Steam Ovens Rise in Popularity

Sep 11, 2020

The age of COVID has done nothing to compliment the waistline. With all that time at home – the distance from the refrigerator is nothing but convenient. Now that you are preparing your kids to go back to school and the summer is officially over – you may be considering ways to implement healthy eating back into your lifestyle.

Enter steam oven technology. Steam ovens are a good option when you are contemplating quick and healthy meals. Most appliance brands offered by Appliance Canada including Miele, Wolf, Bosch and Thermador now offer this as an option in their lineups.

Steam ovens have reservoirs that need to be filled prior to cooking. Some of these steam ovens offer a plumbed version over having to manually fill the container. The water is then boiled to 212 degrees (the point where the water turns to steam) to inject a moist heat into the oven interior. Water conducts heat in a much more efficient manner than air. Most of the newer steam ovens have also introduced convection technology (dry air and steam combined) that allows the steam to circulate around the food.

So, what are some of the benefits of this technology. It offers healthier food alternatives and the steam retains nutrients that traditional cooking would remove. It has better results than a microwave oven because it will reheat your food without drying it out. You have removed the need for butter or oil in this process and you have saved valuable time due to the conductive nature of water. You could take a traditional cook time and reduce it by almost 75% with certain proteins. The end result: you achieve nutritious and delicious results that are moist and tender interior, crisp and flaky exterior, all with minimal effort.

The drawbacks with this technology – if it doesn’t incorporate convection, it will not be hot enough to bake meals that require higher temperatures as it only goes to 212 degrees. Also, due to the fact that it uses steam, it does not allow you to crisp or brown your meat. Due to the fact that this is a relatively new trend, the price tag is a bit of a drawback (this should lessen with increased popularity) – but it might be worthwhile when you consider all of the benefits.