Why does chocolate only melt smoothly in a pot inside hot water, but not in a pot that is directly heated?

Question

Why does chocolate only melt smoothly in a pot inside hot water, but not in a pot that is directly heated?

In: 479

Answer 1

You can melt chocolate smoothly in a pot that is directly heated. But it’s harder because the chocolate will burn at lower temperatures than directly heated pots reach without much care.

The most common stoves use either a flame (usually fed by gas) or what’s essentially really chunky light bulbs. In theory turning them up and down again and again keeps a somewhat level temperature.

It’s much less of a hassle to use water as a buffer. As other comments stated, the water goes to 100°C at most. Any excess energy is converted into the phase transition (water -> steam) instead of more heat.