Steam cooking has become more and more popular in recent years as we collectively become a little more conscious about our health and what we eat. But is buying a steam oven worth the cost? In this guide, we’ll cover everything you need to know about cooking with steam so that you can decide if steam cooking is for you.
Steam Cooking
First let’s talk about why you would want to cook with steam at all! Steaming food is a much healthier way of cooking, and can retain up to 25% more vitamin content than foods cooked conventionally.
But don’t you just use steam cooking to cook vegetables? Nope. It’s true that steam cooking vegetables is a great way to keep them crunchy and flavourful, but did you know that you can also cook bread, cakes, fish and meat with steam too? It’s also brilliant for defrosting foods as it eliminates hot spots and for reheating too, as it keeps the food moist so that it tastes like it has just been cooked!
Take a look at our Pinterest board for recipes which use steam.
Steam cooking is also very clean as you don’t use any oil or produce any smoke while cooking. It’s also incredibly energy efficient.
Stand Alone Steam Oven Or Combination Steam Oven?
So you love the idea of steam cooking, but should you buy a stand alone steam oven or a combination steam oven?
A separate appliance for steam cooking can be a great idea as it gives you lots of cooking space and frees up your main oven for cooking other foods. However, not everyone will have space to include another appliance in their kitchen.
Combination steam ovens can be fantastic option as it really allows you to use steam cooking at it’s full potential. By adding steam when roasting joints you’ll get meat that’s perfectly moist on the inside but crispy on the outside. It’s also great for cooking cakes and bread. In the picture above you can see the difference for yourself, the larger and crispier loaf was cooked with added steam and the smaller one without.
Do steam ovens need to be plumbed in? Not always. All the stand alone and combination steam ovens we sell come with easily accessible water tanks which you simply refill when you wish to use the steam function. The Neff combination steam oven in the photo above even stores the water tank under the fascia panel so that you can still use every single inch of the oven cavity, without a big, bulky water tank taking up room.
Full Steam Ahead?
If you’re convinced that steam cooking is the way forward, why not take a look at the full range of steam and steam combination ovens on our website.
