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(in cooking) a receptacle containing hot or boiling water into which other containers are placed to warm or cook the food in them.
British. a double boiler.
Contemporary Examples

The table fork is far less time-honored than such objects as the colander, the waffle iron, the bain-marie.
The Strange Way We Eat: Bee Wilson’s ‘Consider the Fork’ Bee Wilson October 12, 2012

Historical Examples

Put in a buttered mould, and cook in bain-marie in the oven for about thirty minutes.
The Hotel St. Francis Cook Book Victor Hirtzler

Put the saucepan in a bain-marie, and stir so that the eggs may not adhere.
The Cook’s Decameron: A Study in Taste: Mrs. W. G. Waters

Heat in a bain-marie, and turn out of the pie dish, and serve with a very good sauce poured round it.
The Cook’s Decameron: A Study in Taste: Mrs. W. G. Waters

The Americans are shivery people, stewing themselves in a bain-marie.
Jonathan and His Continent Max O’Rell

Boil it in a bain-marie or in a thick square cloth, in a pot of boiling water.
Miss Leslie’s New Cookery Book Eliza Leslie

Put some very light chicken force meat (quenelle) in small round buttered timbale moulds, and cook in bain-marie (double boiler).
The Hotel St. Francis Cook Book Victor Hirtzler

Keep the sauce very hot in a bain-marie or in a double saucepan.
The Belgian Cookbook Various

Put in buttered pudding mould and bake in bain-marie (hot water bath) for about thirty minutes.
The Hotel St. Francis Cook Book Victor Hirtzler

Different dishes are variously allowed to stand, cook or bake in bain-marie.
The Hotel St. Francis Cook Book Victor Hirtzler

noun (pl) bains-marie (bɛ̃mari)
a vessel for holding hot water, in which sauces and other dishes are gently cooked or kept warm
n.

1822, from French bain-marie, from Medieval Latin balneum Mariae, literally “bath of Mary.” According to French sources, perhaps so called for the gentleness of its heating. Middle English had balne of mary (late 15c.).