So I made a lemon curd pudding yesterday and the recipe called for using a double-boiler: put the pudding batter in an oven-proof dish, put that into another oven dish filled with water, and cook in the oven.
What’s the point of a double-boiler in the oven? I understand it when cooking on the stove-top - you don’t want a sensitive batter to be right on the heat from the element, because it will burn.
But in the oven, the dish isn’t right on the element anyway - it cooks surrounded by heat. So what was the purpose of the dish of water?
Basically the same reason. It keeps what you are cooking at an even, low temperature and also adds moisture which can keep a crust from forming. Lemon curd pudding probably has lots of eggs which may curdle if you are not careful.
Yeah, it’s a beautiful technique for anything that needs a smooth, silky texture. Nothing beats an egg custard baked in a bain marie for simple pleasures
thanks for the replies. I’m still a bit puzzled. I checked out the “bain marie” article at wiki, and it makes the point that on the stove, using the double-boiler means that the liquid in the inner pot will never get past boiling point. Got it, understood.
But in the oven, where the temperature of the oven is set much higher than boiling point, how does the double-boiler keep the liquid at boiling point and no more? wouldn’t the surrounding heat raise the liquid’s temperature more than 212° F? For example, my pud recipe called for the oven to be set at 450° F. Wouldn’t the surrounding heat raise the temperature of the pud beyond 212? And if the goal is to keep it at 212, why set the oven for 450 anyway?
The steam from the double-boiler I can understand - wondered if that was the purpose of it, to keep the humidity level near the pud higher than it normally would have been.
Water, as a liquid, can not exceed it’s boiling point. The more intersting question is why the air on those parts of the pud not immersed in water will not raise the temperature beyond 212. I expect it has to do with airs relatively poor heat conduction.
I believe what you’re talking about is a water bath, not a double boiler and the purpose is to act as a thermal heatsink to bring gentle heat into cooked custards.
I always think of a water bath as a buffer from the heat. Like Dan said, the water can’t get above 212°F. It’s also important to get the water level on the outside at least up to the level of the stuff in the pan.
I got on a creme brulee craze around the holidays, made it with a carmel sauce in the pan under the custard like you get on flan instead of the carmelized sugar on top, man it was awesome. I like a regular ol’ milk and whole egg custard with vanilla, nutmeg, and raisins, too. In fact I think I’m going to bang one out tonite.
