What is a Steam Oven?

Choosing the right oven is important to keep your commercial kitchen running. Whether it’s for a hospital cafeteria, restaurant or school, finding the right piece of equipment is crucial to cooking your signature items on the menu. So while you’ve been exploring your oven options you may have come across a steam oven. Let's explore the different types of steam ovens and the benefits of them.

How Steam Ovens Work

Steam ovens use heat to turn water into steam that cooks the food. While cooking, the steam oven will siphon water from a small water tank built into the oven. The warm steam works to cook your food just like a standard oven, but it instead helps lock moisture into the food being cooked. Thus eliminating your need for added oils and fats to keep your food moist after cooking. 

It also works well for reheating foods. With steam ovens, you can reheat food and the steam will bring back moisture into the food to keep its flavor and quality like it was fresh out of the oven the first time.

Types of Steam Ovens

There are different types of steam ovens available. You have a couple different options to choose from when shopping for a new addition to your kitchen. Here are a few of the options you have:

• Standalone steam ovens - It works just like explained above where it solely uses steam to cook the food.
• Combination steam ovens - These ovens take your standard convection oven from just bake and broil to a new level. A combination steam oven is your standard oven that you can add steam to during the cooking process.
• Electric ovens with moisture features added - Essentially it is an electric cooker that has a function to inject steam during a regular baking or roasting process.

Are Steam Ovens Better for Baking?

Cooking with steam is a great alternative to baking with a regular oven. It’s healthier since you can reduce the use of fats and oils. However, steam ovens can’t give your dishes a nice brown color like a regular oven would.

Foods You Can Cook in Steam Ovens

You can cook anything in a steam oven! It’s easy to steam foods for a delicious meal, though some will do way better than others. Some of the best foods to cook in a steam oven include:

• Fish
• Vegetables
• Grains
• Chicken
• Pork

Benefits of Steam Ovens

Steam ovens are very popular with cooks wanting to prepare healthy meals due to some of their health benefits. Here are just a few of the benefits of a steam oven:

• Steam helps infuse moisture into the food, it removes the need for lots of added oils.
• It retains natural vitamins and minerals in the food due to the cooking process using steam.
• It can speed up the cooking time.
• The food retains moisture better.

What’s the Difference Between a Combi Steam Oven and a Steam Oven?

The main difference between a combi steam oven and a regular steam oven is the cooking element. Combi ovens can cook at higher temperatures, which can make it easier and faster to cook certain foods.