Helpful Hints
The Advantages of Cooking with Steam
Used for thousands of years, steam cooking is a very beneficial way to cook foods. Here is a list of some of the advantages:
• Steam-cooked foods look much brighter and fresher than those foods cooked by other methods.
• Steam cooking saves energy
• Steam cooking retains more nutrients in the food. For example, a food that is steam-cooked loses 40% of its original amount of Vitamin C. A food that is boiled loses 70%.
• Foods are more tender at the end of cooking. Steaming is a moist cooking method - it uses the natural convection heat in steam, liquid or air to heat and cook the food. Other cooking methods use dry heat which in turn dries out the food.
• You can use less fat additives when cooking with steam because you won't need to use oils to keep food from sticking.