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Steamed boilies

David Pearce

David Pearce

Senior Member
Hi guys
Has anyone ever used an electric steamer to steam homemade boilies?
If so what sort of times does it take compared to the saucepan.
I would be lookin to make lightly skinned baits!
Many thanks Dave
 
interesting, i considered doing mine at work in the steamer, i would imagine 2 or 3 minutes would be long enough to put a thin skin on.
cheers
jerry
 
I heard about it on an old carp forum
They were basically saying it produces a better bait as the steam doesn't break down the flavours, additives, protiens etc as fast as boiling water?????
Whether it's true or not I don't know but it does make sense!
I think if I knew the steam times it would be an easier option for me
 
Been doing it for many years - things get sucked back in with cooling using steaming. Boiling can wash things off.
Steaming - you generally need more time than boiling and generally can only do smaller numbers per load.
Some baits/mixes will deform more on steaming - notably milk proteins.
Domestic steamer - bought one and fine.
Steam times - can depend on ingredients in mix, but you are probably looking at a minimum of 90 seconds. My fishmeal mixes were optimum at 150 to 180 seconds.

Must be plenty of info back in the old yuku archives.
Cheers
Bob
 
Just found this


Hi,

I have about 12 years experience in bait making and cooking/steaming,

The main difference between boiling and steaming is the time to dry after the proces, when someone says the bait is not in contact with water while steaming this is only partly true because steaming is in fact a condensation proces on high temperatures so your baits will always be wet when the steaming is finished. but the drying time is a lot shorter than with boiling.
I did steam my baits for about two years and i found it a good method to deal with, i could steam my baits for about 2 minutes and they where ready.
Michel, the steamingtimes you did see where from a big steammachine with a few trays in it i think because i never steamed my baits for more than 3 minutes and that time was for 30 mm baits to get realy firm. what i did hear was that some baitmakers use those big steaming boxes where the steaming time was about 6 to 8 minutes to get 8 kilo's of boilies ready.

I don't realy know what the big difference is between the two but i always use about 2/3 of my liquids in the mix with eggs or water and the other 1/3 i use to put over the baits before they go into the freezer so they will have a coating around them to soak in.

In fishing i havend noticed any difference in steamed or boiled baits they both react the same on the fish in my opinion because the proces isn't that different when you use a normal steamingmachine or you boil your baits especially not in temperatures, boiling produces steam so the steam should not be hotter than the boiled water where it comes from. when you u use a advanced steaming machine u can steam under pressure so the temperature could be much higher than 100 degrees and with the latest in steaming machines a lot lower than 100 degrees.
 
The reason I wanted to try the steaming method is because when I have tried boiling baits before I have had the pan boiling really well and as soon as I put the sieve with say ten 10mm boilies in it, the water goes off the boil when it first enters the water so I loose confidence in the process and whether I have got it right.
If I can put them in the digital steamer for say 90seconds I know the process is consistently the same!
 
David, the best way to get desired results is to put say 10 boilies in steamer and take out one at a time after 45 seconds at 10 second intervals, lay em out in a line to dry marking the 1st one that came out clearly,
when you come to the one with the desired finished consistancy just add 10 secs together for each one passed and add 45 secs to total and you will get complete consistancy when you do batches providing the steamers not overloaded, good luck;)....j.w
 
Hi David,
I've never used a steamer, so i can't offer any practical advice, but you seem to have a lot here to kick you off. i wouldn't imagine you'd waste any great amount of bait getting the hang of it, just a process of trial and error that wouldn't take long i think.
When Bob says boiling can wash things off he should have said ' will ', :p when boiling you will notice a scum or froth developing on the waters surface, this has to include nutrients that are washed out of the bait as Bob says, and is one of the unavoidable downsides of boiling, and one of the reasons i keep boiling times to an absolute minimum.
As far as mishapen baits go, don't worry about that at all, it may even give you an edge, i rarely ever use a perfectly round boillie, and using odd - sometimes very odd shaped baits can put a bonus fish on the bank for you.
I can't say whether steaming your baits will make a great difference to your catches, but i think it's obvious it certainly wont do them any harm.
Might give this steaming a go ! does anyone know the cost of a steamer and the best place to get one ?

Regards
Ian.
 
Ian - correct should have said 'will' wash etc and about mishapen baits.
An alternative way of preparation is steaming (or boiling) long boilie sausages and then breaking off what you need for a bait. You get a skinned bait with an exposed uncooked centre - more scent trail. Also no rolling and quicker.
Steamer - Argos have them from about £13 up to around £40. I use an old model Tefal.
For cold water conditions it can pay to increase the solubles in the mix, texture them with coarse ingredients - wheatgerm, ground tiger nut are two examples and also roll the baits after cooking in some base mix or some soluble attractive ingredient eg GLM, L-0-30.

Cheers,
Bob
 
'Washed out bait problems'...hmmmm...that reminds me.

During my time in carping, I tried many ways of producing skinned baits. One particularly successful method (can't for the life of me remember where I got the idea from) was to produce small 'bricks' (roughly 200mm x 60mm x 25mm) of boilie mix, wrap them tightly in cling film, and microwave them for varying times on each side. The timing was trial and error for differing mixes or effects, but as I recall, 25/30 seconds per side worked well, often enough.

This certainly did away with the loss of certain ingredients due to 'washing out' during boiling, though I assume the problem of denaturing by heat of certain elements was much the same.

Obviously, once cool, the resulting bricks could be cut up into cubes, or cut or broken into whatever shape grabbed you...except round of course :D This did mean that you were severly limited in the distance baits could be catapulted out, but if you needed distance, a spod would get them there just the same.

What you did get was a very interesting mix, or choice, of bait types with each brick. Depending on cooking times, the outside layer would vary between a firm skin, to actual floaters, if you cooked them for long enough (especially the corners) The rest varied between set to still soft, with an interesting 'set one side, soft the other' layer, much like bread crust, towards the centre.

I caught an awful lot of fish using these baits...but the smell during the cooking process was absolutely astounding, resulting in the familiar 'me or it' scenario with the good lady. Still not sure if I made the right decision on that one...but I guess bait bricks would be **** in bed :D:D

Cheers, Dave.
 
Boiled versus Steamed

Has any one tasted and eaten steamed vegetables as opposed to boiled veg.
They taste far superior to boiled . So I can only assume rightly or wrongly that a steamed bait would be better than a boiled bait .Its only an opinion
 
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