I’ve had several people ask about the water bath (or bain-marie) after our Thanksgiving Test Kitchen episode aired. We made my Grandmother’s Corn Pudding and put the baking dish inside of a Pyrex that I filled with water.
Simply put, the bain-marie helps the pudding cook more evenly. According to Wikipedia, the humidity from the water bath helps keep the top from becoming too dry which is why the bain-marie helps prevent splitting in things like cheesecake. So, let that lovely pudding cook like it should, evenly, all at the same temp, that’s what the water bath is supposed to provide.
Sometimes my grandmother made double batches of corn pudding in the most unbelievably large Pyrex dish I’d ever seen. It was huge, round, formidable, and I don’t know what happened to it after she went to corn pudding heaven. As the kids say, whatever!
Just do the water bath, the bain-marie, whatever you want to call it, it’s worth it. Gran, I salute you, and honor you, and love you for all the wonderful dishes you made for us over the years.
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