Before the pandemic, Lunar New Year meant going out for dim sum, my family’s annual Chinese lunch of delicious, often greasy sandwiches served Spanish tapas-style. The dishes often touch me and many other Chinese teahouse patrons so deeply that the literal translation of dim sum, touching the heart, is almost true.
Those restaurant gatherings are on hiatus for second year in a row, but the pandemic can’t keep me from my dim sum. In May of 2020, I ordered a pack of 150 wholesale pieces of siu mai, the pork and shrimp meatballs sprinkled with bright orange fish roe.
To cook the meatballs of dough, I transferred from a plate to a metal rack placed in a pot with an inch or two of boiling water and bought bamboo steaming baskets, typically used in Chinese restaurants that serve dim sum, which I place on a wok or pot of boiling water. I finally added a stainless steel steamer pot to my kitchen arsenal.
In time for the Lunar New Year, Consumer Reports evaluated five steamers, each made from a different material, bamboo, ceramic, silicone , stainless steel, and even a countertop electric steamer, in CR writers’ kitchens and not in their formal lab tests.
These steamers can be used to steam vegetables, seafood, and My family’s favorite roast pork buns, but we did rate the steamers with the humble dumpling dumpling. And here are the results.
Editor’s Choice: JIA Inc. Large Ceramic/Cedar Steamer Set
Price: $144.80Where can you get it buy: Amazon, Wayfair
This set comes with a ceramic pot and lid, as well as a cedar steamer basket and a terracotta base . Our testers unanimously agree that this steamer would be a beautiful addition to the kitchen. But for the price, it better be.
In our tests, it took twice as long to boil the water compared to a regular pot, but the dough dumplings were cooked evenly . The cedar basket even gave off a light, pleasant cedar fragrance. And the pot retained heat, which can be a plus, especially when it’s cold.
“The pot is made of a nice, smooth ceramic,” says Perry Santanachote, a CR writer who reviewed each of the steamers we mention here. “It was a cold, wet day, and I literally hugged the pot to keep warm while I ate my dumplings.”
But like many expensive things, it’s costly to maintain. Jia, the manufacturer, says that before you use this steamer for the first time, you need to make some congee (rice porridge). For this you must fill the pot with water up to 80%, add a cup of rice and let it cook over low heat. By making this porridge, you’ll fill the pot’s pores with starch, which can improve its durability, the manufacturer told Consumer Reports.
Still, you’ll want to avoid using metal utensils with this pot . In our tests, scooping out the porridge with a metal spoon left marks on the bottom. Also, their white exterior can darken in the heat. If that happens, Jia says the marks can be removed by applying water and baking soda in a ratio of 10:1, letting it rest from 10 to 15 minutes.
Steaming Made Easy: Bella Two Tier Electric Steamer
Price: From $24.24
Where you can buy it: Amazon, Walmart
The only thing that What you’ll need up front with this steamer is a power outlet and counter space. You’ll add water, your food, set a timer and forget about it. When the time is up, the steamer turns off. The baskets are transparent, so you can check if the food is ready without having to lift the lid.
“There is an illustration of the pot in the instructions, with clearly labeled parts”, says Angela Lashbrook, a writer for CR who also tested each of these five steamers at home. “This was very helpful for a tremendous anxious like me.” The instructions also include guidance on how to steam vegetables, meat, and seafood.
But some plastics have long been known to leach chemicals into food when heated, so that it’s a breaking point for some, including one of our testers. Otherwise, considering its versatility and simplicity, we thought it was worth the cost. Overall, the dough dumplings cooked evenly, but some condensation did collect on the lid above the dumplings, and dripped onto them when the lid was removed.
The traditional option: Trademark Innovations Bamboo Steamer
Price: $10.99Where you can buy it: Amazon, Walmart
“Bamboo steam cooking techniques are widely used, since bamboo is capable of absorbing moisture, and makes the steam cooking process uniform and don’t overcook food,” says Ashita Kapoor, associate director of product safety for Consumer Reports.
Bamboo steamer baskets, which sit over pots or woks with boiling water, they may be a mainstay in Chinese restaurants, but they are far from s you are perfect Our testers found this particular model a bit precarious: “It had several splinters sticking out, threatening to stab me, so it required a bit of ‘plucking’ before first use,” Santanachote said.
