The bain marie:no jacuzzi nor rubber ducky here

[Gifted Gourmet]

I know that a bain marie is a large pan which contains hot water and one in which smaller pans may be set to cook food slowly. I know that it is a gentle heat which is preferred here because of care in handling delicate ingredients ...

My questions:

Do you need a special store-bought one?like this one for $200?

Will a homemade one like a roasting pan full of hot water do as well?

Which dishes do you make in your bain marie ? Cheesecake? Pot du creme?

In which might the extra moisture be damaging to the finished dish?

[newguy]

you definitely don't have to buy a special gimmick pan to cook this way.

at work the pastry team cooks their creme brulee's on a sheetpan, and all they do is pour water onto the pan with the ramekins of creme brulee and then another sheet tray on top, in a slow oven.

[Pam R]

hmm.. I don't think of a double-boiler and a ban marie as the same thing...

I always use a bain marie for cheesecakes and baked custards (ie: creme brulee). I generally use whatever I have in the kitchen that is large enough to hold the dish I'm cooking plus water - often a roasting (or hotel) pan - sometimes a foil pan. No way do you need a $200 special one.

As a double boiler - like the one pictured in your link - I always use a heat-safe bowl on a pot. Nothing special there either.

The one in your link sure is pretty though...

[Gifted Gourmet]

I don't think of a double-boiler and a ban marie as the same thing...

The one in your link sure is pretty though...

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I was also surprised that the picture of a double boiler was termed bain marie ... slightly only less shocking was the sticker price ... I assume a plain pan which will hold the heated water for whatever item is being cooked is pefectly adequate to the purpose. But the look of copper always gets me ...

[andiesenji]

I use a large, fairly deep roasting pan for custard-based things - bread pudding, cheesecakes, creme caramel, creme anglaise, etc. I use one that I can clamp a breeze barrier (made for camp stoves) to on the back side because otherwise the convection fan will make ripples in the surface of the custard without it. The convection fan in my Blodgett oven is ten inches in diameter and it moves a lot of air.

I have two of the copper double boilers with ceramic insert, one is 3/4 quart, the other is 1 1/2 quart-plus, mine are old and the bottom part is wider at the bottom than at the rim and both have helper handles opposite the long handle as they are very heavy. They are tin lined and need retinning but since I never cook directly in them, I am not going to bother.

I also have one of these which is a handy little item - the water is in an enclosed system and doesn't boil away as rapidly and there is absolutely no condensation into the inner chamber so it is perfect for chocolate. Mine happens to be bright red on the outside.

I use a wide glass (Pyrex) bowl over a sauteuse for things such as lemon curd, which I make in fairly large batches.

This site My Chefs Favorites has the copper one for much less $139.00 is a pretty good price.

To give you an idea of how old mine are, the big one cost me $85.00 at Sur La Table.

Edited March 5, 2006 by andiesenji (log)

[slkinsey]

Bain Marie can be used to describe both a stovetop arrangement and the oven arrangement used for custards and the like. It more or less simply means "water bath" (Wikipedia has an interesting article about the origins of the term).

The difference between a bain maria and a double boiler is that the cooking vessel of a double boiler is heated by steam generated in the boiling vessel, whereas the cooking vessel of a bain marie is heated by direct contact with hot water. There is no reason to buy a fancy apparatus for either one. If you place a stainless steel bowl over a pot with a shallow layer of boiling water so that the bowl is heated by steam, you have created a double boiler. If the bottom of the bowl is submerged in the hot water (or, better yet, if you have a small pot sitting inside a larger pot filled with hot water) you have created a main marie.

For the stovetop stuff, I have found that using a low flame and heavy copper cookware works just as well for things like melting chocolate and making custard, and without all the fuss. In the oven, where it's more about radically increasing the thermal capacity so the custards or cheesecakes cook more slowly and evenly, there is no substitute for a bain marie.

[andiesenji]

Well said, slkinsey. An excellent description and an interesting link.

I have one very old glass double boiler that has an unusual shallow top that my grandmother used for making a milk pudding for me when I was ill. Unfortunately I never thought to get that recipe and there is no one who recalls it now. I have one of the Pyrex ones, from the '50s and also have one of the modern glass ones made from laboratory glass. If I can find where my housekeeper has put them, I will see about getting a photo.

Somewhere in my junk I also have a shallow pan with a snap-in wire frame that holds the creme brulee molds to keep them from sliding around - it holds them about 1/4 inch off the bottom of the pan. I think I used it once and decided it was not worth the bother.

Edited March 5, 2006 by andiesenji (log)

[Sugarella]

Like everyone else said, you don't need the special equipment.

But, if you MUST buy one because it's copper and porcelain and pretty (I understand, believe me!) then buy THIS ONE .... it's Mauviel, same as your link, but twice the size and cheaper.