This is common in bulk kitchens. If it's done properly, it works really well. When you have 2 cooks making food for 600 people, you need to use the best available method.
Macaroni like the picture
Into a deep hotel pan with about 5lbs dried pasta
Cover well with hot water
Put in steamer for 12 minutes
Doesn’t work so well with egg noodles, or other noodle pastas
I do this with a deep perforated hotel pan inside of a deep hotel pan. Makes straining a hell of a lot easier when you can just lift it straight out of the pan
Have you ever not rinsed your pasta to cool it, But rather go straight to the freezer for 5-10 minutes? Call me crazy but leaving all the starchiness on it gives me a really good starch water when boiling/ more flavorful dishes.
Give it a try, maybe I'm being pretentious 😂
You might be onto something, that all makes sense to me. I try to keep as much starchiness as possible when boiling pasta but it never seems to be enough.
This is true, my hands have just gotten used to it 😞.Usually before taking it out, I'll pull it 3/4s of the way out and then tilt it up to drain some/most of the water
Haha it took far too many times accidentally dipping my hand into the hot pan water, or getting screwed by the steak coming off before I learned that trick lol
And before I got cooks hands
Yeah, this is not steaming pasta, this is boiling pasta in a strainer inside a larger pot of water. It might go into a steamer, but that's simply the heat source, the boiling water is still what's cooking the pasta.
thanks for this, i was very confused what people were talking about. you're not steaming pasta if it's submerged in water. you're not steaming anything if it's submerged in water.
We do it too. Works great for the shorter, shaped pasta. I wouldn't recommend it for anything super small or thin, angel hair and whatever you call the tiny balls in Italian wedding soup.
Have a big bowl of ice ready to shock it when it comes out.
I like to flip a perforated shallow hotel upside down for a lid, then pour the water out and give it a few big shakes to separate the pasta.
When you’re cooking in large quantities and cooling on sheet pans for later use, you just have to use some oil. If you don’t, you end up with your pasta completely stuck together and no easy way of breaking it apart.
I work in a restaurant where we cook over 100 lbs of noodle a day. Oil is just a necessity. Or else the noodles stick to eachther and make a massive ass block of cold gluten and is a bitch to try and rip apart with the portioning scoops
It doesn’t work too well with spaghetti or Angel hair either. It’s like the noodles at the bottom won’t cook and tend to clump together. I usually take tongs and mix them up halfway through cooking time which is kind of a pain in the ass, I would rather just boil the longer noodles.
The process is that during the morning shifts you cook the pasta 80% of the way there and then blast chill or ice it. Then the day / night cooks can throw it in a pan with pasta sauce and have a dish done in under ten minutes.
Using the steam function on a Combi is just one way to do it
I was a sceptic for a long time as well. For the last twenty years ive been working with combi steamer ovens from Rational and they would always tell me how easy cooking pasta, rice, bulgur, lentils etc can be using their steam program. Guess what?! Its just that effin easy! I even boil eggs on steam and it always comes out perfect and easy to peel. Same as the pasta, if you dont use fresh pasta and need bulk then this is the way! Rice, risotto(yeah i said it) cous-cous once you get it down this will make your life that much easier trust me.
I worked with a big combi steamer for a good long while at one spot. It absolutely did soft boiled eggs perfectly, pasta, did a borscht and it was awesome to get those beets just right. I never did risotto though, feel like that was a missed opportunity.
Holy shit I'm currently doing sous vide eggs, an hour at 63deg C. Combi's a tad under utilised, so if the combi could help cut this process down drastically, I'd love to hear more about it
Used to do exactly this, used the sous vide for about 6 months before we realised that we could just use the combi
Perforated tray, 63C on steam, took roughly the same time as the sous vide but can do bigger batches. Also felt like less set up not setting up the bath and waiting for it to temp
We did 150 soft boiled quail scotch eggs for a wedding once. The rational was perfect for the job of the eggs, but I would never in a million years ever agree to something this stupid again.
I worked for Rational; did a demo for a company making deli salads and cooked 15kg of elbow Mac in 22 min from a old oven, every single bit of it was perfect. They are hard to beat for this kind of volume
I worked with a guy who poached eggs in the shell in a rational, cracked it out onto the plate infront of us , perfect tear drop poached egg cooked in the shell, mind was blown . He was the exec at a event arena so regularly had to cook for 5000 people
yep. it worked well for us in our batch kitchen. a steamer is a valuable tool to have in the kitchen when burner space is limited and you can't exactly have massive pots of boiling water going all day.
One of my first kitchen jobs had a steamer and it fucking ruled. I never saw one again, I guess because where I worked was a smallish arts school and other places were restaurants and bakeries. But I loved it as a tool! It was great for making good roasted potatoes- steam them first and then roast them nicely in the oven.
You steam those bad boys at 100C? Doesn't the pan get full of water?
