[HPFGU-OTChatter] Re: Brit-Speak: Food and bonfires

[Rebecca K Hubbard]

~Yb:
> Aha! Something I know! Carol, if you're wondering about the'bain
marie,' it's a cooking term for a hot water bath. They work well for
(above) making sticky things less sticky (heat reduces viscosity, you
know). I would NEVER cook a bread pudding without one; keeps the good
stuff from overcooking, burning, scorching, etc.

Carol again:
Okay, so Alshain is suggesting placing the tin (or "can," in American
English) of treacle (= molasses) in a pan of hot water to make it
pourable? (I've done that for honey that has started to crystallize.)
But what you're suggesting sounds more like putting a pan of water on
the lower shelf of the oven (as in my fruitcake recipe somewhere
upthread). Or maybe you cook bread pudding in a double boiler (I've
seen photos of them in my mother's old cookbooks but have never
actually seen one)?
 
Carol, who should have remembered that "bain" = "bath" but is still
puzzled as to how "marie" fits in 

 

Yb:

You were close: my method involves putting a pan in the oven, with paper
towels covering the 

bottom, and filling it about half full with water. Then put the pudding
(in its own dish, of course) 

in the pan of water and bake for about 75 minutes. The trick is making
sure the water doesn't 

splash; and fishing the dish out of the pan is easier said than done, as
well.

 

As for word origins:

 

Mary the Jewess was a first century alchemist, published even (gasp!).
Apparently female 

Alchemists weren't all that uncommon.

 

Maria Prophetissa was also known as Miriam, Mary the Jewess or simply
Maria:

 

Mary the Jewess was an accomplished practical alchemist and the inventor
of a series of 

technical devices still in use today, such as the hot ash box for steady
heat, the dung box 

for prolonged heat and the double boiler, still called the "bain-marie"
in French. None of 

her writings have survived, but she is quoted with the utmost respect by
Zosimus and 

the other early compilers of alchemical texts. (Zosimus considered her
to be Miriam, 

the sister of Moses. He was of course, as always, going for the most
ancient tradition.)

 

Maria approached alchemy as a fusion of the rational, the mystical and
the practical, 

and she is remembered for the practical. She introduced several types of
apparatus, 

including a three-armed still, the hot ash box for steady heat, the dung
box 

for prolonged heat and the double boiler.


Hope this answers your question; I know I learned something!

~Yb

 



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