Restaurant Equipment—Steamers

Give your restaurant customers what they want: healthy food!  I'm reading more and more about the trend toward healthier restaurant offerings, and even legislation (in New York) that might require restaurants to include calorie counts on their menus.  With steamed food, you have nothing to fear when it comes time to count calories; steaming is a very nutritious way to cook.  It also saves you time and money.  Need more reasons to include a steamer in your restaurant equipment lineup?  Below is an article from SEFA's Foodservice Professional Reference Guide:
 

Benefits of Steam Cooking

1. Steam is very forgiving. Because steam cooks at 212 F it cannot burn the food. Even if you leave the product you are cooking in the steamer too long, it still remains firm and maintains good structure.
2. Cook multiple products in a steamer all at the same time with no flavor transfer. You can cook seafood, vegetables, meat, and even a cake in the same steamer compartment as long as you make sure the food does not drip down onto the food product beneath it.
3. Steam retains the highest amount of nutrients and vitamins of any other way of cooking. Therefore, it is the healthiest way to cook.
4. Vegetables maintain their brilliant colors during cooking, and enhance the presentation to your customer.
5. Steam cooks fast. You can cook some products in half the time of a convection oven.

How Steam Cooking Works

Steam is an extremely efficient heat transfer medium. It carries a great deal of energy which readily transfers directly to food (in steamers) or indirectly through a heat transfer surface (such as a kettle wall) and then into food. Steam is water (a liquid) that has been converted to its gaseous state by the application of heat energy. Heat energy typically is measured in British Thermal Units (BTU). The BTU is defined as the amount of energy required to raise the temperature of one pound of water by one degree Fahrenheit at sea level. It takes only 180 BTUs to raise the temperature of one pound of water from 32 F (0 C) to 212 F (100 C), the point at which it starts to boil. However, to evaporate that same pound of boiling water into steam requires 970 BTUs. As a result, steam carries many times the energy of boiling water. Steam readily gives up that energy load when it condenses back into water (condensate) upon contact with food.

How Much Steamer Do You Need?

This information assumes that each compartment holds three to four 12”x 20”x 2 ½” food pans, or two to three 12”x 20”x 4” food pans.