Hot-Water Bath

A hot-water bath is a pan full of hot water used either for keeping something warm or for providing cooking heat that is less hot than a double boiler. Cooking in a water bath protects delicate foods like custards and eggs from direct contact with the heat source or flame, so that they do not lose their emulsion, turn into scrambled eggs, disintegrate, or turn oily. Typical dishes to be cooked this way are custards, creams, egg dishes, some soufflés, and butter-egg sauces.

Double boilers tend to get too hot from the contained steam and have to be watched very carefully so they don’t overheat whatever is in them. Scrambled eggs, for example, when prepared in the French manner (as they should always be), are cooked in a hot-water bath rather than in a double boiler.