Pressure cookers and steamers both offer cooks effective and quick ways of preparing healthy and flavourful dishes. Both appliances can be used to prepare a number of dishes and they do while ensuring that all the nutritional benefits of the food being prepared are not lost during the cooking process. Although both are incredibly handy to have, each of the devices serves its special purpose in the modern kitchen. Pressure cooking is generally a lot faster compared to other techniques including steaming, boiling or braising.
Pressure Cooker vs Steamer
The differences between pressure cooker and steamer
Steamers
As the name suggests, steamers utilize steam to cook food. Every steamer is outfitted with a ring heater that heats water or some form of cooking liquid contained in it so that it can produce the steam that then allows food to cook through. The hot vapor within the contained environment of the steamer enables moist food preparation because the nutrients are not leached out in lost moisture.
Steamers are great for cooking green beans, veggies, as well as small stuffed food items such as dumplings. Steaming comes highly preferred because it eliminates the use of oil or fat- all that is needed is hot vapor. Tender proteins such as boneless breasts are ideal for preparing in a steamer. There are many brands and models of steamers out there that are each enabled with unique features. However, steamers are generally categorized as being electric or stovetop.
Pressure Cookers
Pressure cookers, like steamers, rely on cooking liquids to produce steam. However, pressure cookers contain a tightly sealed lid that is responsible for creating a high-pressure environment that then allows food to cook through. Pressure cookers use a combination of high pressure and steam to make certain that food cooks through faster than most other cooking methods, including steamers.
Which one is better? Pressure cooker vs steamer
You can steam your food in a pressure cooker but it is completely impossible to pressure cook food in a steamer. Although pressure cooking is effective in producing healthy and tasty meals, it can be an aggressive method to expose sensitive veggies to. As such, it is always advised to place your vegetables in a steamer basket that has been located on top of a trivet to create the perfect environment for steaming and to moderate the amount of heat that reaches the vegetables.
Cooking veggies on a steamer alternatively, produces the perfect results because a steamer is designed to create the perfect hot vapor environment to produce the perfect steamed meals. Your decision regarding which appliance to invest in should be based on the quality and the texture of food that you prefer, as well as the speed that you prefer to cook your meals in. As stated above, steamers are not as quick as pressure cookers.
Additionally, steamers are only designed to prepare particular types of food but cannot be used to prepare others, unlike pressure cookers which are designed with multi-function abilities. If you are looking for more variety and flexibility, then you should definitely invest in a pressure cooker over a steamer.