(and pocher in French) a verb which indicates a method of cooking which is generally taken to be in a liquid which is simmering (see simmer), i.e. just below boiling point, in the area of 90–96 °C/195–205 °F. But not all authorities agree on this. Some would keep the temperature markedly below boiling point—low enough to ensure that the surface of the liquid betrays no signs of movement, not even ‘shivering’; others would permit some such motion (if only to ensure that the temperature does not fall too low, which it can easily do in the absence of any visible marker); others refer to ‘a gentle boil’.
McGee (1990) has an interesting discussion of temperatures in relation to terms such as poach and simmer, bringing out the point that western kitchens are not well equipped for cooking at temperatures which might otherwise be seen as the most appropriate, e.g. 71 °C/160 °F or 82 °C/180 °F; ovens cannot be set low enough (one has to prop the oven door open with objects of varying thickness, having first carried out a calibration exercise), while cooks working on top of the stove have no surface motion to guide them and must resort to a thermometer or guess.
Poaching is normally applied to fish (in a court bouillon), dumplings, delicate meat products or offal, eggs, fruits (in a syrup), and anything else which it would be undesirable to subject to violent agitation, as when boiling. The lack of a precise and agreed-by-all definition of poaching is not a real problem, so long as one accepts that it is not the sort of term which can be defined exactly (as ‘boil’, for example, can be) and that the range of meanings which have attached themselves to it is a useful spectrum on which the cook, aided by common sense and experience, can draw. And the cook can recall that poach comes from pocher, which means pocket, referring to the ‘pocket’ of coagulated white within which the yolk of an egg is retained while it is being poached, so that the manner of poaching an egg (starting with boiling water and reducing at once to a simmer) may be treated as the archetypal act of poaching, from which other such acts are derived.
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.
McGee, Harold (1990), The Curious Cook, San Francisco: North Point Press.
