Stainless Steel Steamers 

To use these steamers, set them into a pot of boiling water on your stove top and add whatever food or vegetables  you want to the insert. If you buy a separate steamer for a pot you already own, find one with a good handle to make extracting the steamer from the pot easy. Also, most of these fold up and are easy to store, so make sure you are looking for that feature when you purchase.

• Hint: The kind of steamer you need usually depends on what you cook the most:

• If you like steaming larger vegetables, look for one without a center post.
• For tall veggies (like ears of corn ) look for a vertical steamer,  which is taller and narrower than most pots.
• For seafood, look for large seafood steaming pots,  some of which have a special spout for draining broth  after steaming.

Electric Steamers 

Electronic steamers prepare food fast with the convenience of modern living. Most models have a "scenter screen" that allow you to jazz up food with herbs  and spices.  Some have dividers, so you can steam 2 or more different kinds of food at one time. They come in various sizes ranging from 1 basket to a triple layer depending on your needs.

• Hint: Buying a steamer cookbook  can be helpful for figuring out how to use your electric steamer to it's full capacity.
• Blanching vegetables, making full meals, and defrosting frozen foods are just some of the many features available with this steamer model.

Bamboo Steamers 

Bamboo steamers can help produce food that is authentic and gives you that fresh taste often found in most Asian cuisines. These types of steamers are designed to fit inside of a wok  filled with water. They come with a slotted bottom and a dome-like lid to effectively steam and cook food evenly. Bamboo steamers can also cook multiple types of food at once, but it melds the flavors together more effectively since the baskets can stack directly on top of each other.

• Hint: Placing herbs in the water contained in the wok will help add extra flavor to your food.
• Larger parts of your dish such as meat  or fish must be placed on the bottom as this is the area that cooks faster.
• Remember that bamboo steamers cannot be washed like regular models and therefore require extra care.

Deni 7600 Stainless Steel Food Steamer 

This large scale food steamer truly has it all. It keeps your food warm, uses turbo steam, and has 6 molded egg slots to make multiple meals in record time. A drip tray collects liquid so that you can use leftovers to make different sauces.

Oster 5716 Digital Food Steamer 

This model steams instantly and also has an LCD timer for the utmost convenience. Comes with collapsible steaming bowls and fits up to 6.1 quarts of liquid. An outer water fill allows for easy addition of liquid while food is steaming.

Mr. Coffee Mechanical Food Steamer 

This steamer comes with a safety auto-off button and can steam various layers of food at once. The water reservoir allows you to keep refilling it, and the steamer trays collapse for easy storage and cleaning.

Black & Decker 7 Quart Food Steamer 

This steamer is designed so that you can see your food cooking and also watch your water levels. Comes with a large steam basket and is high powered enough to cook meals in minutes.

B&D HS1000 4QT Food Steamer 

This steamer can fit up to 4 quarts of liquid and comes with a 75 minute timer so that you can set your food to steam and go about other things in your house. Also has an egg holder, drip tray and rice bowl for easy clean up and versatility.

Colanders and Strainers

Use these to shake the excess water off of already cooked food.  Most often used for draining pasta,  but make sure you have a few varied sizes for different types.

Rice Cookers

These are very similar to steamers and are sometimes versatile enough to cook different types of food. If you want a separate cooker to make your rice, read up on these to see what kind to buy.

Deep Fryers

Providing the opposite of healthy, steam cooked food, these models are good for a greasy snack. Read our guide to pick one up for yourself.

Electric Skillets and Woks

When cooking in the Asian style, these items are handy to have in the kitchen. Woks and skillets help to give a special flavor to certain dishes with a distinctive ethnic flair.