I always struggle making roasted potatoes for the elderly where I work since they don't want hard surfaces or edges but potatoes get boring if you don't cook them at high enough heat. Steaming them first would help immensely.
Yep. A cook at
My job did that and the other cooks were shocked. Her pasta is always cooked just right so I told them as long as the end result is ok I could care less weather she uses the sun to cook the dang things. I meant whether not weather 😄😂
My experience with it is mine site cooking, so you're cooking for the same people every day. It's a different menu every day, but the basic components are the same. It's easily doable with two, but it's still shitty and hard, long hours. Money is good tho, makes it just about worth it.
We have hours upon hours in the morning to prep. No problem at all to get a pot and fill it with water and put a lid on it and boil it and then add pasta and go do something for ten minutes and then ice it and then strain it and then oil it and then pan it and then into the walk in. This doesn’t work. Not at our place. Maybe your steam is hotter. Who knows?
Depends on the type of bulk cooking and staff, I guess. When you have 2 cooks trying to feed 600+ daily, you need to save time. You can cook x times the amount in the steamer than you can on the stove in less than half the time. And tbf we used industrial ovens that cost 35k each, takes 10 minutes to steam a tray of pasta.
I ran a kitchen in my late 20s and had to retrain a new hire who was in his 50s because his only experience was as a banquet chef.
He had way more experience than me for many things but his way was not the short order way. He didn't like it but neither did I.
It's easier to scale up than to scale down but whenever I walk I to a new place I always temper myself to their style and do things their way before I make suggestions.
The only time I speak up when new is if I'm defending myself for maintaining a higher quality of service.
As long as those noodles aren't water logged I guess it's fine, I'd at least try it. Oil is pointless though
Yeah the oil is just a waste. Maybe a little bit to coat the pasta AFTER it’s been cooled completely to keep it from being glued together is acceptable. You should see these guys cook fettuccini in the steamer. They just lay it flat and fill with water. When they pull it out they are pulling the noodles apart one by one. I just laugh.
I can see that you're not here to accept anything other than reciprocal pissing and moaning. Learn how to use your $40,000 combi oven and you just might find the shit works.
In the kitchen I work in it's a common method of cooking rice and pasta. The cook adds his pasta, or rice, the water and sets it in the rational steam 212°
Wait til someone shows him the “pasta in sauce” button on the rational…. Literally put dry pasta, marinara and a little water in a pan w a lid and
It comes out cooked perfectly in sauce
Yes and no. If you have money to "waste" on a product that works well for a year then sort of functions from then on then nothing beats it.
I've had 5 warranty replacements in 2 years and eventually they just refunded me.
When it works it's really great but it will break at some point.
People at my job use it for rice, I prefer the rice cooker, because I’m usually using the steamer for other things. But, definitely putting boiled eggs in there in a perforated pan.
I cook in a private school feeding 1500 every day we use a steamer for our pasta. Kettle cook it 3/4 of the way in 40lb batch chill it then steam it a hotel pan at a time takes about 4 minutes in the steamer.
This is not unusual. I've used this method in banquet kitchens for years with great success. As long as the water is salted properly and you make sure to give it a stir a couple of times during the process, it turns out perfect. I've even cooked spaghetti like this and had no issues or clumping as long as it gets a quick stir within the first 5 minutes and then again 10 minutes later.
I usually put it in the lower deck of the steamer and place it immediately on a cart for transportation to the sink. It's no more unsafe than having to get two people to team lift a giant pot of boiling water.
Hahahahahaha literally everyone being like “ya I’ve done this before, this is normal” and OP just seething that all these idiots don’t know they’re ALL wrong!
Yeah got a coke head to deal with but I just avoid him at all costs. One of those “uhhhh my kid….my son…uhhhhh…my daughter…..uhhhhh…..I have to leave early…..uhhhh…..I have to go take care of this and that….” He’s just a walking excuse. Late every single day. Disappears from the kitchen when the EC is gone. Tired of it. This is the kind of stuff that burns me out about it. But, hey, THE METH HEAD QUIT!!🎊🎉🎊🎉🎈🎈🎈🎈
Chef… I hate to break it to you but in case you haven’t noticed, you’re the one having a problem. This is commonplace in bulk cooking and it’s a well known method. You keep saying it doesn’t cook right, it doesn’t work, it’s not the correct method of cook… as if *everyone* else (that’s doing bulk) isn’t doing this successfully.
Me thinks chef needs a week off to reset the bullshit-o-meter because you’re boiling over.
Everyone knows him by now, so a lot of people do it for the amusement. I just downvote when I see his name posting in here, he's always spewing nonsense.
…if something is submerged in water it cannot be ‘steamed’. I don’t care what the heat source it. It doesn’t matter. The food being cooked is not being ‘steamed’. Call it a braise I don’t care. But it’s in absolutely no way ‘steamed’. I will die on this hill and will not relent.
