Home  Patents  Binary Sampler  Articles  Contact

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. It's a Fast Steamer

3. Frozen Chicken

4. Restricted Diets

5. Advantages of the Bowl Steamer

6. Recipes

   1. Scrambled Eggs

   2. Steamed Yams

   3. Hamburger

   4. Brown Rice

7. Experiment!

8. Bowl Curvature

9. Metal in the Microwave

10. System Specifications

    1. Food Bowl

    2. Knob

    3. Mounting Screw

    4. Holes to Drill

11. Summary

Introduction

A conventional microwave food cover has vent holes near the top. This lets the steam escape and wastes the heating capability of the hot steam.

If you try to retain the steam and use a plate to cover the food, condensation will collect around the lip. As pressure builds up from the steam, the water will bubble and splatter grease all around the inside of the microwave.

The solution is to get a food bowl intended for use in the microwave, and drill four small holes to release the pressure. Mount it upside down and add a plastic knob for a handle.

This will release the pressure and stop the water condensation from making bubbles, but it will keep the steam inside to help cook the food. The plastic knob makes it much easier to handle, especially when it is hot from cooking.

The combination of the the microwave energy and the vented bowl changes your microwave oven into a new way to cook.

It's a Fast Steamer

Do you find it is too much hassle to get out your steamer, fill it with water, add the food, wait for the steam to start working, then have to clean the steamer afterwards?

The Bowl Steamer is the perfect solution. It combines the power of the microwaves with the energy of the hot steam. So it cooks fast. Really fast!

Just put your food on a plate, add a bit of water if needed, cover, microwave until done, and drain any excess water.

The food comes out just the way you like it every time. Add sauce or garnish and enjoy.

Cleanup is a snap - the only plate to clean is the one you used to cook with. It works great on fish, chicken, corn, rice, potatoes, and anything else that can be steamed or microwaved.

Frozen Chicken

Ever notice how long it takes to defrost frozen chicken? Microwaves don't work very well on ice, so the meat has to be thawed before it can be cooked. It can take 20 minutes or more to simply thaw the meat, then you still have to cook it.

The Bowl Steamer solves the problem. Just toss the frozen pieces on a plate, add a bit of water, then cook on high. Frozen legs are completely cooked in 6 to 8 minutes, with no pink sections near the bone, and no raw blood remaining.

The reason this works so well is the microwaves heat the water, which turns to steam. The steam thaws the meat and helps to cook it. The microwaves can now operate on the thawed meat and finish the cooking.

The legs are already on the plate, so all you have to do is drain the fat and enjoy your freshly cooked chicken.

Your time may vary depending on how big the legs are.

Restricted Diets

When you cook the chicken in the Bowl Steamer, the skin is so soft and tender it simply falls off the meat.

Many people are on diets where they cannot eat chicken that is cooked with the skin on because of the high fat content. However, if you remove the skin and try to cook the chicken, it turns out dry and unappeaing.

But if you cook it in the Bowl Steamer as described above, the chicken turns out tender, moist, and delicious.

Advantages of the Bowl Steamer

1. The Bowl Steamer retains the hot steam inside the bowl. This helps food cook faster and more uniformly.

2. By retaining the heat that is normally lost, the cooking time is more repeatable than in a conventional steamer. Your microwave has a built-in timer that is accurate to one second, and you will find the food is cooked exactly the same each time. You no longer have to put the food back in and cook it some more, or throw it away because it is overcooked.

3. Retaining the steam helps keep the food fresh and moist.

4. Since your food is steamed quickly, the vitamins and minerals are preserved and you will be able to enjoy healthier meals.

5. A conventional food steamer has a lot of hot water inside. When it is finished cooking, you have to deal with the hot steam, and you can get a steam burn.

   Hot steam can give severe and painful burns. I used to get these often, and I can assure you they are painful and no fun. But whenever I do something stupid like this, I apply my own SilverCell colloidal silver and the pain quickly goes away, and the silver ions help the wound to heal without any scar.

6. The Bowl Steamer has very little water. When the food is cooked, the steam stops. There is a low temperature handle to remove the cover, so there is no danger of getting a steam burn.

