My wife bought a steamer last night because we were having trouble boilings eggs so they'd peel easy. I often would get so frustrated trying to peel them that I'd give up in frustration and throw them away. My wife's mother said she used a steamer and the came out perfect and peeled in a snap. Was she right! Peeling them was like taking off your socks. They were delicious right out of the steamer, still warm with a little salt and pepper, mmm mmm.

We're going to try steaming brown rice and some tilapia fillets today. Maybe some veggies tomorrow.

I've often had that problem with hard boiled eggs. The trick is to find the air pocket, usually on the big end so you break through the membrane, then they peel in a snap.

Wow, I had a steamer for years and never even thought about this...I guess because I didn't ever have that problem....

Fish is fine for a steamer, but cleanup afterward is aweful...becareful otherwise your other foods will end up tasting a bit fishy for a few days...

I was never able to steam rice. If it's a true steamer, rice isn't going to work well, but they have all kinds of steamers these days and it wouldn't surprise me if yours worked like that.

Thanks for the head's up re: the fish. The brown rice did very well, but I'm still thinking about getting a rice cooker. I'm a kitchen gadget addict.

I've got one of those expensive "fuzzy logic" rice cookers that can also function as a steamer or a slow cooker. I use it all the time, although to be honest I rarely make rice in it.

Most of the time I steam vegetables. It's hard to tell the difference from frozen broccoli from Sam's to fresh when you steam it, so I just buy those huge bags.

I also use it to make quinoa and will set it up overnight to soak and timer cook my steel cut oats to be ready when I get up.

Rice is my favorite food...and always has been...
For years and years everyone says "Why not just get a rice cooker..."
and I always think about it and decide that if I got one, I wouldn't eat anything else for any meal...I would literally eat rice for every meal of the day, several cups a day at minimum, if it were as easy as adding some water and rice and pressing a single button...in fact, all this talk about rice is making me hungry (just like "these pretzels are making me thirsty" hehe) so I'm going to go make some now...mmmmmmmmmmm riiiiiice....

How long does it take to steam a large egg?

Actual steam time....where water is already boiling...

I do 8 at a time and set the time for 18 minutes. It starts steaming within about 15 seconds of pushing start. I tried doing them for 15 minutes but the yolks were not completely done and they were maddening to peel. Ours is the Oster brand. It has two steaming baskets / trays and an inset pan for rice and other small veggies that would fall down through the holes. I did some frozen chopped broccoli today. The instructions said 45 minutes for any frozen veggies. Theyl did very well. My wife did some fresh squash yesterday for about 18 minutes and they came out perfect and delicious.

ttfn
...Paul

I've often had that problem with hard boiled eggs. The trick is to find the air pocket, usually on the big end so you break through the membrane, then they peel in a snap.
To add to this, freshness of eggs plays a big part in how easy they are to peel. Fresher eggs have smaller air pockets and are a lot harder to peel after you boil them.

Interesting, I'll have to try that.

My way of peeling eggs without gouging them to bits is the crack them gently against a flat surface, then roll them a bit until a large area is covered in small cracks, but the membrane underneath keeps everything held together. Then I just get a finger under the 'softened' area of the shell, and the rest of it is easy.

Oh, and I always give my hard-boiled eggs a quick rinse. I'm a bit phobic about crunching into foreign stuff like bits of egg shell and grit/sand.

I steam fish in our Wok instead of the steamer! Put a grate in the bottom of the wok, fill just below the grate with water, put fish on top, cover the wok, and steam. It's good to pat the fish down with spices before steaming.

Cleanup is super easy this way.

We have a steamer and it doubles as a rice cooker. They're really handy, but I only use it for rice and veggies.