Poaching fish off the heat

[Fat Guy]

I was at a friend's house this past weekend and she made a remarkably good piece of poached salmon following a method from the Silver Palate Cookbook. She simply took a salmon fillet and covered it in cold, salted water, brought it to the boil, then took the pot off the heat and let it sit for 10 minutes. Upon removing the fillet from the water it was poached evenly and had excellent flavor and texture. It was a good piece of salmon to start but this method really did the trick. Maybe I'm the last to hear about this, but I'm going to be switching to this method. The book says it works for a variety of fish.

[nibor]

I just tried their method for cooking swordfish, also with great results. I had 1" thick steaks right out of the ocean, and didn't want to mistreat them like I usually do. The SP recommended baking at 375 for 9 minutes in a pan containing wine or fish stock to a depth half that of the fish - a 1/2 inch in my case. I took them out a bit early, and they were perfect. I love that cookbook.

[...tm...]

I've always used this method for chicken, especially since my first stove didn't have an adequate simmer setting. It is an hour off heat, covered.

[Shalmanese]

I was at a friend's house this past weekend and she made a remarkably good piece of poached salmon following a method from the Silver Palate Cookbook. She simply took a salmon fillet and covered it in cold, salted water, brought it to the boil, then took the pot off the heat and let it sit for 10 minutes. Upon removing the fillet from the water it was poached evenly and had excellent flavor and texture. It was a good piece of salmon to start but this method really did the trick. Maybe I'm the last to hear about this, but I'm going to be switching to this method. The book says it works for a variety of fish.

What's so superior about it? Seems like it would be inconsistent at best. If you increase the water, you're going to have more thermal mass. If you heat the water up slower, the fish is going to spend longer warm. If you have a thicker piece of fish, the cooking might not penetrate into the center.

The principles of poaching are well established, bring as much of the fish above ~45C as possible while having the least go above ~55C. The easiest way to do this is to just bring a largeish pot of water to your desired finish temperature and leave the fish in until it comes to equilibrium. For fish, I've never had trouble maintaining the temp for the 20 or so minutes it takes to poach and leaving it in longer is not going to damage the finished product.