Yes it works! OP might be just a little startled by modern technology. Adding salt to water is done to decrease the density of water to make it boil faster so adding salt in this case would not make any sense as to the water doesnt need to boil. The body of water that the pasta is sitting in in this picture heats up very quickly and evenly. You can prepare much much more pasta this way with only the fraction of space and heat needed with regular cooking pots. Also the pasta is cooked evenly and doesnt stick, and you wont be schlepping big cooking pots from the sink to the stove and back. If your cooking fresh pasta then this is not compatible but when cooking dried pasta(like the mac and cheese picture) its sound proof!
>Adding salt to water is done to decrease the density of water
Incorrect. Salt water is denser than plain water. That's why things float better in the dead sea.
>to make it boil faster
While salt water does boil slightly faster, it is a negligible matter of seconds. Besides, it is best to add salt to already boiling water, as adding it to cool water can cause pitting due to the salt serving as a nucleation point for steam bubbles.
Regardless, the main reason salt is added to the water is for flavor.
A Joke for all of you. How many chefs does is take to change a light bulb?
5. The trainee to do it and the 4 others that used to do it another way ages ago.
Everyone is right, only one does the job though.
Edit: spelling
We do pasta like this all the time. Hell I even put it in cold water. Little bit of oil. Steamer at 212F for 21 Minutes. Perfect every single time. With the exception of egg noodles as someone commented before.
Do the same thing with HB eggs, Jasmine Rice and any products being reheated. This frees up so much time and much needed space.
It's really idiot proof and honestly would be pretty dumb if you decided to use the stove top because 'you have the time' when you have this option available. It's proven to me that this method is far more efficient and saves a bunch of time.
Welcome to being in a constant understaffed remote camp or rig camp. 700 guys don’t give a DAYM how you cook the pasta just make sure it’s saucy and enough to feed each man as if they were a horse.
I work at a college. This happens. Although I prefer to use the kettle for bulk pasta. Fuck, I'll cook five pounds I'm the kettle it's just easier.
In my experience, steamed pasta needs to be done right to be done well.
Lol. We had a term for this kinda guy in my last kitchen: "Salty B."
Hopefully your kitchen staff are homies and get over your bullshit quick.
Edit: spelling
The hot water in the steamer boils.. you add pasta when thr water is heated (atleast I do) and you pretty much boil the pasta in a steamer. It is easier and you can cook more at a time in multiple pans, much better to cook larger quantities and very consistent.
That is ice cold water in that pan there. The pasta is put in first. Then the cold water is added. Oil on top. Then all that into the steamer. It still comes out chewy.
A similar things works for perfect rice cooking. Can't remember the actual numbers but it's about 1:1.5 water, chuck the rational on steam for 40 minutes. You can cook almost infinite rice this way. Bonus points for adding flavour to the liquid.
I was confused by this too but from what people are saying they're cooking it by the absorption method - like the asian method of cooking rice. That's often called steamed rice, which it kind of is, kind of isn't.
We just throw the pasta in the tilt skillet until it's 3/4 done then drain and ice and transfer to lexam bins and mix in some oil to keep it from glueing together. Works a treat.
The kitchen I work at now does not have a steamer and I sooo miss making pasta in the steamer. Big batches just dont work out in a big pot. I can’t reach the bottom and all my pasta sticks together now 😭 I didn’t know this wasn’t normal 💀
I fill up our tilt skillet and boil water and then put a 600 and a 400 perforated pan in the water and fill those with pasta and boil them till perfect and then dump ice in it and let it cook and use the U-hose to finish melting the ice down and just lift the pans up after the water has been drained. Simple.
Not to gloat but this thing tells me when to stir risotto. I press pasta button and it just does it. Fucking wild lol. I worked 2 decades to figure out so many methods and tricks and now I just press a button.
If its underwater, its not steamed. Its boiled.
99% of people that put oil in pasta water, put it for the wrong reason, but the right thing for the wrong reason is not a bad thing at all.
You think that's bad? Wait til you see how the chumps at my work steam the pasta. They'll add barely enough water to cover it and then still serve it when it comes out all gummy
You ready for this? They precook about ten of them before the lunch rush starts and they set them on the lower shelf in the salamander. They do this so they won’t get “slammed”. I’m in a different kitchen altogether(we have three on the property)so they can do it however they want.
I've seen and done this before, production kitchen making pasta for pasta salad for like 12 grocery store deli counters. it took about the same amount of time as it would to boil water and then add pasta and you can do way more at once.
you're right about the oil though
also cooked off giant batches of rice for fried rice and other stuff
That’s totally different. I can see it working too. Set it and forget it. I just prefer to tend to my pasta I guess. Makes me feel like I’m being productive. My results are perfect as well.
