Compartment steamers

A compartment steamer is energy-efficient and versatile. Such vessels are able to cook items without the addition of fat and ensure that more of the product's nutrients are preserved throughout the cooking process. The moist heat it provides makes the steamer ideal for reheating leftovers, as compared with the dry heat of an oven that tends to dry food that is being reheated.

Food to be cooked in a steamer is placed in perforated pans to allow the steam to penetrate better. The pan is placed in the steamer, the door is closed and latched, the steamer is turned on, and the compartment is filled with steam. Steam, or condensed water, which is much hotter than boiling water, cooks food faster than other processes.

Steamers are ideal for cooking fresh or frozen vegetables. Poul­try and seafood dishes that are normally poached work well in the steamer. An alternative to boiling eggs in water is to steam them. Chicken to be fried can be partially cooked in a steamer, then cooled and breaded to reduce frying time. Using a steamer requires care; its high heat and rapid cooking can cause overcooking. However, a steamer's quick cooking allows operations to cook food in small batches as it is needed, rather than having to cook large batches and hold them until they are to be served.

Task 1.

Match a definition and a term.

steam-jacketed kettle

smaller kettle is called ….

compartment steamer

scraper mixer attachment

• a kettle with indirect heat, it is made up of a set of two different-sized bowls

• is available for longer-capacity kettles

• turn-ion kettle

• is used to cook items without the addition of fat

Task 2.

True or false:

1. On a larger volume operation most nonbaked or roasted foods are produced in a steam-jecketed kettle.

2. A steam-jacketed kettle is made of one bowl.

3. Kettles size can range from 1 quart to 100 gallons.

4. A compartment steamer can cook items without the addition of fat.

Task 3.

Answer the following questions:

1. What is the advantage of using steam-jacketed kettles?

2. What is this kettle made of?

3. What food can be cooked in a steam-jacketed kettle?

4. What vegetables are cooked in compartment steamer?

Unit 4

Key terms

Find out the meaning of the following terms:

to purchase

health

to remove

staff

tableware

recontaminating

lowest-paid

dirty

rack

equipment

to perform

counter

point of view

replacement

scrape

customer

pressure

sake of

Reading:

Dishwashing equipment

A dishwashing machine is the most expensive piece of equipment, both to purchase and to operate, in a foodservice operation. In most operations the dishwashing machine is operated by the lowest-paid people on staff. It is also one of the most important pieces of equip­ment from both the customer's and the board of health's point of view, because of its crucial role in cleaning and sanitizing tableware. Customers do not want to eat from dirty plates or drink from dirty glasses. The health department insists that the service items cus­tomers have eaten from and/or have put in their mouths are properly cleaned and sanitized before others use them.

Prior to the emergence of mechanical dishwashing equipment, foodservice dishes were washed by hand. Washing large volumes of tableware manually presented a number of problems. The soap concentration and water temperature were difficult to monitor. Most commercial operations now use mechanical dishwashing ma­chines. Some small and seasonal operations that still wash their dishes manually are closely regulated by the health department.

All managers in a foodservice operation should know how to set up, operate, and perform simple maintenance on the dishwashing machine, as well as break down, or disassemble, the machine at the end of the day. A steady supply of clean and sanitary dishes is crucial to the running of a foodservice operation. Washing the operation's dishes is one of the most important jobs, yet it is usually left to the lowest-paid person on the payroll. If for some reason an operation is without a dish washer, the management staff should be able to operate the machine until a replacement can be called in. It is imperative that the operation have a service contract on the dish- washing machine to keep the down time of the machine to a mini­mum. Simple maintenance should be performed by management until service personnel can arrive and fix the machine.

A manager has a choice of several types of dishwashing ma­chines. The following paragraphs discuss the different types of machines, how each works, and its best uses.

Single Tank, Stationary Rack

In using a single tank, stationary rack dish machine, dishes and glasses are first sprayed with hot water and scraped. They are then placed on a rack, and the rack is placed in the machine and it is turned on. Wash arms above and below the rack spray the dishes and glasses with a high-pressure spray of hot water and detergent. Rinsing and sanitizing take place after the washing is completed. The dishwater operator then removes the rack of dishes from the machine and allows them to air dry on a counter. It is very important that the items that come from the machine be allowed to air dry, rather than risking the possibility of recontaminating them by towel drying. This is the most basic type of dishwashing machine and is generally used in relatively low-volume operations.

Rack Conveyor

As with the use of a stationary rack, dishes and glasses are sprayed and scraped prior to being placed on the racks of a rack conveyor machine. The racks are then set on a moving conveyor that runs them through the machine. The washer can have either a single tank, as in the previously described machine, in which all three activities, washing, rinsing, and sanitizing, are accomplished in the same tank, or it can use dual tanks, which include a prerinse prior to the wash cycle.

The rack conveyor is able to handle more dishes within a period of time than the stationary rack machine. This is important, because the use of dishes is concentrated at meal periods and dishes must be reused during a meal. The drawback is that two people are necessary to operate this machine efficiently—one to load, and the other to catch the items at the receiving end.

Belt Conveyor or Flight-Type

A belt conveyer flight-type machine has many of the characteristics of the rack conveyor machine. It differs from the rack conveyor in that dishes are placed directly on a belt with pegs that runs through the machine, rather than on a rack. Glasses, cups, and some types of bowls are still run through on racks for protection of the items and for the sake of efficiency. Glasses and cups are generally left in these racks for storage in the kitchen and dining room.

Carousel Type

The carousel-type machine can be either a belt conveyor or a rack conveyor system. The basic difference between the carousel type and the belt conveyor is that the carousel conveyor makes a continuous loop around the machine. The advantage of the continuous loop is that one person can load the machine, wait until the items come through, then unload the machine. This allows the operation to reduce labor requirements during off-peak periods by having the same person load and unload the machine, although it is not recom­mended because of the possibility of the person contaminating the clean, sanitized dishes.

Chemical Sanitizing Machines

The chemical sanitizing machine was developed to reduce the need for the expensive hot water that other types of machines use. As compared with the other types of machines discussed, chemical, sanitizing machines operate using lower temperatures, higher water pressure, and increased amounts of chemicals. Such a ma­chine relies on chemicals, usually chlorine, rather than hot water to reduce the bacteria count on tableware to a safe level. A reduction in cost realized by the use of less hot water is partially offset by increased chemical cost.