Bain Marie Method: Gentle cooking Technique

What is Bainmarie? (Bain Marie)

This word that has been transmitted from French. Benmari (ban mah-REE), which means Marie’s bath in French, is a fancy term for hot water bath. This concept has passed into the gastronomy literature as a cooking method name. It is used to create a soft and even heat around food. Used to cook delicate foods such as custard, chocolate or terrine.

If you wish, you can cover this bowl with a clean kitchen towel and align it without slipping. Add the food you want to cook in your glass or metal bowl and place the bowl on top of the pot filled with hot water. You should take care that water vapor does not wet your product.

It is useful to check the product frequently while cooking using the Bainmarie method. The amount of water is barely noticeable and the water should always be neither too much nor too little at the boiling point. If the water is boiling, you should check the bottom of your stove and turn it down. If the water evaporates before the custard is cooked, add more hot tap water. Check that the boiling water does not touch the container of the product you are cooking. The last thing we want is to boil our product. The aim here is to benefit from the direct heat of the steam.

Water helps the pudding to cook slowly and evenly by creating a barrier between the product being cooked and the heat coming directly from the stove. This is the key to achieving a creamy custard with no rubber edges or dry surfaces!

Cheesecake Preparation with the Bain Marie Method

You can also use the Bain Marie technique to cook cheesecakes that have custard, tend to crack on top and benefit from humid air in the oven.

Cheesecakes are often cooked in something called a spring pan, a two-part mechanism that allows the base and sides to be separated, making it easier to remove the cheesecake from the pan. The downside of submerging a spring pan in water is that it may leak and you may encounter the undesirable situation, such as the cheese cake getting wet with water. Some people try to bake the bottom of these bow-shaped containers with foil, but this will never be a perfect solution.

Instead, when cooking a cheesecake, you can put a bowl of hot water on the lower rack of the oven and the spring mold on the upper rack. That way, the steam from the hot water will cover the custard before water has a chance to seep into the cheesecake.

How is the Bain Marie Method Applied?

• Take a heat-resistant pot or container, fill the container with hot tap water so that it does not exceed half of the pot.
• When cooking on the stove, put the other heat-resistant container (not touching the water) to sit on this pot and in it. place. Start cooking by adding the product you want to cook. Do your cooking / melting process by constantly stirring the product on a low controlled fire.
• You can see the boiling water by choosing a heat-resistant glass container in the cooking container. Thus, when the boiling water in the lower reservoir is reduced / finished, you can intervene quickly.
• If you are going to use this method in the oven, place the products to be cooked in a 5-10 cm baking tray with their containers. You can then start cooking by adding hot water halfway to the baking tray. If your product is in a partial container, make sure that water does not enter by wrapping your container with cling film to prevent liquid from entering and then making a nice bed with aluminum foil.
• Put the bowl on the stove, cook / melt on low heat by constantly stirring.
• Enamel storage containers are not suitable for this method.

Double Win Usage in Bain Marie Method

A pot of boiling hot water on the stove, followed by a cooking appliance with a bowl or insert placed over the pot of boiling water. A double boiler is often used to conduct a gentle heat, such as when melting chocolate or making hollandaise sauce. You can make your own double boiler by placing a small saucepan on top of each other and filling the bottom with water. You can make a double boiler with a pair of interlocking pots that fit together, or you can buy them from most kitchenware stores.

For Which Foods is Bain Marie Method Suitable For?

Pudding, chocolate, egg-based sauces, dairy products, cream, creme brule, creme caramel,