I use an asparagus steamer without the basket to ferment yogurt in an oven that has a Proof mode. Because I am using some unusual bacteria, I need to carefully control the temperature. Every asparagus steamer I have found so far uses a tri-ply base and single-ply sidewalls. Does any vendor make a tall narrow steamer that is fully clad?
This is an issue for me because the heat source in my oven's Proof mode is the broiling element. Even with the oven tray in the lowest position, the top of the steamer comes close to the heating element and gets much hotter than the bottom. With a single-ply sidewall, that heating at the top never distributes well to the entire pot. I could work around this by just using a water bath in a stockpot, but if someone makes a fully-clad narrow steamer I would like to try it.
Who makes those? I looked on eBay and they only listed stainless.
https://www.architonic.com/en/product...
https://www.edehillerin.fr/en/soups/4...
There may be more options, but it's basically just a really tall ~18 cm pot with an insert.
Instant Pot is just one more appliance that takes up a lot of space. In a perfect world, I would have a bigger kitchen and the Instant Pot would be out all the time.
An asparagus steamer is one of the most highly underrated pots you can buy. They are compact and inexpensive, and because of the removable basket they are perfect for:
* small batches of bone broth
* frying foods (why waste so much oil to fill an 8-quart stockpot)
* potatoes
* mussels
* eggs
* pasta
* asparagus
And without the basket, they work perfectly for soups that require an immersion blender, because of the added depth of the pot.
Since I like this kind of pot for other applications, I just wanted to find a way to repurpose it, then ran into this unusual heat distribution problem.
Ah. I thought you just wanted to make yogurt. I don't know of any cladded pots that tall. One other suggestion to prevent radiant heat from the broiler element from reaching your yogurt is to place a sheet of foil on the top oven rack, and place the yogurt lower in the oven, maybe even on a wire rack *on* the bottom of the oven.
Matfer may make bain marie pots ("tall, skinny") that are full tri-ply. Not sure. Do a search. They certainly don't have a disk bottom as they are not meant to sit on flame. They may be thick enough SS to suit the use you have in mind for them, even if not of tri-ply construction.
Here are some bain marie pots, including some by Matfer:
Bain Marie pots look interesting. If nothing else, I could use those in a water bath and with a good lid, it would be a light-free and somewhat anaerobic environment.
Those are certainly single-ply products. The Vollrath looks thicker in the product photos versus something like a Winco or Matfer, but when I compare weights they are almost the same for a given volume, so a similar gauge of stainless must be used in both designs.
Is yours the Demeryere Resto model? I have this disk-based steamer. I like it, mostly because its basket is pretty fine, so nothing falls through.
Interestingly enough, the retired CEO of Demeyere recommends boiling milk in these when new. No one at Demeyere knows why, but they still keep it in their instructions.
"No one at Demeyere knows why, but they still keep it in their instructions."
That sounds eerily similar to how software is built.
Yes, it is Demeyere Resto, which looks like it may be out of production because all the online stores stopped selling it.
What I have been doing on new stainless steel items is to boil dishwashing detergent in the pot and let that sit for 24 hours. I am not sure if that cleans non-organic residue or not. I should probably also give a 24-hour bath in diluted vinegar. I have a giant double boiler from China that was obviously not cleaned well in production and had a very metallic smell. It took me about two or three wash cycles to get that smell out of it.
You can also of course buy an electric bain marie unit to go with the pots. I have no idea if it would work for making yogurt though, and it would represent another appliance taking up room in your kitchen.
Sure, a bain with a SV circulator. A beverage cooler works, too.
I simply don't know. I've never made yogurt. I assume that those who make it as an avocation have some sort of set up. I don't know what it is, but surely there is one, perhaps even dedicated equipment/appliances.
I don't make yogurt either, but a SV circulator seems like a no-brainer for a bain that must be kept at a precise temperature for fermentation. Easy as pie for propagating wine yeasts, so I expect the same for yogurt.
I still have no idea. I'd need to look at the process to see what current practitioners are doing. I don't reinvent wheels.
I'm not a huge fan of sous vide. I ran out and bought a circulator to see what the fuss was about and was mostly underwhelmed. When I'm cooking steaks in quantity, I like being able to dial in the degrees of doneness in the bath beforehand, and then sear all the same.. And there are certain things, like root vegetables, that IMO benefit from steeping in buttery seasonings before a saute. Lopez-Alt's SV carrots are really good. My S-I-L does a mean Gigot de Sept Heures using SV.
Soft boiled eggs, not so much.
The only thing I now use my Anova SV for is making yogurt. I scald milk on the stove, cool to 115 before adding the "old" yogurt for the culturing, then cook at 112F for about a day in quart size mason jars. The cambro I use can hold up to 6 jars- I usually make 2 or 3 quarts.
I bought the Anova back when SV was all the rage. Don't care for it much for proteins but awesome for yogurt. And I have a dedicated yogurt maker
That's wonderful. I don't know a single thing about making yogurt.
If I got into it, this is probably what it would end up looking like (halfway a joke):
Hah, yes get a production line up and running. I've made yogurt a few times with this method here, wasn't too fuzzy at all. (The method is also written there in short, in the description):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ae3Tr...
It hurts my eyes how full they have the pot filled there though :).
I'm not aware of any fully clad asparagus steamers or bain pans. There are technical reasons why deep-drawing this material that far results in a very high failure rate (Falk once admitted a 40% rate on its stockpots).
What you might investigate is House Copper's small (3Q) copper stockpot. https://housecopper.com/product/3-qua... I have one and have reviewed it favorably and in detail here. It is tinned, and is only the pot and cover, so you would be on your own in terms of finding a basket/insert.
Hmm, maybe this All Clad?
https://poshmark.com/listing/All-Clad...
You'd have to find out, though, because it does look like a disc base. So much for "all" clad.
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