The proposition is that steam is a better delivery mechanism of heat/energy for cooking food without drying it out. If you begin to saturate your cooking environment with a higher wet bulb temperature (humidity, essentially), then you’ll cook things faster while also doing so more delicately (by way of moisture retention). This is additionally obvious if you were to compare results vs. a standard dry bulb cooking environment (aka just convection/dry environment cooking).
As an example, 100F in Florida feels hotter than in Arizona - the same thing goes for cooking. Increase your humidity (wet bulb), and you increase the intensity of your cooking atmosphere.
This is counter-intuitive for the average cook, but steam/combi cooking does allow you to achieve the Maillard reaction while still having a humid/dewey environment. So, you can brown and crisp food using a combi atmosphere in the same way you can using just dry, convection cooking.
The consumer benefits are perhaps marginal and difficult to communicate, hence the steam/combi oven being mostly irrelevant in the US (especially when you consider price). However, these will gain popularity w US brands/manufacturers over the next couple of years. Some will be “intelligent”, like the Anova. Many will be “dumb”, as they’re exceptionally simpler in design and more cost approachable to manufacture.
Hey, what kind of food processor works best for hummus? I made a batch from dried chickpeas and the color looks better it tastes great but the consistency isn’t there.
I read that it’s tough for most processors, I ran mine through the meat grinder of my KitchenAid. Worked great! That grinder doesn’t work as well for meat though lmao.
I appreciate the curiosity but am skeptical I’d have enough interesting things to say.
@Trolly, I would agree w this. Most home countertop food processors have similar rpm and blade design. You could try adding more EVOO/tahini (Yuv might object), pre-grind, pre-purée, or consider overcooking the chickpeas to further break them down. Opening yourself up to scorn again, though.
You might also consider searching Craigslist or FB Marketplace for some discount RobotCoupe industrial firepower.
We remodeled our kitchen and put in a fancy built in steam oven. Substantially larger and more functionality than this thing. It seemed like a cool thing to have but we have not cooked with the steam function even once in the ~8 mo since we’ve returned to having a functional kitchen.
Part of the problem is that occasionally, I’ll think, “You know maybe this would be good for the steam oven”, then I realize I have to actually figure out how to use it correctly first, so I quickly transition to “maybe next time”.
I never had food pro processor issues with making Hummus. Not sure why you would have any. I have a suspicion that the consistency you’re shooting for might be the issue but i could very well be wrong.
You can try making a small batch with mortar and pestle which is always fun
For hummus, puree longer than you think. I read something somewhere that the restaurant consistency you want is because they puree longer than people at home.
Didn’t take pictures because it’s just corn on the cob but trust me do the below and you will have one of the most delicious things you will ever eat.
Use in season good sweet corn. As in right now.
Husk it.
Boil a pot half full of water. Once boiling add a cup of milk, a few tablespoons of butter a few squeezes of lemon and a tablespoon of sugar. Turn down and put in corn. Steep corn for 10 min.
I haven’t had time to make sourdough bread from my starter but made pizza crust with the discard from the recipe on the King Arthur Baking website and it was damn good.
I let my dough ferment for 40 hours this time. Pretty tasty. I’ve perfected what I call “home style pizza”. It’s basically Detroit style but made in enamel casserole dishes.
