I poached tilapia today in white wine with star anise, scallion whites, fresh thyme and shallots cut into fine rings. I had meant to use salmon, but didn't realise until my poaching liquid was on the stove that I had forgotten to thaw it. So I used tilapia instead. It turned out soft and flavourful, but I would love some sort of a sauce to go on top of it next time. What sort of sauces go well with poached fish? I tried doing a butter with fresh thyme. It was good but not great. I used whole butter, and as the butter melted over medium-low heat, the impurities came to the surface and ended up on my fish, which spoiled its look.

I know people start by poaching eggs, but I really didn't want poached eggs for dinner. I will try poaching eggs for breakfast over the weekend.

Hi Swati, I believe that Tony answered your question here:
http://rouxbe.com/community/forums/12/topics/315?page=1#1770
but I wanted to add that you can emulsify by making a wine butter sauce (beurre blanc). Cook the fish, sweat some shallots in butter, add white wine, reduce by half to 2/3rds, then on very low heat, swirl in the butter. Try 1 cup of wine reduced to 1/3 cup and then whisk in two the three tablespoons of cold butter a bit at a time until fully incorporated. Do not boil or the butter will split. Squeeze in some lemon juice, season and then spoon over fish.

One other comment, thyme is pretty strong and might be too strong of a herb for this fish. Try dill or finely chopped chives next time.

I must express gratitude to all staff who worked on this lessons, this is really useful for me because i am just starting as a chef (finishing school any day now...wish me luck dough:) ) i am really surprised that they are so professionally done, must say some things are explained a lot better then in my catering school, anyway well done and keep up the god work!

What a pleasure to hear...thanks so much! Best of luck to you in your future with cooking.

Ok, so I'm all thumbs when it comes to basic recipe steps like "bring to a simmer." Especially when it's important to prevent the liquid from coming to a boil, I think I tend to put the heat too low. I also have an electric stove, so I'm always worrying what level to actually leave it at to prevent boiling, yet still keep at a simmer....

If you're making a 6L batch of stock, for example, approximately how long should it take to bring it to a simmer?

This will really depend on your stove, how cold the ingredients were to start with etc. (even where you live and the altitude will make a difference). If you are really curious about how long it takes to bring a 6 lt batch of stock to a simmer, I suggest you time it next time you make stock. Cheers!

I did time it, it came to a simmer somewhere in the 40-45 minute range, which feels too long. Isn't it quite long?

It takes longer than you may think to bring that much cold liquid and ingredients to a simmer. This doesn't sound too long to me.

It is funny when you take the time to do things properly (as you are with just bringing it to a slow simmer) you realize that not everything happens as fast as you or I may think they should :-) Cheers!

I want to poach some chicken breast tenders I got to use in salads during the week. After watching the lesson I understand the importance of using a flavorful liquid and the correct temperature.

How do I tell when they're done? Is it based on cooking time? Internal temperature of the poached pieces? Cutting into them? I'm wary of undercooked chicken for health safety reasons, but on the other hand I don't want to cook them to death!

Good question...because you are cooking chicken tenders, which are quite small, it will too hard to take the internal temperature using a thermometer. With practice one can start to determine doneness by touch but as I said this does take practice.

Your best bet is to take one of the tenders out of the poaching liquid (sooner rather than later) and cut into it. If they are not done just keep an eye on them to make sure they do not over cook. It's also a good idea to time the cooking of them so you will know for next time approximately how long they will take to cook. Hope this helps. Cheers!

I have been using Rouxbe for a few weeks now to learn how to better prepare individual elements of my meals, but last Friday I took the day to tackle a full lesson. I planned our dinner menu off the practice portion of the lesson and made poached salmon (but I used the sauce from one the halibut recipes instead of the suggested herb sauce as I thought my family would like it better), lemon-parmesian orzo, roasted asparagus (an old stand-by, so that there was at least one thing I didn't have to think about) and topped it off with the Poire Belle Helene.
It was incredible! I also made some dark stock during the day, for the simmering portion of the lesson, and because I knew my son wouldn't eat more than the required "bite-to-try it" of the salmon. I poached a chicken breast in the dark stock for him.

The best salmon I have ever made. It was so moist that I was even able to reheat the leftovers and it was still perfect! Everything went so well and turned out exactly as it should have. The pears were very different from anything our family has done for dessert before and it was so much fun to have a "fancy" dessert with just our family at the table for no special reason. And it was so easy! Just the kind of dinner I was hoping for.

Thank you, Rouxbe! I am looking forward to my next "Rouxbe Day" - which is going to include steak!

