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Culinary Arts & Cooking vocabulary · Cooking Methods & Techniques

Steam

Meaning in culinary arts & cooking, with examples

/stiːm/verbCore term

In culinary arts & cooking, steam means: To cook food in the hot vapour rising from boiling water, without the food touching the water itself.

In Turkish: buharda pişirmek, buğulamak

How it is used

Used for vegetables, fish, dumplings, rice and puddings. Professional kitchens steam in combi ovens or steamers; at home a steamer basket over a pot is common. Steamed food keeps its colour, shape and many nutrients.

Example sentences

  1. Steam the broccoli for three minutes so it stays bright green.

  2. The dumplings are steamed to order in bamboo baskets.

Common collocations

  • steamed vegetables
  • steam to order
  • steamer basket
  • steam for five minutes
  • boilTo heat a liquid until it bubbles strongly, or to cook food in such a liquid. Water boils at 100°C at sea level.
  • poachTo cook food gently in liquid that is hot but not bubbling, roughly 70–85°C, such as water, stock, wine or milk.
  • combi ovenA professional oven that can cook with dry hot air, steam or a combination of both, often with programmes and a core temperature probe.
  • blanchTo put food briefly into boiling water and then usually straight into iced water to stop the cooking, fixing the colour and partly cooking it.

More terms: Cooking Methods & Techniques

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