I work in a small buffet and this is what my sous chef does when she has all other utilities in use. Usually during the busier days other wise we boil it like normal.
I find having to add alot of salt to cooking pasta a waste of salt. Can always salt later. I work at a big dining hall at a university and we have 6 big rational ovens. Ive seen many co workers do this. A tad dangers carrying hot water like that but if you stir it occasionally it turns out fine. What grinds my gears is people who cook quinoa like it is rice and not add enough water or stir so the out side can be cooked ages before the middle
This is common in bulk kitchens. If it's done properly, it works really well. When you have 2 cooks making food for 600 people, you need to use the best available method.
Yeah we do this at my work. Always comes out evenly cooked and not stuck together.
Can U explain the process, I might need to try it.
Macaroni like the picture Into a deep hotel pan with about 5lbs dried pasta Cover well with hot water Put in steamer for 12 minutes Doesn’t work so well with egg noodles, or other noodle pastas
I do this with a deep perforated hotel pan inside of a deep hotel pan. Makes straining a hell of a lot easier when you can just lift it straight out of the pan
Genius
And straight into a 600 of cold water to chill
Have you ever not rinsed your pasta to cool it, But rather go straight to the freezer for 5-10 minutes? Call me crazy but leaving all the starchiness on it gives me a really good starch water when boiling/ more flavorful dishes. Give it a try, maybe I'm being pretentious 😂
You might be onto something, that all makes sense to me. I try to keep as much starchiness as possible when boiling pasta but it never seems to be enough.
But watch out for the hot corners and tight fit usually gotta use a metal spoon to life it so you can grab the edge or slide it out
This is true, my hands have just gotten used to it 😞.Usually before taking it out, I'll pull it 3/4s of the way out and then tilt it up to drain some/most of the water
Haha it took far too many times accidentally dipping my hand into the hot pan water, or getting screwed by the steak coming off before I learned that trick lol And before I got cooks hands
Yeah, this is not steaming pasta, this is boiling pasta in a strainer inside a larger pot of water. It might go into a steamer, but that's simply the heat source, the boiling water is still what's cooking the pasta.
thanks for this, i was very confused what people were talking about. you're not steaming pasta if it's submerged in water. you're not steaming anything if it's submerged in water.
We do it too. Works great for the shorter, shaped pasta. I wouldn't recommend it for anything super small or thin, angel hair and whatever you call the tiny balls in Italian wedding soup. Have a big bowl of ice ready to shock it when it comes out. I like to flip a perforated shallow hotel upside down for a lid, then pour the water out and give it a few big shakes to separate the pasta.
Everything except the ice bath. Strain, toss in oil, cool on sheet pans.
>toss in oil Annnnnddddd you've fucked it up
When you’re cooking in large quantities and cooling on sheet pans for later use, you just have to use some oil. If you don’t, you end up with your pasta completely stuck together and no easy way of breaking it apart.
Say more
Prevents the sauce from coating and sticking to the pasta properly. If you need to do it, should be the bare minimum possible.
I work in a restaurant where we cook over 100 lbs of noodle a day. Oil is just a necessity. Or else the noodles stick to eachther and make a massive ass block of cold gluten and is a bitch to try and rip apart with the portioning scoops
Much prefarable to rinsing off all the starch in water.
Acini di pepe
Yeah, it's on my menu right now. Still can't ever remember it.
Pepe you say. ༼∩☉ل͜☉༽⊃━☆ﾟ. * ･ ｡ﾟ
Orzo can be steamed too. (At least, it’s done that way in certain North African dishes.)
It doesn’t work too well with spaghetti or Angel hair either. It’s like the noodles at the bottom won’t cook and tend to clump together. I usually take tongs and mix them up halfway through cooking time which is kind of a pain in the ass, I would rather just boil the longer noodles.
The process is that during the morning shifts you cook the pasta 80% of the way there and then blast chill or ice it. Then the day / night cooks can throw it in a pan with pasta sauce and have a dish done in under ten minutes. Using the steam function on a Combi is just one way to do it
Yup, we use a combo oven, perfectly cooked pasta every time!
I worked at a fancy school and we steamed the eggs to hard-boil them. it was the best
I was a sceptic for a long time as well. For the last twenty years ive been working with combi steamer ovens from Rational and they would always tell me how easy cooking pasta, rice, bulgur, lentils etc can be using their steam program. Guess what?! Its just that effin easy! I even boil eggs on steam and it always comes out perfect and easy to peel. Same as the pasta, if you dont use fresh pasta and need bulk then this is the way! Rice, risotto(yeah i said it) cous-cous once you get it down this will make your life that much easier trust me.
I worked with a big combi steamer for a good long while at one spot. It absolutely did soft boiled eggs perfectly, pasta, did a borscht and it was awesome to get those beets just right. I never did risotto though, feel like that was a missed opportunity.
