[madameshawshank]

Clotilde, your "don't ask" about why bain marie is so named set me off googling ~

BAIN MARIE
Bain-Marie (Mary's bath) refers to the method of placing a pan of food in another pan with water in it to stabilize the heat reaching the food (water bath). The term was originally used in alchemy, and was named after Moses's sister, who was an alchemist.


don't ya just loveeeeeeeeeee the world wide web!!!!!

Placing a baked rice custard in a bain marie is always a treat...in a few whatevers there will be that delicious aroma...in fact...will make one today..
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"I've never accepted the external appearance of things as the whole truth. The world is much more elaborate than the nerves of our eye can tell us." - James Gleeson

[clotilde]

Thank you so much Joan for exercising your googling talents!

But now I'm puzzled: forgive me if my lack of Old Testament knowledge shows, but wasn't Moses an orphan, found in a basket on the Nile by the Pharao's wife? Whence would the sister come then?

[madameshawshank]

apologies in advance for the length of this one!...I'm thinking of how each and every word we use has a history ~ rich and varied ~ like c'nz!!!

googling is a joy...I've found the history of the bain marie quite interesting...a term I've used without ever thinking "now where did THAT come from!"...as for the sister ~ well further delving has taken me to this wondrous site..a review of a play "And Mary Wept" http://indyweek.com/durham/2002-10-02/ae2.html

the review is worth a read (in my eyes anyway!) ~ a snippet follows:

Like Mary, each character has a Christian counterpart, but the work's impressive range of references and tone bestows characters and themes with pantheistic resonances. In the Bible, Mary Magdalen (Lena) first witnesses the resurrection. Miriam is not only Moses's sister, but also a prophet. Both Magdalen and the Apostle John live out their lives on remote islands, where John writes the Book of Revelations.

'n Clotilde this, from extremelysmart.com

"The prophet Miriam appears in relatively few scenes in Exodus and Numbers, but her role in the Judeo-Christian tradition cannot be underestimated. Miriam's importance was such that by the time Jesus was born, 40 percent of all women were named either Mary (Maryam, Miriam, Mariamne, Maria), after the first woman named as a prophet in the Hebrew Scriptures, or Salome, which is a variant spelling of shalom — the Hebrew concept encompassing hope, wholeness, harmony, health, and peace.

This article had its genesis (so to speak) in the attempt to understand the weird little scene in Numbers 12 in which Aaron and Miriam, apparently unhappy with their baby brother's hogging of all the glory of leadership, complain — and (in another, later context) the Bible saying that only Miriam was punished for standing up for herself (Deut. 24:8-9). I am indebted to Thomas W. Butler's excellent book Let Her Keep It for the suggestion as to how Numbers 12 ought to be understood, which makes perfect sense to me. You go, Tom!

For I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and redeemed you from the house of slavery; and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. (Micah 6:4) This is the only place in the Bible where a female prophet is mentioned outside of whatever story she is a participant in, and is another indication of Miriam's extraordinarily high status in Judaism.
"

How I love the interconnectedness of it all....this connected to that connected to this connected to that...
_________________
"I've never accepted the external appearance of things as the whole truth. The world is much more elaborate than the nerves of our eye can tell us." - James Gleeson

[David]

Clotilde----now I'm no biblical scholar by any means but I used to be a whiz 40 odd years ago in Sunday School! But if memory serves me correctly Moses mother put him in a basket and set him in the Nile. He was found by the Queen's handmaiden and the Queen decided to raise him as her own----and then hired Moses mother as his wetnurse---so any daughters she had would be his sisters!
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Vivant Linguae Mortuae!!

[clotilde]

Thank you both for your replies, Joan and David! Who would've thought we'd be discussing biblical stories on these forums?