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A food steamer or steam cooker is a small kitchen appliance used to cook or prepare various foods with
Food steamers have been used for centuries. The ancient Chinese used pottery steamers to cook food. Archaeological excavations have uncovered pottery cooking vessels known as ''yan'' steamers: a ''yan'' was composed of two vessels, a ''zeng'' with a perforated floor surmounted on a pot or caldron with a tripod base and a top cover. The earliest ''yan'' steamer dating from about 5000 BC was unearthed in the Banpo site. In the lower Yangzi River, ''zeng'' pots first appeared in the Hemudu culture (5000–4500 BC) and Liangzhu culture (3200–2000 BC) and were used to steam rice; ''yan'' steamers were also unearthed in several Liangzhu sites, including 3 found at the Chuodun and Luodun sites in southern
steam
Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization ...
heat by means of holding the food in a closed vessel reducing steam escape. This manner of cooking is called steaming
Steaming is a method of cooking using steam. This is often done with a food steamer, a kitchen appliance made specifically to cook food with steam, but food can also be steamed in a wok. In the American southwest, steam pits used for cooking ha ...
.
History
Food steamers have been used for centuries. The ancient Chinese used pottery steamers to cook food. Archaeological excavations have uncovered pottery cooking vessels known as ''yan'' steamers: a ''yan'' was composed of two vessels, a ''zeng'' with a perforated floor surmounted on a pot or caldron with a tripod base and a top cover. The earliest ''yan'' steamer dating from about 5000 BC was unearthed in the Banpo site. In the lower Yangzi River, ''zeng'' pots first appeared in the Hemudu culture (5000–4500 BC) and Liangzhu culture (3200–2000 BC) and were used to steam rice; ''yan'' steamers were also unearthed in several Liangzhu sites, including 3 found at the Chuodun and Luodun sites in southern Jiangsu
Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, Postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an Eastern China, eastern coastal Provinces of the People's Republic of China, province of the China, People's Republic of China. It is o ...
. In the Longshan culture (3000–2000 BC) site at Tianwang in western Shandong
Shandong ( , ; ; alternately romanized as Shantung) is a coastal province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the East China region.
Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history since the beginning of Chinese civilizati ...
, 3 large ''yan'' steamers were discovered.Underhill, Anne P. (2002). ''Craft Production and Social Change in Northern China''. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers. pp. 156 & 174. .
Advantages
Most steam cookers also feature a juice catchment which allows all nutrients (otherwise lost as steam) to be consumed. When other cooking techniques are used (e.g., boiling), these nutrients are generally lost, as most are discarded after cooking. Due to their health aspect (cooking without any oil), food steamers are used extensively in health-oriented diets such as '' cuisine minceur'', someraw food diet
Raw foodism, also known as rawism or a raw food diet, is the dietary practice of eating only or mostly food that is uncooked and unprocessed. Depending on the philosophy, or type of lifestyle and results desired, raw food diets may include ...
s, the Okinawa diet, a macrobiotic diet, or the CRON-diet The CRON-diet (Calorie Restriction with Optimal Nutrition) is a nutrient-rich, reduced calorie diet developed by Roy Walford, Lisa Walford, and Brian M. Delaney. The CRON-diet involves calorie restriction in the hope that the practice will improve ...
.
Food steamers release less heat to the kitchen environment, therefore helping keep the kitchen cool during hot summers.
See also
*Food processing
Food processing is the transformation of agricultural products into food, or of one form of food into other forms. Food processing includes many forms of processing foods, from grinding grain to make raw flour to home cooking to complex industr ...
* List of cooking appliances
* List of cooking vessels
* List of steamed foods
* Bamboo steamer
Bamboo steamers, called ''zhēnglóng'' () in Chinese,it originated in Han Dynasty．
The most famous kind of bamboo steamers are used in Chinese cuisine and date back to 5,000 years in Southern China. They are produced by removing the skin from ...
* Pressure cooking
Pressure cooking is the process of cooking food under high pressure steam and water or a water-based cooking liquid, in a sealed vessel known as a ''pressure cooker''. High pressure limits boiling, and creates higher cooking temperatures which c ...
* Rice cooker
A rice cooker or rice steamer is an automated kitchen appliance designed to boil or steam rice. It consists of a heat source, a cooking bowl, and a thermostat. The thermostat measures the temperature of the cooking bowl and controls the heat. ...
, a cooking appliance that may have a food steaming capability
* Siru, earthenware steamer
References
{{reflist Ancient inventions Chinese inventions Cooking appliances Cooking vessels Food preparation appliances