Like many bamboo steamers, this one is listed as 100% natural, a plus for who try to avoid plastic. However, this type may take longer to dry than other materials. This damp wood could also be a breeding ground for mold.
Overall, the masa dumplings cooked evenly, but some batches were wetter than expected.
Perfect for small portions: World Market Red Chinese Style Silicone Steamer
Price: $14.100
Where you can buy it: World Market
This is the only non-stick model that we evaluated. In addition to not needing parchment paper, the entire steamer basket is dishwasher and microwave safe.
The listing on the World Market website says the basket is heat resistant up to 200 °F. But, since water boils at 220 °F, I had to check, and sure enough the side of the box in The one that came with the steam basket indicated that the temperature was in Celsius, and in reality it was 220° (428 °F).
When using this steamer over a saucepan on the stove, the results were inconsistent. While one of our testers reported that the water pooled around the sides of the pan, but not enough to ruin the meatballs, another said that the meatballs cooked slightly unevenly, coming out less cooked around the edges. This steamer basket wasn’t perfectly non-stick, but we were able to get the meatballs out of the steamer basket without breaking.
Considering just the material, you’ll likely save money by not needing parchment paper or sheets of cabbage to prevent food from sticking, and you’ll probably have less waste. The biggest drawback we found is that this model is tiny, only holding a few dumplings of dough.
“It only holds four dumplings, which is enough for a baby, I guess,” says Lashbrook.
A Hot Mess: Concord 3 Tier Stainless Steel Steamer
Price: $80.98Where you can buy it: Amazon, Walmart
This steamer comes with a transparent lid and versatile pot, useful for many other tasks besides cooking steamed. But when it came to steaming meatballs, our results were inconsistent.
Steam exits through a small hole in the lid, and judging by the amount of condensation that dripped onto our meatballs, I didn’t have enough space. The excess moisture made some of our meatballs so soggy that their juices seeped out. At the same time, the meatballs did not cook evenly in this steamer. Some parts of the thin layers of meatballs were fully cooked, while others were still raw.
However, if you are more likely to use the steamer for vegetables and other less delicate foods, the extra moisture might not do any harm.
How We Chose These Steamers
Instead of highlighting specific brands of steamers, of which there are many, We evaluate pots based on their material and choose one of each material based on availability or popularity based on its Amazon’s Choice designation. We chose to evaluate the materials because, for example, most, if not all, traditional bamboo steamers work the same way: steam from the boiling water below rises from the surface of the water through the boards. of bamboo, on which the meatballs sit, in this case. Steam builds up around the meatballs and cooks them, with excess steam and heat escaping through the gaps in the steamer lid, which is woven like a basket.
How we rate steamers
Given Since dumplings come in all shapes and sizes, with various fillings and different thicknesses and consistency of dough, we chose to steam Trader Joe’s Pork Gyoza Potstickers. These may be more affordable for those who don’t have Chinese stores close to home. They also have a thin outer layer that turns from opaque to translucent when cooked, and this adds a challenge in our assessment of how they hold up, or fall apart, after steaming. This thin dough also helped us examine how evenly these meatballs cooked in each steamer.
To provide a level playing field between the unassuming nonstick models, we used aluminum foil ($6.58: Amazon, Juvale, Target) instead of cabbage leaves to prevent food from sticking to the steamer. Both are commonly used for this purpose, but aluminum foil has a more consistent thickness.
This product review is part of the Outside the Labs of Consumer Reports review program. Consumer Reports), which is independent of our laboratory tests and ratings. Our Outside the Labs reviews are conducted in the home and other everyday settings by people, including our journalists, with experience or familiarity with a specialized topic. Reviews are designed to give consumers another important perspective when buying. Although the products or services mentioned in this article do not currently appear in the CR classifications, they could be tested in our laboratories and classified according to an objective and scientific protocol.
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Consumer Reports has no financial relationship with advertisers on this site. Consumer Reports is an independent, nonprofit organization that works with consumers to create a fair, safe, and healthy world. CR does not endorse products or services and does not accept advertising. Copyright © , Consumer Reports, Inc.