I am learning so much from all of these lessons. I have been cooking since I was very young, but with NO formal training. All of these lessons and especially this one on poaching, simmering and boiling is giving me much more information than I have ever had. Thank you so much for this wonderful opportunity!!!!

Thank you
Louise

Staff,

First of all, many thanks to a wonderful array of cooking lessons.

Please answer a simple question:

What is the boiling point for higher altitudes?

From the lessons, I have learned to identify (by eye) the way the water looks at the three stages.

Thanks,

jtt

There have been several discussions on high altitude cooking in the forum. Just search for "altitude" in the search bar at the top right of any page and click on Forum to review.

There are also several resources on the internet that indicate the boiling point of water at different altitudes. Cheers!

Never could make a great poached egg but this lesson taught me why.

I was just wondering if there is any relation between poaching and pickling? From what I've done some quick research on it seems that an acid or vinegar is used in pickling with no heat applied; however, it seems like some chefs use the terms interchangeably on a few cooking shows when it looks like they are poaching something in an acid and calling it pickling. Not sure if it is a different technique or just terminology used. Thanks for your help!

You are correct that many people seem to use culinary terms interchangeably; however, that does not really mean they are always right. Many chefs and cooks like to use terms to describe what they are doing or what they are cooking simply because certain terms sound more sexy and/or it makes them sound like they know more than you do.

I would say stick to what you know about poaching and what you learned from your searches regarding pickling and keep the terms separate. Hope this helps. Cheers!

I poached salmon and chicken breast using a Court Bouillon for the first time this week in which the salmon came out great but the chicken seemed over done. I poached each meat for roughly 20 minutes.

Is there a reason why the chicken did not come out so tender and can you tell me, based on your experiences of poaching, if there is a rule of thumb when it comes to poaching times of meat and fish?

Thanks for your help.

Mike

No, there isn't any rule of thumb. Depending on the size and thickness of the protein, the cooking times will vary. You just need to monitor the food as it cooks, which means you will have to touch it (this takes practice to know what it feels like when it is done) or make a small incision in the thickest part of the poultry or fish. The chicken should be just cooked through and the fish should be cooked to the point that you like it done. It sounds like you just overcooked the chicken this time. Basically, it just comes down to practice. Cheers!

Sometimes recipes say put the pot on 'medium heat' or 'low' when referring to submersion methods. I'm sure that it is hard for you to know what someone else is referring to! But if it is medium would that generally mean a simmer and low a poach do you think? Recipe writers dont always say simmer or poach!

You are correct Anne, it is hard to know what recipe writers mean sometimes when it comes to temperatures etc. And yes, it is hard for us to know as well. It would depend more on the recipe I guess.

I would say that generally they would be referring to medium heat as somewhere in the middle of a poaching-like temperature and rapidly boiling. Therefore it would mean the liquid or whatever is cooking would generally be at a gentle boil (or maybe a bit morel). Again, it's hard to say exactly without seeing the recipe(s).

This is where the lesson on Submersion cooking is helpful. Using this method you can tell what is happening simply by looking at what is going on in the pot. Depending on what you are cooking, you can adjust the heat up or down as needed. Hopefully that makes sense. Cheers!

"A flavorful liquid should be used when poaching" I got this question wrong as I was thinking that on occasion one wouldn't use a court bullion or a flavourful liquid to poach. An example would be poached eggs for Eggs Benedict or other recipes with a full-flavoured sauce such as salmon where one is using highly flavoured ingredients to Finish the dish.

Am I mistaken?

Technically you are correct Merna; therefore, I have reworded the question to say "Generally, a flavorful liquid is used when poaching". Does that sound better to you? Cheers!

Thanks Dawn that sounds great.

Dawn I just want to thank you and all of the Rouxbe staff. I have so much enjoyed the lessons, the practise and even the quizzes. My skills have increased and I'm having a lot of fun.

This is something I've wanted for a long time but couldn't attend a "brick and mortar" school. Everything about the site is high-quality but best of all every staff member is real, knowledgeable, helpful and interested in what they are doing. It makes a difference to me and I very much appreciate it.

Even when "technically" my last post sounded a bit like I was a know-it-all when I didn't really mean to. Thanks for that :)

Oh Merna, you are a dream. Thank you so much for your kind words. We are so very happy that your skills and knowledge have improved. Keep up the great work.

And for the record, I didn't at all think that your comment regarding the quiz was "know-it-all-ish" :-) Because you were in fact, totally right, so I appreciate that you pointed it out. Cheers!