Cooking gently in liquid held well below a simmer, for things that would be destroyed by any agitation at all.
Technique at a glance
A compact visual model of the lesson. Use the full mechanism and success criteria below when you practice.
Concept
Cooking gently in liquid held well below a simmer, for things that would be destroyed by any agitation at all.
What changes
Poaching runs at roughly 70-82°C — hot enough to cook protein, cool enough that almost no bubbles form.
What good looks like
The surface shivers, with occasional bubbles at the edge and none breaking the middle.
Practice counts when you cook
Reading this brief does not change your School state. Finish a real practice dish in Cook mode and log the cook; that cook is the evidence that advances the skill.
What to focus on
Mechanism
Poaching runs at roughly 70-82°C — hot enough to cook protein, cool enough that almost no bubbles form. That range matters because it sits just above where most proteins set and well below where they contract hard and expel water. A chicken breast poached at 75°C stays tender across its whole thickness; the same breast in boiling water develops a tough outer layer long before the middle is safe. Eggs are the clearest case: white sets from about 63°C and yolk from about 65°C, so a narrow band of temperature is the entire difference between runny, soft and hard. The acid often added to poaching water for eggs works by encouraging the white proteins to coagulate faster, so they set before they can disperse — it is not about flavour and a very small amount does the job.
Success criteria
The surface shivers, with occasional bubbles at the edge and none breaking the middle.
Steam rises steadily but the liquid is visibly still.
A poached egg white sets in a compact mass rather than trailing wisps — trailing means the water is too hot or the egg is not fresh.
Poached meat feels resilient rather than firm; firm means it has gone past.
Failure guards
Poached eggs spread into ragged clouds.
Water too agitated, or an older egg. The thin outer white loosens with age and disperses before it can set — straining it off first solves it entirely.
Chicken is tough and stringy.
The liquid was simmering rather than poaching. Above about 85°C the fibres contract and squeeze out water.
Fish fell apart.
Too hot, or moved too often. Poached fish is fragile by design and should be lifted with a slotted spoon, not turned.