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Step 1
Select the appropriate foods to steam cook. You can steam vegetables, chicken, eggs, fish, seafood and pork with great success. Stay away from steaming beef, however. Beef, when steamed, dries up and loses its juiciness and flavor.
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Step 2
Cut foods into uniform sizes for even cooking. Foods sections either much larger or smaller than others will be under- or over-cooked.
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Step 3
Place foods in a single layer in the steaming insert. This allows all of the pieces of food to have equal exposure to the steam during cooking.
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Step 4
Allow for air and steam circulation around meats or potatoes, so they steam evenly. If you pile foods on top of each other in the steaming insert, you will likely find that the cooking process takes longer and that some foods don't cook properly.
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Step 5
Use only a small amount of water when steaming food. For most steam cooking, ½-inch of water will suffice. Make sure that the water level is at least 1 inch below the bottom of the steaming insert. If the water level is too high, you can just end up boiling your food instead of steaming it.
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Step 6
Make sure you have a tight fitting lid for your steam pot. The lid helps keep the steam inside the pot for faster cooking. If the lid does not fit properly, or if you take the lid off the steam pot during cooking, steam will escape and the cooking time will increase.