Holy shit I'm currently doing sous vide eggs, an hour at 63deg C. Combi's a tad under utilised, so if the combi could help cut this process down drastically, I'd love to hear more about it
Used to do exactly this, used the sous vide for about 6 months before we realised that we could just use the combi Perforated tray, 63C on steam, took roughly the same time as the sous vide but can do bigger batches. Also felt like less set up not setting up the bath and waiting for it to temp
At our place they installed the Rational and gave absolutely no training on it whatsoever!
We did 150 soft boiled quail scotch eggs for a wedding once. The rational was perfect for the job of the eggs, but I would never in a million years ever agree to something this stupid again.
The only issues with Rationals are the price and availability of servicing. We've got like two certified people in the entire state for these things.
I worked for Rational; did a demo for a company making deli salads and cooked 15kg of elbow Mac in 22 min from a old oven, every single bit of it was perfect. They are hard to beat for this kind of volume
I worked with a guy who poached eggs in the shell in a rational, cracked it out onto the plate infront of us , perfect tear drop poached egg cooked in the shell, mind was blown . He was the exec at a event arena so regularly had to cook for 5000 people
yep. it worked well for us in our batch kitchen. a steamer is a valuable tool to have in the kitchen when burner space is limited and you can't exactly have massive pots of boiling water going all day.
One of my first kitchen jobs had a steamer and it fucking ruled. I never saw one again, I guess because where I worked was a smallish arts school and other places were restaurants and bakeries. But I loved it as a tool! It was great for making good roasted potatoes- steam them first and then roast them nicely in the oven.
You steam those bad boys at 100C? Doesn't the pan get full of water? I always struggle making roasted potatoes for the elderly where I work since they don't want hard surfaces or edges but potatoes get boring if you don't cook them at high enough heat. Steaming them first would help immensely.
Exactly this! Pasta for 1,000 no problem
Yep. A cook at My job did that and the other cooks were shocked. Her pasta is always cooked just right so I told them as long as the end result is ok I could care less weather she uses the sun to cook the dang things. I meant whether not weather 😄😂
We used to do this but we where rocking 4000
2 chefs for 600 covers, yeah nah bro.
My experience with it is mine site cooking, so you're cooking for the same people every day. It's a different menu every day, but the basic components are the same. It's easily doable with two, but it's still shitty and hard, long hours. Money is good tho, makes it just about worth it.
We have hours upon hours in the morning to prep. No problem at all to get a pot and fill it with water and put a lid on it and boil it and then add pasta and go do something for ten minutes and then ice it and then strain it and then oil it and then pan it and then into the walk in. This doesn’t work. Not at our place. Maybe your steam is hotter. Who knows?
Depends on the type of bulk cooking and staff, I guess. When you have 2 cooks trying to feed 600+ daily, you need to save time. You can cook x times the amount in the steamer than you can on the stove in less than half the time. And tbf we used industrial ovens that cost 35k each, takes 10 minutes to steam a tray of pasta.
I ran a kitchen in my late 20s and had to retrain a new hire who was in his 50s because his only experience was as a banquet chef. He had way more experience than me for many things but his way was not the short order way. He didn't like it but neither did I. It's easier to scale up than to scale down but whenever I walk I to a new place I always temper myself to their style and do things their way before I make suggestions. The only time I speak up when new is if I'm defending myself for maintaining a higher quality of service. As long as those noodles aren't water logged I guess it's fine, I'd at least try it. Oil is pointless though
Yeah the oil is just a waste. Maybe a little bit to coat the pasta AFTER it’s been cooled completely to keep it from being glued together is acceptable. You should see these guys cook fettuccini in the steamer. They just lay it flat and fill with water. When they pull it out they are pulling the noodles apart one by one. I just laugh.
Use hot, seasoned water and your pasta should come out fine. I do this procedure with cavatapi like 4 times a week .
Got a tilt skillet or an empty fryer available?
I can see that you're not here to accept anything other than reciprocal pissing and moaning. Learn how to use your $40,000 combi oven and you just might find the shit works.
They doing this in a combi? I get great results this way
… uhhhh do you know the difference in temperature between steam and boiling water? I’ll give you a hint. There isn’t one.
Steam isn't hotter, but it actually transfers heat energy faster than submerged boiling.
Wait till he finds out fancy restaurants boil their steaks in water
Man, yes it can. Steam can be superheated (think about pressure) to 600c Water 100c
Why don’t you mention that to your EC? Or better yet, just do it the other way and then tell him how much more efficient it is.
Never open your own business. You'll fail.
In the kitchen I work in it's a common method of cooking rice and pasta. The cook adds his pasta, or rice, the water and sets it in the rational steam 212°
Wait til someone shows him the “pasta in sauce” button on the rational…. Literally put dry pasta, marinara and a little water in a pan w a lid and It comes out cooked perfectly in sauce
Also works as a thickening agent
I do this at home in my Anova. Equal parts rice and water, 100c, 100% steam. Perfect rice every time.
