special insert, which is a container for products with a perforated bottom. Water poured onto the bottom of such a pan evaporates during boiling and serves as a source of steam, which, penetrating through the holes of the steam basket, heats the products in it. Such a simple double boiler can be built independently from "improvised means", for example, by inserting a colander or sieve into an ordinary pan. Previously, when there were no special appliances, it was necessary to cook for a couple in this way. However, with the invention of electric steamers, everything has become much more convenient and enjoyable.

A modern steamer is a fairly simple device. The base of the device has a container for water, which 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. It would seem that there is nothing fundamentally new, but using an electric steamer is much more convenient.

You can cook for a couple not only with the help of specialized appliances (steamers), but also using one of the multifunctional devices. The possibility of steam cooking is provided in some models of microwave ovens, thermoprocessors and convection ovens. If you think that just a double boiler will not be enough for you, you should consider this option.

Separate mention should be made of steamers belonging to the category of built-in kitchen appliances. (They have little in common with conventional electric steamers, so it would make more sense to come up with some other name for built-in steamers.) These are complex multifunctional appliances, the capabilities of which will impress any fan of the steam kitchen. However, due to the high cost (several thousand dollars), embedded technology is available to a very limited circle of people, and therefore we will not dwell on this topic in more detail.

Who are steamed dishes recommended for?


Nutritionists advise eating steamed food to all people who care about their health. However, in some cases, the transition to a steam kitchen is especially recommended. So, the steam diet is prescribed for various diseases.

Steamed food is necessary for diseases of the gastrointestinal tract: chronic gastritis, cholecystitis, gastroduodenitis (disease duodenum), peptic ulcer stomach, etc. Steam food is the most sparing for sick digestive organs.

Other indications for switching to a steam kitchen are diseases of the cardiovascular system. With atherosclerosis, it is important to exclude spicy and fatty foods in order to lower blood cholesterol levels.

Steam nutrition is necessary for metabolic disorders, overweight, allergies and other diseases.

However, if you are healthy, this does not mean that the recommendations of nutritionists do not apply to you. At certain periods of life, the human body needs more care than usual. Therefore, steam nutrition is especially important for the elderly, pregnant women and children. In addition, everyone needs to pay attention to their diet (regardless of age and physiological state) in cases where the body is exposed to adverse factors: lack of sleep, frequent stress, increased stress, etc.

What can be steamed

Not particularly exaggerating, we can say that steaming - universal way heat treatment, applicable to almost any product. In a double boiler, you can cook meat, fish and other seafood, various egg dishes, dumplings and dumplings, casseroles, vegetables (including potatoes), rice and other cereals, fruit desserts and even cakes.

The reasons why certain foods are recommended to be cooked in a double boiler can be divided into 2 categories:

• For many foods, steaming is the best way to preserve them. nutritional value. For example, more vitamins and microelements remain in meat, fish, vegetables and fruits, food has a naturally rich taste, etc.
• The use of a double boiler facilitates the process of cooking some products, although from the point of view of nutrition, steaming does not have advantages over other methods of cooking. For example, eggs, cereals, soups can be cooked without steaming, they will not become less useful from this, however, so that nothing is digested and burnt, it is more convenient to use a double boiler.

Do not steam pasta, especially soft wheat pasta. The fact is that dry foods (cereals, pasta) can be cooked in a double boiler only in a special bowl into which water is additionally poured. In this case, the steam simply heats the liquid and the food actually boils as usual, but not in boiling water, but at a temperature of 75-85 degrees. This method is good for making cereals, soups and stews, and pasta will be very soft and stick together.

It is not very convenient to use a double boiler for cooking some types of legumes (for example, beans or peas). These foods are also too dry to be steamed without being immersed in liquid. However, unlike pasta, the reason why they should not be cooked in a double boiler is that it takes too long. Even if the beans are pre-soaked, they will have to be cooked in a double boiler for more than two or even three hours, which means that during the cooking process you will have to repeatedly add water to the double boiler and empty the pan in which condensation will collect. At the same time, beans cooked in the usual way (on the stove) will practically not differ from those cooked in a double boiler (which cannot be said about vegetables or meat), and it will take more time. Thus, it is possible to steam beans, but this is impractical.

Steaming should not be done for foods that must be removed as much of the soluble matter as possible before consumption. Such products include, for example, certain types of mushrooms (morels, lines, etc.) and some offal (kidneys, scars, etc.). Before use, they should be boiled in plenty of water.

Bon appetit and good health!