7. A regular steamer has only one power setting, which is maximum. The Bowl Steamer can use the different power settings of the microwave oven, and it can be set to simmer on 10% power, or 50% to cook fragile things like scrambled eggs. This gives you more flexibility in how you cook your foods.

8. The Bowl Steamer prevents grease from splattering inside the microwave where it is hard to clean.

9. Unlike a regular microwave food cover, the Bowl Steamer is easy to clean since grease does not stick to it very well.

10. A regular microwave food cover is too large to sit on a plate, so the grease and condensation collect on the glass microwave tray where it is difficult to clean. So it tends to collect old food which is unsanitary.

11. If you drop and break the microwave tray while cleaning, it instantly renders the entire microwave unusable. So it is best to not let it get dirty in the first place.

12. As shown in the photo, the Bowl Steamer sits on the plate, so the grease and condensation stays on the plate where it is easy to clean, and there is no risk of breaking the glass microwave tray.

13. A regular microwave food cover lets the steam escape through the vent holes, but the Bowl Steamer condenses the steam to water. This runs down the sides of the bowl onto the plate where it is recycled. So very little water is needed to steam vegetables, potatoes, yams, etc.

14. If you try to simmer food in the microwave, the air from the magnetron cools the food. Placing the cover over the food helps keep it warm.

15. A regular microwave food cover has finger grips built into the plastic lid. These get hot when cooking food and can burn your fingers when you try to remove the cover.

    The Bowl Steamer has a nice handle that stays cool and keeps your fingers from touching the hot plastic.

16. The Bowl Steamer is thin and has excellent performance at microwave frequencies. This prevents loss of power.

17. It is very light, easy to handle, and very easy to clean.

18. The Bowl Steamer is very inexpensive and makes an excellent Christmas or birthday gift.

Recipes

Here are some recipes using the Bowl Steamer in the microwave.

Scrambled Eggs

1. Wet a small cereal bowl. This helps keep the egg from sticking

2. Break two eggs in the bowl. Remove any shell fragments

3. Scramble with a fork until uniform

4. Place in microwave and cover

5. Cook for 2 minutes and 10 seconds at 50% power

6. Enjoy!

Steamed Yams

1. Use a sharp object like an ice pick to poke vent holes for steam to escape

2. Wash clean

3. Place on a food plate as shown in image and add 3 or 4 tablespoons water

4. Put in microwave and cover

5. Cook for 8 to 12 minutes on high power

6. Use kitchen gloves to remove from microwave

7. Hold the cover and plate with your thumbs and fingers and squeeze the lid with your index fingers to drain the water

8. Slice in half lengthwise. The knife should slide easily through the flesh

9. Slice into quarters

10. Butter to taste

11. Enjoy!

Hamburger

If you cook hamburger in a frying pan, you have a messy job cleaning everything afterwards. But you can cook a roast in a slow cooker, so why not cook with steam? It comes out delicious, and there are no heterocyclic amines or polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons that form when pan frying or grilling directly over an open flame. See http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Risk/cooked-meats for more information.

1. Put 250 grams of fresh hamburger on a food plate. This is approximately the amount you can hold in two hands. A small kitchen scale will assure consistent results

2. Press the hamburger flat so it is about 3/8 inch thick

3. Put in microwave and add the cover

4. Cook for 2 minutes and 10 seconds on high power

5. Remove from microwave. The plate will be cool, so you can hold the cover and the plate with your thumbs and fingers, then squeeze the lid with your index fingers to drain the water and fat into your fat container

6. Add mustard and pepper to taste

7. Enjoy!

Brown Rice

1. Put 1/2 cup long brown rice in bowl

2. Cover with 1/2" or more water. Since the bowl keeps the rice warmer, you have to use a bit more water to prevent it from drying out

3. Put the rice bowl on a plate to capture the condensation while simmering. A glass plate is excellent for use in the microwave since it has very low loss at microwave frequencies and won't absorb the energy

4. Cook on high for 3 minutes 30 seconds

5. Place small dish over bowl

6. Cover and simmer for 25 to 40 minutes on 10% power until done

7. Verify the microwave is really on 10% power, or the rice will catch fire and burn a hole through the cover. You should be able to hear the hum when the magnetron receives power. It should stay on for only several seconds, then turn off for 20 seconds or so. If it stays on, terminate the run and start over

8. Check the water while simmering and add more if needed. I find if the water is exactly level with the rice at 15 minutes, it will turn out beautifully light and fluffy after simmering 15 minutes more. It does not stick like some rices do, but is ready to eat.

