Forum "Baking" in the Varoma

I havent used my Varoma yet, but after reading mrsixfifty explanation, I feel a little more confident

thanks for that 

I imagine that by now your girls have either been fed or given up, but I imagine Lasagne would work OK in the thermomix.Steaming is different from baking in three main ways:

1.  Steam conducts heat far better then Air, transferring more heat to the food, faster2.  Steam from the Thermomix will never get as hot as the air in an oven3.  The environment in the Thermomix is moist, not dry

Point 1 and 2 might need clarifying.  Water is far better at conducting heat then air; this includes water that's turned to steam.  When steam settles on colder food, the heat moves into the colder food faster, then heat from air at the same temperature would.  There's also physically 'more' heat in the water, so it raise the temperature of more volume of food then air will.  So the outside of your food becomes more evenly heated to the temperature of the steam, faster.

BUT, the steam produced by the Thermomix is rarely above 100 degrees, because as water boils at 100 degrees, the steam floats up and away.  So, although your food will start getting warmer faster, it will *never* get significantly above 100 degrees, unlike in an oven, where it can get much hotter.

Food in both an oven and the Varoma heats from the outside in.  For everything except the surface, heat has to permeate through the food from the outside.  This means that bigger pieces of food still take time to reach the desired temperature all the way through.  Because there's more heat energy being placed into the food from the steam, then there would be from an oven, often the amount of time taken is less.  This depends a lot on what the food is, and how well heat penetrates it.

The third point, it being a wetter environment, is mainly aesthetically important.  Cheese isn't going to brown.  Neither is meat.  Not only is the steam not hot enough, but the food remains wet, so it will never go much about 100 degrees, which is required for browning.

That got a little nerdy :P  Basic rules of thumb, the bigger something & the longer it needs to stay in an oven, the longer it needs to steam.  Small things that might take 15 minutes in an oven can be done in about 5 in a steamer in my experience.  As things go up in size and time, they get closer to the oven measurements.

For a lasagne with already cooked meat & pasta, I'd say you're just trying to heat it up and maybe... 20 minutes to half an hour would do?  If the pasta was raw, you need to leave it for long enough to hydrate and cook, which is likely to take as long in a steamer as in the oven.  If the meat is raw, you need to make sure it gets to a safe temperature (especially for mince) and I couldn't estimate that, sorry.  Lasagne that wasn't too high or wide would heat up faster, as would pre-cut sections.

Did you try it?  What happened?

I would be very interested in answers as I am in the same position!