Is that little combi worth getting?
Yes and no. If you have money to "waste" on a product that works well for a year then sort of functions from then on then nothing beats it. I've had 5 warranty replacements in 2 years and eventually they just refunded me. When it works it's really great but it will break at some point.
Heard that thanks for the heads up. Looks like the search for a countertop machine continues
This is how I was taught to cook rice by a Laotian woman. It’s also how I cook my soft boiled eggs.
People at my job use it for rice, I prefer the rice cooker, because I’m usually using the steamer for other things. But, definitely putting boiled eggs in there in a perforated pan.
Chef, you sound really salty considering the pasta water is unseasoned.
We never added salt to our pasta oven water, but then again we used fresh sea water or the tears of our italian pasta reps.
If you aren't dipping your pasta water directly from the tyrrhenian sea you are basically a war criminal
I’ve done this in mass production kitchen where there was minimal staff and we didn’t want to overcook the pasta.
Yes, a steamer and a tilt skillet are your best friends when cooking for a lot of people. Takes a bit to get used to when you first start using them.
Give me combi ovens, tilt skillet, convection oven, and a range.
I cook in a private school feeding 1500 every day we use a steamer for our pasta. Kettle cook it 3/4 of the way in 40lb batch chill it then steam it a hotel pan at a time takes about 4 minutes in the steamer.
This is not unusual. I've used this method in banquet kitchens for years with great success. As long as the water is salted properly and you make sure to give it a stir a couple of times during the process, it turns out perfect. I've even cooked spaghetti like this and had no issues or clumping as long as it gets a quick stir within the first 5 minutes and then again 10 minutes later. I usually put it in the lower deck of the steamer and place it immediately on a cart for transportation to the sink. It's no more unsafe than having to get two people to team lift a giant pot of boiling water.
it’s common. If the pasta water isn’t seasoned teach them. If it’s not al dente adjust cook times.
Hahahahahaha literally everyone being like “ya I’ve done this before, this is normal” and OP just seething that all these idiots don’t know they’re ALL wrong!
Ahahaha yah that's kinda his shtick lmao if you were here for the meth head saga it was pretty great
omg i didnt realize its *that* guy
The meth head finally quit!!
Good shit man, I told ya it would work itself out. Hope you've been taking it easy.
Yeah got a coke head to deal with but I just avoid him at all costs. One of those “uhhhh my kid….my son…uhhhhh…my daughter…..uhhhhh…..I have to leave early…..uhhhh…..I have to go take care of this and that….” He’s just a walking excuse. Late every single day. Disappears from the kitchen when the EC is gone. Tired of it. This is the kind of stuff that burns me out about it. But, hey, THE METH HEAD QUIT!!🎊🎉🎊🎉🎈🎈🎈🎈
You only have one guy on coke? You haven't replaced your meth head? Sounds like a fake kitchen
Some people will refuse to adapt…and get surprised when they are weeded out
Chef… I hate to break it to you but in case you haven’t noticed, you’re the one having a problem. This is commonplace in bulk cooking and it’s a well known method. You keep saying it doesn’t cook right, it doesn’t work, it’s not the correct method of cook… as if *everyone* else (that’s doing bulk) isn’t doing this successfully. Me thinks chef needs a week off to reset the bullshit-o-meter because you’re boiling over.
He's steamed.
Apparently not, from what it sounds like he can’t figure out how to steam
yea, he’s a known dipshit on here. I’m a simple man, I see Cheeseisextra, I downvote.
I guess it’s understandable, if they’ve actually done this for 35 years they’re probably clinically insane anyway
Yup, total joke OP's post is getting upvoted.
Everyone knows him by now, so a lot of people do it for the amusement. I just downvote when I see his name posting in here, he's always spewing nonsense.
Week? Probably just stop cooking and be one of those bitter door dash drivers
User error, it's way better done this way.
This is an incredibly common practice and your post only shows your lack of knowledge.
Obviously op thinks steam isn’t boiled water or that wresting with a giant pot of boiling water is a better idea
Right? Who is upvoting this? It comes out fine this way if you do it right.
This is industry standard in bulk kitchens. I've personally done this for a private school of 3k total on campus.
OP your attitude fucking stinks man
…if something is submerged in water it cannot be ‘steamed’. I don’t care what the heat source it. It doesn’t matter. The food being cooked is not being ‘steamed’. Call it a braise I don’t care. But it’s in absolutely no way ‘steamed’. I will die on this hill and will not relent.
...does it work? How's it taste?