9. Use kitchen gloves to remove from microwave

10. Drain excess water if needed

11. Add salt, pepper, butter to taste

12. Enjoy!

Experiment!

Other things that cook well are potatoes, chicken, fish, many cuts of pork and beef, vegetables, lasagna, and all the other things that go well in the microwave. They cook better with a cover that helps keep the food fresh, moist, and warm.

The Bowl Steamer is great for reheating food, such as pizza or leftovers. These tend to dry quickly without some means of preventing the moisture from escaping.

Bowl Curvature

After some use, the bowl may develop a slight curvature that will prevent it from sitting flat. This is harmless and merely offers another path for pressure to escape instead of having to go through the small holes drilled near the bottom. In order to fix this, place the bowl on a flat surface while it is still hot. After it cools down, place it in the drying rack.

Metal in the Microwave

A number of people have asked about the metal screw that holds the knob on, and if it can cause problems in the microwave.

Recall the walls of the microwave are made of metal, so metal by itself is not the problem. The problem occurs when two or more pieces of metal are in contact. This creates high currents at local hot spots that can arc or burn. An example is the metallic trim on some dishes, or the arcing when you put steel wool in the microwave.

In this case, the screw that holds the knob on is a #6 sheet metal screw 5/8 of an inch long. It is too short to be an effective antenna, and it is not touching any other conductor so it cannot arc.

To demonstrate this, I placed a screw on the glass microwave tray while cooking hamburger on high heat for 2 minutes. There was no arcing from the screw tip.

At the end of 2 minutes, the hamburger was well done, but the screw was still cold. This shows it cannot cause any problem while holding the knob secure.

System Specifications

1. Food Bowl

   The bowl has a capacity of 2.5 litres. It is made of polypropylene, which is the safest plastic you can get for food. The temperature range is -20 degrees C to 120 degrees C. It is safe to use in the freezer and dishwasher. The maximum diameter is 9 inches, and the depth is 3 inches. It cost $2.00 at one bargain store, and $1.25 at another store.

2. Knob

   This is the best knob I could find that can withstand the heat from the steam and still not get too hot to touch. The reason is the top is hollow and has a broad lip. This gives plenty of area to grasp with your fingers, but the thin plastic doesn't conduct heat very well so it can't burn your fingers.

   The shaft is long enough to keep your knuckles away from the hot bowl so you don't touch it while removing the bowl. The shaft has a hole pre-drilled that is the proper size for a #6 screw, and it has an overall diameter that is large enough to give plenty of strength to hold the bowl in any position. If you can't find this knob, stay away from ceramic or metal knobs since these will get hot and burn your fingers, and avoid knobs with solid caps or made of a plastic that will melt.

   The knob is an Onward 72-1-V 1 1/2" plastic knob, UPC # 0-62703-00721-2. The package contains two knobs, so you can make a copy for a friend. It is listed as "038-3280 72-1-V Plastic Knob - White 1-1/2" and appears near the bottom of the page here. The package costs $2.49 at one hardware store and $2.09 at another. It is also sold as a Richelieu SP39002 and is available online here and here and here.

3. Mounting Screw

   The screw is an ordinary #6 sheet metal screw 5/8" long. It costs a few pennies at most hardware stores.

4. Holes to Drill

   The four small pressure release holes are 1/16" diameter. The hole for the #6 screw is 9/64".

Summary

The Bowl Steamer shown here converts your microwave into a flash steamer. It combines the power of the microwaves with the energy of the hot steam.

This improves microwave cooking by retaining the steam and moisture that is normally lost. This helps to cook the food more uniformly and keeps it fresh and moist.

Your cooking times will change slightly from what you are used to due to the warmer temperatures and increased moisture. It should be easy to find the new settings and enjoy the improved performance of your microwave.

The bowl is slightly smaller than a typical plate, so it helps keep the inside of the microwave clean. The bowl shown here is made of polypropylene and is quite slippery so grease and fat do not stick. This makes it very easy to clean.