a technical term more familiar to cooks than is the companion term ‘flocculation’. The two are often confused, but have different meanings, and the distinction between them is worth knowing.
Flocculation and connected words such as flocculent (and the charming but neglected word ‘floccose’) are all derived from the Latin floccus, meaning a tuft or a lock of wool. Cirrus clouds may be described as having a flocculent appearance; and it is easy to see the resemblance between them and the loose, ragged patches of solid matter in a sauce which has separated.
Coagulation, on the other hand, refers to what is for the cook a much more serious state of affairs. Protein coagulates, i.e. hardens into a ‘cooked’ state, if subjected to a temperature of 74 °C (165 °F). This process is irreversible, as is readily understood if one imagines, for example, trying to unscramble scrambled eggs. Flocculation, in contrast, can be remedied. The two terms, with their different meanings, are subsumed in the vaguer term, curdling. This may suffice to indicate what is meant, but it is often better to use whichever of the two more precise terms is applicable.
Alan Davidson was a distinguished author and publisher, and one of the world's best-known writers on fish and fish cookery. In 1975 he retired early from the diplomatic service—after serving in, among other places, Washington, Egypt, Tunisia, and Laos, where he was British Ambassador—to pursue a fruitful second career as a food historian and food writer extraordinaire. Among his popular books are Seafood of South-East Asia, North Atlantic Seafood, and Mediterranean Seafood. In 2003, shortly before his death, he was awarded the Erasmus Prize for his contribution to European culture.
