Today, with more and more people turning to natural and “green” ways stainless waterless cookware is becoming more popular than ever before. Waterless cooking allows food to retain the natural flavors; vitamins and nutrients lost to regular cooking and can even use fewer resources like electricity. All of this makes it the best choice for a “green” and healthier way to cook.
What does waterless cooking mean?
Stainless waterless cookware is specially designed to allow you to cook your food without diluting it with added water. This style of cooking will result in food that tastes better, looks better and is rich in all the vitamins and nutrients traditional cooking can reduce.
Why Use Waterless Cookware
Although important, the flavor of food is not the only consideration when creating meals. Every good chef understands that smell, texture, color and presentation are just as important as how the meal tastes. Waterless cookware allows not just the real flavor of the meal to come through but also the color, texture and smells of the food are enhanced and not diluted.
Another important consideration for many of us is the nutrition of the food we eat. The two things that affect the nutrition of our food is the quality of the food we buy and the way it is prepared.
Even when we buy the best food we can, most of the vitamins and nutrients end up being washed down the kitchen sink. That is because the way we cook tends to leach 70% to 90% of the vitamins and minerals out of the food, leaving it in the pan along with the water in which we cooked the food. Waterless cookware allows the retention of over 90% of the nutritional value of the food.
Let us take broccoli as an example. Broccoli when over cooked in water is limp, lifeless, and tasteless, unfortunately when overcooked broccoli also loses as many as 70% of the vitamins and nutrients that make it healthy for you to eat. With waterless cookware broccoli retains 93% of the vitamins and minerals.
Waterless cookware is designed to cook food at a lower temperature in its own juices. Broccoli cooked in this type of cookware will come out of the pan crisp, bright colored, filled with all the vitamins, minerals, and flavor it had before cooking.
Vegetables are not the only foods that benefit from waterless cooking, even steaks and roasts come out with a full robust flavor and retaining all of the nutritional values without the added oils that are so bad for you.
How does waterless cookware work?
Waterless cookware is made up of several layers of material including a bottom layer of aluminum or copper, stainless steel, and iron with a moisture seal lid.
As the food inside the pot heats, the water or fat from the food begins to evaporate. The evaporation triggers the lid of the cookware’s seal, which traps the steam. Once enough steam is trapped inside the pot the steam valve will open and begin to whistle telling you to either turn down the heat or turn off the stove. The steam built up inside of the pot will continue to cook the food until it is done.
Why stainless waterless cookware?
The three biggest reasons to use stainless steel waterless cookware are safety, durability and economy.
Safety
Many cookware products today are coated with Teflon. Teflon is a chemical that creates a non-stick surface. While a non- stick surface can seem like a great idea, Teflon breaks down and releases toxic gases and chemicals when heated. The key chemical in Teflon is called C-8. According to DuPont (the maker of Teflon), you should not keep pet birds in the kitchen because the fumes of C-8 could kill them. For humans Teflon is supposed to be safe but may cause flu-like symptoms that will only last a few days. Stainless steel cookware is not coated with Teflon.
Durability
If you are looking for a set of cookware that will last a lifetime stainless steel is the best way to go. While stainless steel cookware can cost a little more than some other materials stainless steel is usually guaranteed to last for a lifetime making it a much better value. Most pots and pans should be replaced every 5 years.
Economy
Stainless steel waterless cookware is also a more economic choice. Due in part to the materials used in waterless cookware the food will do most of its cooking with the stove turned off. The ability to turn of the stove will not only save money on your utility bill but also releases less heat into the air, an important consideration for the Summer months when air conditioners are so important.
Stainless waterless cookware offers a non-stick way to cook food that is natural, flavorful, and loaded with all of the vitamins and minerals often leached out during cooking with other types of cookware.