On Thu 17 Apr 2008 05:14:54a, blackhead told us...

> Currenty I put just 3-5mm of watter at the bottom of a saucepan, put a
> lid on, turn the gas down very low so that the flame just comes on,
> and use this to steam steam vegetables, fish, meat together, which
> works a treat because the water at the bottom collects the juices
> which I can then use to flavour at the end. So I use everything and
> the method is extremely economical since I barely use gas and not
> waste energy heating water to heat vegetables and then throwing it
> down the sink again.
>
> Using a steamer will be more flexible, but at the very least I want it
> to:
>
> 1. Have a knob that controls the amount of power used to heat the
> water since there is a minimum amount required that will boil the
> water and there is no need to go over this.
>
> 2. Must be able to take a small amount of water, say 1/16 cup full.
>
> I have found that although gas is cheaper than electric on a purely
> cost/energy basis, the advantage of gas over electric is lost if gas
> is ignited in the air to heat things since some of the energy is lost
> to the surroundings, whereas an electric element heating water gives
> all of its energy to the water rather than the surrounding air. On the
> other hand, a steamer for a gas/electric hob satisfies 1. and 2. above
> but will an electric steamer? Looking through the Argos catalogue the
> electric steamers don't seem to satisfy any of the requirements 1, 2
> above and so a hob steamer is my only option.
>
> Thanks for your advice.
>

If you're so concerned about micro amounts of energy expended, perhaps it
would be better if you just ate everything raw.

--
Wayne Boatwright
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Thursday, 04(IV)/17(XVII)/08(MMVIII)
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Countdown till Memorial Day
5wks 3dys 3hrs
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Never trust a skinny cook.
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