I have never owned a double boiler. Why? Well, space, for one. I mean, how often do you need a double boiler? Once every few years? Unless you’re a confectionary chef?

Since becoming a coppersmith and learning how to cook in copper myself (something I would never have known how to do 10 years ago), I have since discovered a little secret.

(Don’t let other cookware makers know this! Shhhh!)

You don’t need a double boiler or any other fancy cooking pot if you have a tin-lined copper pot.

Any will do. A skillet, a small pot, a deep pan. Any tin-lined copper pot over regular flame/gas will provide you with the very precise, exact low heat you need to properly melt and cook chocolate. Take chocolate ganache, for instance. It’s two ingredients: chocolate and whipping cream. If you cook it too hot, the cream scalds and/or your chocolate burns. If you cook it too low or slow, the chocolate doesn’t really melt, the cream gets chunky, and it looks half-cooked.

You can create lovely chocolate with the “right tool” aka a double boiler, of course.

But in tin-lined copper, you can achieve perfect chocolate ganache on super low heat, without burning it, in about 23 minutes. Your family will think you’re an accomplished chef, and you will have saved yourself needing a rarely-used pot.

Check out the video in real time below!

All I used for the chocolate ganache was:

¼ cup whipping cream

1 chocolate bar (4 oz) of semi-sweet baking chocolate, chopped

And then I put them in the pot together (the same one I use to make mac and cheese out of a box for the kids) and heated it up on low, and voila!

Perfect for spreading over a chocolate cake. I should know. It’s what I had on my wedding cake back in 2006. It made the entire hall smell like heaven.