An OK Steamer for Once-a-Year Use

IMUSA 16-Quart Tamale and Seafood Steamer

Holidays all seem to have traditional foods, from turkey and pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving feasts to marshmallow peeps and chocolate bunnies at Easter. If you live in some area of the States, you may have heard a tradition of making tamales when Christmas Eve rolls around. A good reason that the tamal (singular of tamales) is traditionally made on holidays is that making them take hours, especially the part about of wrapping them with dried, water-soaked corn husks. They say that many hands make light work, and it’s true: the more cooks working to roll and wrap these tasty bundles, the better. 

We once found a tamale recipe and gladly committed ourselves to a several-hour process; but the recipe came to us with a fatal flaw: the instructions said to steam the tamales by spreading them flat on a rack over a pan of water and then baking them for an hour – at 450°… Wow, that was bad juju! The next time we wanted homemade tamales, we scoured our local stores looking for a traditional steamer; the kind that stands the wrapped packages upright over a pool of boiling water. We found one at a San Antonio, Texas-based grocery, H-E-B.; which makes sense: San Antonio is more or less the epicenter of the Christmas Eve tamales tradition. The IMUSA 16-Quart Aluminum Tamale and Seafood Steamer works like a charm… at least it does for for steaming.

IMUSA 16-Quart Tamale Steamer Description

IMUSA’s steamer is a Chinese-made 16-quart aluminum stockpot with a ridge molded around the side about 2” from the base. It comes with a glass dome lid with for a little steam vent and bakelite-coated handles. There’s a flat aluminum plate that rests on the ridge when it’s being used for steaming. This base plate is pierced with plenty of holes to let the steam through.. 

When we use it as a steamer, we put 1½” of water in the pan and place seafood, corn on the cob or tamales on the flat plate. Then we place the stockpot on our stove and let it simmer according to the recipe instructions. For that purpose, it works great. 

Using the IMUSA Steamer

Although this steamer costs something like $25 to $40 in national stores, we paid something like $14. Other than it’s having a glass lid, I find that price fairly expensive. The aluminum pan is only slightly thicker than the top of a soda can, just a little too thick to dent with your fingers. On our glass cooktop the pot rocks and rolls on its bulging base; we use a simmer mat to keep it something like flat. Our local water is pretty hard, and heavily stained the inner wall of the pot the first time it was used. I would rather not use this for a stockpot, personally – you can get better candidates for a reasonable price. 

Since we’d only use it a couple times a year, the investment is worth it for a steamer – it certainly beats the oven method. If you need a backup stockpot, however, I advise you to hold out for a more substantial enameled or stainless steel pot. 

Summary:

Plus: works pretty well for steaming
Minus: light-gauge aluminum that stains easily
What They’re Saying: If you only use a steamer once or twice a year, this one will suffice. If you need a stockpot for soup, look around for a better-made brand

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