Hamilton Beach Digital Food Steamer – 5.5 Quart (37530A) Review
When it comes to improving your health, keeping nutrients intact is important. Steaming vegetables, seafood, or chicken breasts with products like the Hamilton Beach 5.5 Quart Digital Food Steamer can help your body get more vitamins and minerals. Once you add gently steamed vegetables and seafood to your meal rotation, canned and frozen foods lose their appeal. With this food Steamer in your kitchen, you will be able to take advantage of the healthy, in-season produce at your local farmer’s market or grocery store. If you’re lucky enough to have your own garden, you can reap the rewards and the satisfaction of steaming your own freshly picked vegetables. It’s so versatile and easy to use. Fill it with water, place one or two of the transparent bowls filled with food atop the base and set the cooking timer. You’re free to complete other tasks as food steams, because when your food is ready, it sounds a beep and automatically switches to warm for one hour.
Product Features and Specifications
• Versatile, stackable 2-tier steaming,Nested storage – fits neatly in cabinet
• Use one steaming bowl or stack two bowls to steam larger quantities
• Remove the divider between the bowls to steam large foods such as corn on the cob or a head of broccoli
• Steams delicate fish, lobster, shrimp, clams, mussels and oysters
• Steams chicken breasts and hot dogs
• Includes a rice bowl that’s perfect for white or brown rice and small foods
• Cooks eggs upright from soft to hard-cooked
• Digital touchpad makes setting the countdown timer and other functions easy
• Automatic warm – switches to warm automatically and alerts you with a beep when food is ready and cooking time is up
• WARM setting runs for one hour then steamer turns off
• DELAY START timer lets you fill the steamer with produce in advance and begin steaming later (do not use for raw fish, seafood, meat, or poultry)
• Rice bowl and drip tray are dishwasher safe
• Steaming chart included in Use & Care guide
• Nested storage design fits neatly in your kitchen cabinet
• The food containers are to be hand-washed in soapy water, not to clean in Dishwasher.
• Only the Drip Tray and Rice Bowl are Dishwasher safe.
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 13.7 x 12.6 inches
• Item Weight: 3.97 pounds
• Date first available: July 23, 2014
This steamer can help you cook many delicious and healthy meals. It comes with two separate compartments for steaming – a smaller bottom section and a larger, top one.
The top compartment holds almost four quarts of food. This is where you’d cook your main entrée. But instead of having to cook your side items separately, you can cook them at the same time – because the bottom section of the steamer can hold just over two quarts of food.
What types of food should you place in top and bottom bowls?
This Hamilton Beach Digital Food Steamer will let you prepare a whole meal in one, easy-to-use appliance. You can steam seafood or chicken breasts in the bottom bowl and vegetables in the top. Since food cooks faster in the bottom bowl, always place food with longer steaming times on first, closer to the base. Another option for cooking different types of food is to place one bowl (filled with food with longer steaming times) onto the base and steam first; then later add the second bowl filled with food that has shorter steaming times. For example, green beans and squash have shorter cooking times; foods with longer cooking times include red potatoes, sliced carrots, chicken breasts, and fish steaks.
When you power up the steamer, there’s an audible signal that will let you know when the machine is ready to cook the food. This steamer also comes with a timer.
This feature enables you to program your food to start cooking immediately or you can set the timer to start cooking up to twelve hours later. This is a great feature for those who may not be home at dinnertime and need a way to have the food ready in advance.
The Hamilton Beach 5.5 Quart Digital Food Steamer will heat quickly and it has a 900-watt heating element. This kind of power means that you should be able to see steam within seconds. You can cook your food for up to an hour and a half, but if you’re still not ready to eat, the Hamilton Beach 5.5 Quart Digital Food Steamer has a “keep warm” feature that will enable you to have warm food for up to sixty minutes once the cooking is done.
Something else that makes this steamer unique is that you can even cook eggs in it. Thanks to the egg holders, you can choose to make either hard or soft cooked eggs quickly.
Is this steamer easy to clean?
Another perk of the Hamilton Beach 5.5 Quart Digital Food Steamer is the quick and easy cleanup. The bowls are dishwasher safe and can be stacked together to store when not use. There’s also a drip tray included that keeps water from collecting under the machine.
Does this steamer come with a water indicator level?
With the helpful water indicator level that’s clear, you don’t have to guess how much water you need to add to the machine. You’ll be able to see it at a glance. This water level indicator has a line that will let you know whether or not you’ve added the recommended minimum amount of water.
This is an important feature because it enables your food to stay nice and fresh rather than drying out. Not only can this steamer cook up great tasting food, but using a steamer has several health benefits to offer to you.
When you cook food using conventional methods such as in the microwave, many of the nutrients in the food can be destroyed. But a quality steamer like the Hamilton Beach 5.5 Quart Digital Food Steamer keeps all the nutrients intact – along with the great taste.
Besides the health boost, when you use a steamer, the food retains their natural flavors better, they don’t overcook and it can also preserve the antioxidants that are so helpful for your body.
Using a steamer is also a good way to keep fit because steamed food doesn’t pack the same calories or the fat content that fried food contains. It’s even a step above grilling because there’s no chance for charring your food and releasing cancer-causing toxins into your meal.
