KitchenAid - Universal Stainless Steel Steamer Insert

Steaming

Amazon.com Review
Holding 6 quarts, this stainless-steel steamer insert provides plenty of capacity when its time to steam vegetables or seafood for a family or dinner party. The steamer measures 10-1/4 inches in diameter and fits all 5-1/2 -, 6-, and 8-quart pots and pans in KitchenAid's various cookware lines. It's made of heavy 18/10 stainless steel that is polished to a mirror finish. The finish resists scratching, denting, and warping, as well as corrosion and discoloring and will retain its luster through repeated use. Though it's dishwasher-safe, hand washing KitchenAid cookware will prevent surface dulling. The first year of this item's lifetime warranty against defects is "hassle-free," with a replacement shipped at no cost and without question if a defect is detected. --Fred Brack

As a steamer for veggies, tamales, fish, or steamed buns the steamer works really well - it's big enough to do whole ears of corn (artfully arranged), and very easy to clean afterward. As a steamer for couscous or rice, however, it's not so great - the holes are too big to hold small grains, and the bottoms don't make a perfect tight seal even on the Kitchenaid pots (the cost of being universal). If you only make steamed grains on rare and special occasions, a square of cheesecloth inside and a kitchen towel wrapped around outside will solve the leakage problem, but it would probably get tedious every week.

Unlike some other steamer inserts, this one doesn't have three or four bumps around the edge on the bottom to hold the bottom up off a surface, so you can't use this to drain salted eggplant or meat, and you can't set this aside with hot damp things in it and expect them to cool and drain. Kitchenaid is usually very good at design, so I'm not sure why they overlooked this basic.

The second one I got also had a "Made in China" sticker on the bottom, which was a disappointment.