Why buy a double boiler?

You just got this delicious recipe from a friend and want to make it. Though the recipe calls for a double boiler, you shrug and make the sauce in a regular saucepan. It scorches; the sauce is ruined.

 

Perhaps you like candles to the point that you have decided to learn to make them, yourself. Peering at the book you bought from the used book store downtown, you check the website you found with your Google search. Among other supplies, you had to buy a double boiler; according to your sources, it will keep your wax melted without scorching it.

 

Or do you make candies? The double boiler gently melts chocolate (do not put the lid on!), and you can use a double boiler to cook syrups. Can you substitute a standard saucepan? No, but you might be able to improvise a double boiler with two closely-sized saucepans, or with a saucepan and a pyrex, the pyrex being used as the smaller saucepan.

 

Traditional cooking involves direct heat. This is fine for everyday cooking, but what of heat-sensitive foods? Heat sensitive foods require fine-tuned heating to be cooked properly, and only a double boiler gives you an opportunity to do that.