I’m trying out a steamer pot from an Asian market that has extremely thin steel on the bottom! Actually, it fit perfectly inside of one of my thicker shallow pots, so I reinforced it with that. I don’t know, the box says it can be used on all types of hot plate, but there were no instructions, as far as what not to do with a thin pot…
Well, maybe. I’ve since found a topic about pots warping too:
“I have not yet had a pot warp when cooking on gas or electric element, unless it is a cheapy cheapy thin as paper bottomed pot which will warp with a cigarette lighter. INDUCTION electric will warp them and damage the bases of even the best pots”…
At least I didn’t have any issues with the heavier stainless pot being empty otherwise. I don’t know if that counts for people saying not to heat them empty, although trays in ovens are kind of heated this way. I tried it on a larger burner under the steamer too, yet it took longer to boil water than a similar base pot by itself. So next time I’ll get it boiling in a separate pot and then transfer the hot water to the reinforced steamer combo, which can sustain the heat from there. It works okay. Steaming alone isn’t very fast, but since something like barley can be boiled in the bottom and takes a while anyway, the rest will cook by then too. On the trays I tried olives and artichokes / peas and broccoli / and green peppers on top. It’s pretty easy to hold the trays one handed or clean them, being so light weight (I don’t mind the thin material so far, just don’t want to test its limits somehow).
Reading something else, it seems to be a general rule: “Thin pans are generally much more likely to warp than thickly constructed ones because the more material there is within its thickness the more a metal can differentially expand and contract”.
The article also says that “Generally, if a pan has food in it before heating it’s protected from warping by never getting hotter than the food within it (nominally about the boiling point of water)”.
I’d think they must work somehow, or everyone would return them. Of course, if I tried to balance this pan full of water on a metal chopstick, then there would be a hole in it, so I guess supporting it well enough over its full diameter is necessary either way.
Well, even if I reinforced the bottom, something like a utensil falling in there could puncture it anyway, so I decided to try something else.
The one shaped like a wok is thicker, and the same size as my hot plate on the bottom (about 6 inches). I can fit a couple of additional folding steamer baskets inside to make that three layers too (which don't have to be high for what I steam). The other thing about having over sized pots on a portable electric hot plate is that they seem to overheat it and make it shut off intermittently, so it's kind of important to match the size there, I've found.Not only that, but taller pots that arch over like a wok can trip it off. Using a fan can keep it cool enough to stay on, except with aluminum it was cooling the pot so much it stopped boiling! The fan seems to work on low speed though. Another delicate balance. I may get a better burner later, but I’m learning more by using a quirky one, somehow.
Are you trying to steam seafood like the restaurants?
How about bamboo steamers also?
I believe the OP is using a hot plate, and I’m not sure I’d want to use a bamboo steamer on a hot plate. Needs a good size pot for one thing.
Oh yeah, I’ve seen some smaller bamboo ones too, but read reviews about them falling apart on people. That was with a set which includes an adapter, so they can be suspended over a pot that something is being cooked in, like the first set I tried. I was also experimenting with simple pan steaming from stacked metal baskets (with a cover), or putting those in a pressure cooker too lately. It all works pretty well (in some ways more efficiently than others), and which I’d want to use depends on what I want to cook.
Do you have a rice cooker? If you do, you may even have a steamer that comes with it that can serve as an additional option.