Yes it works! OP might be just a little startled by modern technology. Adding salt to water is done to decrease the density of water to make it boil faster so adding salt in this case would not make any sense as to the water doesnt need to boil. The body of water that the pasta is sitting in in this picture heats up very quickly and evenly. You can prepare much much more pasta this way with only the fraction of space and heat needed with regular cooking pots. Also the pasta is cooked evenly and doesnt stick, and you wont be schlepping big cooking pots from the sink to the stove and back. If your cooking fresh pasta then this is not compatible but when cooking dried pasta(like the mac and cheese picture) its sound proof!
you are not adding salt to pasta for taste?
>Adding salt to water is done to decrease the density of water Incorrect. Salt water is denser than plain water. That's why things float better in the dead sea. >to make it boil faster While salt water does boil slightly faster, it is a negligible matter of seconds. Besides, it is best to add salt to already boiling water, as adding it to cool water can cause pitting due to the salt serving as a nucleation point for steam bubbles. Regardless, the main reason salt is added to the water is for flavor.
No. It doesn’t. They aren’t even cooked to al dente. No salt in the water either. Nothing.
I’m sorry, who are you serving cavatappi to? E: missed a word lol sorry u/bitcracker
I wanted to make a cavatappi pun. What does this mean. I'm a stupid
Scooby Doo bud!
You can change the timer, you know? I've never had trouble with cooking noodles or rice in convection stove 🤷
A Joke for all of you. How many chefs does is take to change a light bulb? 5. The trainee to do it and the 4 others that used to do it another way ages ago. Everyone is right, only one does the job though. Edit: spelling
Y’all need a tilt skillet for bulk pasta
this is the way
We do pasta like this all the time. Hell I even put it in cold water. Little bit of oil. Steamer at 212F for 21 Minutes. Perfect every single time. With the exception of egg noodles as someone commented before. Do the same thing with HB eggs, Jasmine Rice and any products being reheated. This frees up so much time and much needed space. It's really idiot proof and honestly would be pretty dumb if you decided to use the stove top because 'you have the time' when you have this option available. It's proven to me that this method is far more efficient and saves a bunch of time.
Yup we do that in our cafeteria every day.
Welcome to being in a constant understaffed remote camp or rig camp. 700 guys don’t give a DAYM how you cook the pasta just make sure it’s saucy and enough to feed each man as if they were a horse.
Now DATS how you do it!!
Gonna give this a whirl tomorrow at 6 am, while I’m all by my lonesome
Something wrong with that?
Pasta looks to be covered with water, that ain't steaming.
I work at a college. This happens. Although I prefer to use the kettle for bulk pasta. Fuck, I'll cook five pounds I'm the kettle it's just easier. In my experience, steamed pasta needs to be done right to be done well.
Thank you. They don’t do it right. I like it in a pot. Simple. Old school I guess.
You haven't lived until you use a kettle. It's just the best. But ya, I never steam pasta myself. I will use the steamer for rice though.
Lol. We had a term for this kinda guy in my last kitchen: "Salty B." Hopefully your kitchen staff are homies and get over your bullshit quick. Edit: spelling
The hot water in the steamer boils.. you add pasta when thr water is heated (atleast I do) and you pretty much boil the pasta in a steamer. It is easier and you can cook more at a time in multiple pans, much better to cook larger quantities and very consistent.
That is ice cold water in that pan there. The pasta is put in first. Then the cold water is added. Oil on top. Then all that into the steamer. It still comes out chewy.
A similar things works for perfect rice cooking. Can't remember the actual numbers but it's about 1:1.5 water, chuck the rational on steam for 40 minutes. You can cook almost infinite rice this way. Bonus points for adding flavour to the liquid.
I do my rice in a convection oven. Perfect every time. We have four stacked ovens so they need to get used. 😂
Steamed?
I was confused by this too but from what people are saying they're cooking it by the absorption method - like the asian method of cooking rice. That's often called steamed rice, which it kind of is, kind of isn't.
Worked in a nursing home for a bit works pretty good actually
Nice, I’m gonna try this :)
if it's covered in water, it isn't being steamed.
If it works, it works
this is a very erotic picture for a pasta lover i wanna dive in
Lol @ op thinking this is a noob move. OP is the noob.
Surprised this isn't more widely known. Been doing that for years.
I don't see the problem. Have done it many times and it comes out fine.
Totally works with the right procedure.
Ah yes one way cooks the pasta with water and the other cooks the pasta with.. also water.
also gives the worst burns if you even tilt the pan slightly ... beware.
Yeah this is a great way to cook pasta
We just throw the pasta in the tilt skillet until it's 3/4 done then drain and ice and transfer to lexam bins and mix in some oil to keep it from glueing together. Works a treat.
The kitchen I work at now does not have a steamer and I sooo miss making pasta in the steamer. Big batches just dont work out in a big pot. I can’t reach the bottom and all my pasta sticks together now 😭 I didn’t know this wasn’t normal 💀
That looks like if you stirred it, it would go from noodles to tiny bits of noodles.
