Poaching (cooking)

Poaching is a cooking technique that involves heating food submerged in a liquid, such as water, milk, stock or wine.

[1] This temperature range makes it particularly suitable for delicate food, such as eggs, poultry, fish and fruit, which might easily fall apart or dry out using other cooking methods.

Shallow poaching is best suited for boneless, naturally tender, single-serving-size, sliced, or diced pieces of meat, poultry, or fish.

[3] A more contemporary technique of shallow poaching involves BPA-free plastic bags and is very convenient for the home cook.

[2] For this reason, it is important to keep the heat low and the poaching time to a bare minimum, which will also preserve the flavor of the food.

Typically an egg is poached just to the point where the white is no longer runny, and the yolk is beginning to harden around the edges.

[5] Water is a relatively efficient conductor of heat, but it also has a fairly low limit to its maximum potential temperature (100 °C or 212 °F at sea level).