Building up steam

Over the past decade, with the combi-oven's indisputable growth in popularity, you might have expected the use of the traditional steamer to decline. In fact, some manufacturers say they are still finding increasing demand for steam ovens, particularly in high-volume public sector organisations such as schools.

Fields & Pimblett, for example, believes there is so big a demand for steamers in the school meals sector that it is about to enter the market for the first time with a six-grid pressureless model, in gas or electric versions.

And Viscount, which produces one atmospheric model in either gas or electric, the M-Line 60S-E, claims to have found growing demand over the past four or five years. "There's been hardly any change in the basic product for years," says commercial director Mick Shaddock. "They're low-tech, simple-to-operate pieces of equipment and they're not in the same price league as combis, which makes them particularly attractive to the public sector."

Steaming ovens are really little more than giant kettles that cook the food inside a stainless steel chamber from heat produced by steam. There are two main types.

The first is the atmospheric steamer, which is pressureless. This works by boiling water in a bath at the bottom of the oven, which has a vent in it to prevent the steam pressure rising above atmospheric level.

The second is the pressure steamer, which retains steam for longer and thus cooks food faster. It is fitted with a safety valve which allows steam to escape on reaching a certain pressure. These ovens must be treated with caution, owing to the steam build-up within the oven cavity - the door needs to be opened slowly to allow the pressure to decrease.

In addition to these two versions, there is also a high-compression variety for even faster cooking. This is usually used for batch cooking but has a small capacity.

While price is a major incentive in public sector kitchens' choice of steamers, a fair number of commercial kitchens are also opting for them in addition to their hi-tech equipment, say some suppliers. Welbilt, for example, says that demand from the health and education sectors for its two Cleveland electronically controlled pressureless counter steamers (the 21-CET-8 and 21-CET-16) is being augmented by two other significant markets - hotel banqueting and staff restaurants.

"Businesses are now looking again at pressureless steamers, as they are designed for just one function - steam-cooking food quickly," says senior distributor sales manager Ian Northwood. "Operators like the simplicity of the controls of the Cleveland steamer and the fact that the door can be opened to remove cooked food while it is operating, making it both versatile and fast."

Northwood claims that pressureless steamers are becoming more popular than the pressurised models because the timing of the product does not have to be exact and because different items can be cooked at the same time. "The pressureless steamer is far more versatile and costs less," he says.

Hobart, meanwhile, produces a range of pressurised and pressureless models, all of which feature both the manufacturer's Star Jet system - which, it asserts, makes them easy to clean and distributes the steam evenly - and contamination-free plumbing directly to mains. Speed and flavour retention are the main benefits for caterers using this style of cooking, according to the company.

"Pubs need to produce vegetables fast, often in a minute," says Andy Fullwood, Hobart product development manager, "and restaurants need consistency of own-branded products and want to provide customers with individual portions of vegetables quickly, with no need for pots of boiling water for rice, pasta and potato dishes. "Hospitals and other kitchens with high-volume demands need to be assured of retaining vitamins, minerals and proteins. And hotels, for both à la carte work and banqueting, can produce a typical split vegetable dish with cooked and refreshed vegetables for eight to 10 covers in 40-50 seconds by steaming."

Integral equipment

Fullwood adds: "As kitchen space is at a premium, we're also finding the pressure steamer is being used for a lot of stove work, for things such as casseroles, curries, and braising, making it an integral piece of the equipment."

Another supplier, Falcon, targeted the high-volume market when it launched its Groen HyPerSteam range of pressureless steamers three years ago - and since then it has found that sales have continually increased. "Despite technological advances that have enabled us to produce equipment that can fulfil a number of different functions, the market for devoted steamers remains strong," says marketing manager Derek Paterson. "The Groen HyPerSteam range of pressureless steamers has a reputation for reliability, as well as being cost-effective and extremely easy to operate."

There are seven models in the Falcon range - four electric and three gas - in single- and twin-cavity formats to cope with fresh and frozen vegetables, seafood, pasta, rice, poultry, meat and eggs. All the ovens are ready to steam in six minutes from a cold start, and feature stand-by, manual and timer operation modes.

Package approach

Falcon has also recently introduced a package approach to the sale of some of its models in the public sector. This includes the steamer unit, a free site survey, delivery, installation and commissioning. "We were the first to introduce a package approach to the sale of our combination ovens, and have recently extended this principle to the way we offer HyPerSteamers to the public sector," says Paterson. "It's proving particularly popular with hospitals and prisons, which is where the major market for these products lies."

Triline Contracts says it is finding a constant demand for its TL3/1 pressureless steamer for the production of pasta, rice, fish and vegetables in five-star kitchens as well as in quality café-style outlets. It claims that one client has more than 50 steamers installed throughout the UK, working seven days a week. The unit's capacity of 47 litres makes it useful for bulk output, consistency, and savings on running costs, as it is active only when cooking, says company chairman Steve Willans.

"The workings of the TL3/1 have been improved over the past four years to provide a more efficient, reliable machine which is totally user-friendly," he says. "We are fortunate to hold after-sales service contracts on a significant number of machines, so improvements have been made swiftly, not only from customer feedback but also from our team of in-house service engineers." A new model with two steam chambers is also under development.

While Triline says it has made recent improvements to its steamer, other suppliers, such as Viscount, say they have not seen the need to change anything. Electrolux feels the same, although it claims that demand is low, with more emphasis on combi-ovens. Its atmospheric model is electric-powered, with a 6×1 gastronorm capacity. Zanussi is also in the market with its Respect 311 3×1 gastronorm model pressureless steamer.

Franke claims that its FS1/1CA steamer is unique in translating the "widely misunderstood" bar pressure indicators into actual temperature readings, with the steamer operating in both atmospheric and pressure settings in a range of 60-119¼C, which relates to a top pressure setting of 1 bar.

The steamer is also fitted with an integral water conditioner which informs the operator when the water quality is falling below recommended standards and must be changed, eliminating scaling problems and saving on maintenance costs. Keypad controls enter the cooking information and provide full diagnostic fault-reporting information.