Talk:Bain-marie

message: What is the Difference between a Double-boiler and a Bain-Marie.
A double boiler is one pot or bowl affixed on top of a pot of boiling water, on “top of the stove”.  It is used for making things like melted chocolate, or an egg custard from scratch. It is the steam emanating from the boiling water that does the gentle cooking.
A Bain-Marie is usually a roasting dish filled with water surrounding a dish that needs to be cooked surrounded by water, like a Christmas pudding, cheese soufflés, caramel custards, etc.  This method is usually used with dishes that need to be cooked thus “in the oven”.
This is the difference between a Double Boiler - Stove Top, and a Bain-Marie - In The Oven.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Swoooooozan (talk • contribs) 14:52, 16 February 2020 (UTC)
thread_title: Untitled

message: In American usage, a bain-marie is NOT a double boiler (I believe in the UK they are used interchangeably).
A double-boiler is used on the stove to gently melt (for example, chocolate) or cook. You can purchase special nesting pots, but it works perfectly fine with a heat-proof bowel sitting over simmering (not boiling) water. The water does not touch the bowl.
A bain-marie is used in the oven when baking custards like creme caramel, flan, or creme brûlée.  The baking dish or ramekin is placed inside of a roasting pain and water is poured around it.  The goal is to insulate the custard from the extreme heat of the oven and to slow down the cooking process. Some people put towels underneath the ramekins, but this is not required. Obviously here the water *does* touch the bowl.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Cogorno (talk • contribs) 06:14, 13 May 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Bain-marie and a double boiler are not the same 

message: Is this different from a double boiler? It looks like a bain-marie is used in an oven and a double boiler used on a stove top. Anyone familiar with these things?  --rmhermen 19:36, 14 January 2002 (UTC)
replies: text: That's pretty much the difference.  Also, a Bain-marie allows water to come up to the level of the stuff being cooked, while a double boiler might not come that far. -- JHK 21:50, 14 January 2002 (UTC)
replies: text:  Well, what's it used to cook?  That sort of info is what would distinguish this from a dictionary entry. --LMS 21:53, 14 January 2002 (UTC)
replies: text:  Primarily, custardy things -- I use it for a chocolate bread pudding recipe -- but you should use one for any custard -- it helps keep the eggs from breaking.  I don't see that there is any way to distinguish it, though, unless someone writes in a "development of" kind of way JHK 15:43, 25 February 2002 (UTC)

text: "by submerging the container into a larger one with boiling or near boiling water. " Hmmmm... in photography if you need to process a film at 20°C in a room at 10°C a good way is to is to put the film tank in a large can of water at 20° to buffer the temperature (of course your chemicals should be heaten to 20° too). I've always called it a bain-marie even if no boiling water is involved.... Ericd 22:04, 16 September 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Different from a double boiler? 

message: I think someone should take it upon themselves to try to sort out the article because just putting stuff on the discussion page is not much help. There seems to be a straight conflict between those who think it is the same as a double boiler and those who think it is not. Who's right?
( I know it may seem odd to write on the discussion page that there is too much being put on the discussion page but I think this is an increasing problem on Wikipedia.)  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.194.10.238 (talk) 09:42, 14 February 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Sort the article out 

message: I've gone ahead and basically cleaned up the whole article -- please review and approve as needed.  I do see that much of it was written by someone whose first language isn't English (but who might be an excellent sous-chef), so I've worked mostly on syntax, grammar, and sentence structure, and of course overal MOS stuff.  I've deleted things that didn't seem relevant, or were pieces of info that were extraneous -- stuff people likely to look up this article aren't going to really care that much about.  I poked around and did some research, and there do seem to be many, many versions of bains-marie in existence, ranging from things like chafing dishes to things like double-boilers.  I think we're safe if we just describe, as simply as possible, the basic versions of all pieces of equipment referred to as "bains-marie," with some examples of what they're used for, and keep away from implying that there's only one kind and that it's "exactly like a double-boiler" or "exactly like a chafing dish."
Anyway, that's my two francs.  Sugarbat (talk) 06:18, 9 May 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Big Edit

message: It really would be nice if there were some clarification about the basic terminology here.  Is a Bain-marie a generic term for any device that uses water as a buffer to regulate temperature while a double-boiler is a more specific type of item?  Or are they synonyms? Or is one the common term in the US but not the UK? Or are there design differences such as a bain-marie having the upper vessel sitting directly in the water bath, while a double-boiler has the upper pan heated by steam from below?
I tried to do some investigating myself and checked at least WordNet and Dictionary.com.  But it would be nice for someone who knows more about culinary matters and regional terminology to find some good references in that realm and clarify.
Wordnet wasn't a lot of help with synonyms and word relationships in this case, though it did define double-boiler "double boiler, double saucepan (two saucepans, one fitting inside the other)" while the definition of bain-marie was less specific.  
Dictionary.com's first definition of bain-marie seems to imply that it works by placement of the inner vessel in the hot water of the outer.  Its second definition is "British. a double boiler."  When looking up "double boiler" it indicates that the term originated in America in 1875-1880 and it indicates two interlocking pots.
My interpretation is that if you're in the US and say "double boiler" you mean a specific device with interlocking saucepans that is usually used on the stove top.  If you use the term "bain-marie" you might mean any device (including those designed for baking or chafing) that uses water to buffer the temperature.  If you're in the UK and say "bain-marie" you may mean the same thing as what most in the US would call a double boiler.
Anyone know for sure or can shed more light from some good culinary sources?
70.132.14.183 (talk) 07:29, 10 August 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: Double Boiler or Bain-marie? 

message: Why are we using a French word as an English Wikipedia entry, when there's a perfectly good English term?  This thing is a double boiler.  In fact, until coming here, I'd never heard of a "bain-marie", and I'm somewhat north of half a century in age.  The multiple questions here, as well as at Talk:Double boiler, indicate that the choice of the French term as an article entry is ill-advised and only causes confusion.  (Lest one accuse me of being biased against the French, I'd say the same thing about any other language here, when equivalent English terms are available.  This is the English Wikipedia, is it not?  There's already an interwiki link to the French Wikipedia's "bain-marie" entry.)The article contents should be merged into Double boiler, with passing mention of the "bain-marie" French term.—QuicksilverT @ 16:09, 22 April 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: The English name is Bain-Marie. "Double boiler" may be what the Americans call it; but that language is not English, whatever they call it.  And it works well for porridge. 82.163.24.100 (talk) 20:33, 22 August 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Merge proposal 

message: :Feel free to state your position on the renaming proposal by beginning a new line in this section with *Support or *Oppose, then sign your comment with ~~~~. Since polling is not a substitute for discussion, please explain your reasons, taking into account Wikipedia's policy on article titles.
*Support - per nom jheiv talk contribs 09:40, 4 July 2014 (UTC)
thread_title: Survey

message: So I don't have the time to figure everything out, but the articles are split across languages. These are about the same thing:
https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Au_bain-marie and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bain-marie IDon'tFindAName (talk) 12:23, 13 May 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Cross-language merge is needed, but I don't know how.