Recently, the need to close another gap in the terminology that I use here on the site was revealed, since it turned out that the simple and seemingly understandable phrase “water bath” is not clear to everyone. Well, once again, I apologize in advance to experienced cooks, and I will try to explain in a nutshell, what is a water bath and how does it work.
It became clear to me where the legs “grow” from the fear of a water bath, as soon as I opened Wikipedia: it says that this is a device that “represents a heated body (for example, a vessel with a substance, such as a flask, test tube, or other body) placed in a larger container with water. ” In general, something very complicated and incomprehensible, and only at the end it is mentioned in passing that a water bath “can be used in cooking (for example, for making cutlets).”
Hmmm. In fact, in the everyday, culinary sense, everything is much simpler.Photo from www.mygourmetconnection.comIn the most primitive representation, a water bath is two vessels, say, two baking dishes, the largest of which is filled with water, and the smaller one is put in this water and serves for cooking. As a result of heating the larger of the two vessels in the oven or over an open fire, the food in the smaller vessel is also heated, but, firstly, this heating is much more uniform, and, secondly, the heating temperature will not exceed 100 degrees – the boiling point water.
The latter, however, can be completely changed to suit your own needs, replacing water with other substances – oil, salt, etc. There are no tricks and secrets here, except that it is better to use hot waterto start cooking right away, without wasting time to reheat it.For individual dishes – usually those where it is about converting conditionally liquid foods into something more solid – cooking in a water bath is simply irreplaceable. For example, this is how they prepare creme brulee dessertsome sauces or already mentioned terrines, but the value of this method for cooking cutlets, which Wikipedia helpfully tells us, seems to me rather doubtful. Thus, a phrase like “cook in a water bath at 180 degrees” should be understood as follows: 1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
2. Place the dish (s) with food in a larger dish or baking sheet.
3. Fill a baking sheet with boiling water 2/3 of the product level in a small dish.
4. Place the baking sheet in the oven and cook for the time indicated in the recipe. Do you see how simple it is? ..