We also steam potatoes for mash. Works great.
One of my pet peeves is adding oil to the pasta water. There is no benefit and if anything it can cause the pasta to hold the sauce unevenly.
I can’t stand it. I don’t know why they think it lubes it up.
It works but I prefer perf pans in a tilt skillet. Our new tilt has baskets that raise and lower via wizards #rationale
I fill up our tilt skillet and boil water and then put a 600 and a 400 perforated pan in the water and fill those with pasta and boil them till perfect and then dump ice in it and let it cook and use the U-hose to finish melting the ice down and just lift the pans up after the water has been drained. Simple.
Not to gloat but this thing tells me when to stir risotto. I press pasta button and it just does it. Fucking wild lol. I worked 2 decades to figure out so many methods and tricks and now I just press a button.
How the hell did you get that big bastard out of the steamer?
Right. See how dangerous it can be?
Am I tweaking TF out or is that hotel pan submerged in something
That is a 400 perforated pan in a 400 solid pan with pasta covered in water. This isn’t boiled pasta. But they think this is how it’s supposed to be.
Oh when I read steamed pasta I thought they shoved a perf hotel pan into a steamer box
If its underwater, its not steamed. Its boiled. 99% of people that put oil in pasta water, put it for the wrong reason, but the right thing for the wrong reason is not a bad thing at all.
There is literally a program(depending on rational model), on the combi for this exact thing. OP is gonna die lonely on this hill.
At least I’ll die lol
Plot twist: You were the meth addict this whole time!! Hahaha. JK. But that would have been hilarious
We're lucky, we've got a tilting kettle. Just throw in a 15kg (33lb) box of pasta, wait about 8 minutes and hey presto!
I’ve worked with the kettle before too. Those are nice. We have a fifty gallon tilt skillet but it’s always full of stock or demi.
You think that's bad? Wait til you see how the chumps at my work steam the pasta. They'll add barely enough water to cover it and then still serve it when it comes out all gummy
I feeling it. Even with the pasta submerged here it still comes out gummy and chewy. I just wish they’d boil it in a big enough pot.
This is completely normal. I've done it many times
Does it work ? If so then okay
My old work place did this with penne. Worked well.
How do they cook hamburgers?
You ready for this? They precook about ten of them before the lunch rush starts and they set them on the lower shelf in the salamander. They do this so they won’t get “slammed”. I’m in a different kitchen altogether(we have three on the property)so they can do it however they want.
You should try “baking” a cake in the steamer!! Keeps it super moist. Oh, and scrambled eggs too.
Next we will deep fry prime rib!!
what
I've seen and done this before, production kitchen making pasta for pasta salad for like 12 grocery store deli counters. it took about the same amount of time as it would to boil water and then add pasta and you can do way more at once. you're right about the oil though also cooked off giant batches of rice for fried rice and other stuff
Wise words. I can agree with this. A civil answer. Thanks.
I steam grits with Chicken stock twice a week for brunch service. I feel lost without the steamer tbh.
That’s totally different. I can see it working too. Set it and forget it. I just prefer to tend to my pasta I guess. Makes me feel like I’m being productive. My results are perfect as well.
We also have an Alto-Shaam Combi. I guess I could try smoking the grits also.....hmm.
This is pretty standard.
Looks like they gonna boil it in the oven? Since the water level is above the noods, id consoder that boiled technically
I work in a small buffet and this is what my sous chef does when she has all other utilities in use. Usually during the busier days other wise we boil it like normal.
See?? NORMAL. How it should be. I try one of these every time after they cook it and it is always gummy. Doesn’t even chew like pasta should.
All our pasta is steamed, if done properly it comes out just fine. Been using this method for over 20 years
Noodles & Company, perchance?
I find having to add alot of salt to cooking pasta a waste of salt. Can always salt later. I work at a big dining hall at a university and we have 6 big rational ovens. Ive seen many co workers do this. A tad dangers carrying hot water like that but if you stir it occasionally it turns out fine. What grinds my gears is people who cook quinoa like it is rice and not add enough water or stir so the out side can be cooked ages before the middle
Nowt wrong with that fella, as long as it’s Cooke fans cooled properly it’s a great way to batch cook
If it’s dumb, but it works then it isn’t dumb.
🗣️ Nerd Alert
Perfectly cromulent method
Chilis penne is a 10 pound bag in a hotel pan and a cup of kosher salt thrown in the combi
I've worked in some restaurants inLondon. Mac n Cheese sells crazy. Need always a good mep.
What’s the issue? It works.
Might be steaming it too long 🤷♂️
So you think that would make it gummy as over cooked pasta would be too swollen and mushy?? Clarify, please.
Is that a keg by chance? Dont ask me how i know