9Moist heat: poach, simmer, steam

Moist heat cooks food with water, broth, wine or steam. The gentlest of these methods is poaching, where the liquid never bubbles. Steaming is hotter and still kind to delicate food, because nothing moves the food around. Long, covered simmering in a little liquid is how a cook makes a less tender cut of meat tender.

Each method has its own signs to watch for: tiny bubbles that stay on the bottom of the pan, a lid that keeps the steam in, a fork that slides easily into the meat.

9.1 Poaching

What poaching is

To poach is to cook food slowly in hot liquid that is not bubbling. Of all the cooking methods, it uses the least heat, so the food cooks gently and gradually.

Poaching is the right choice for delicate foods. Good examples are eggs, fish, the white meat of chicken, and fruit. It is also a healthy way to cook: liquid, not fat, moves the heat into the food.

The right temperature

Poaching liquid is kept between 160°F and 190°F. That is well below a simmer.

The surest check is an instant-read thermometer. Without one, watch the surface. The liquid should move a little as warm liquid rises from below (a convection current), but there should be no bubbling at all.

Why patience matters

Poaching liquids

Plain water works, and so does milk. For more flavor, cooks use a seasoned broth called a court bouillon. A court bouillon has four parts:

• the liquid itself, often a stock or broth;
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• an acid, such as wine, vinegar or lemon juice;
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• a bouquet garni, which is a small bundle of aromatics such as bay leaf, parsley, thyme, garlic and peppercorns, tied with string or wrapped in cheesecloth;
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• mirepoix, a mix of chopped onion, carrot and celery. For a white mirepoix, the traditional ratio is two parts onion to one part carrot and one part celery.
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Fat can also be a poaching liquid. Cooks poach in olive oil, duck fat or clarified butter. A shelled raw lobster tail poached in butter or oil is one well-known example.

Fruit for dessert is often poached in a mix of water and sweet wine, flavored with spices such as cinnamon, cloves or star anise.

Poaching a chicken breast

• Heat about 2 inches of poaching liquid until it is just under a simmer. You will see many small bubbles on the bottom of the pan, but none rising to the top.
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• Put the chicken in. Watch the heat the whole time. Turn it down if the liquid starts to bubble; turn it up a little if you see no movement in the liquid.
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• If the breast is not fully covered, that is fine. Turn it over with tongs partway through. If it is fully covered and the pan can go in the oven, you can set the pan in a 325°F oven so the heat reaches it evenly from all sides.
• Cook until the inside of the chicken is safely cooked. Poultry must reach 74°C (165°F) inside, held for 15 seconds. Check with an accurate instant-read thermometer; pressing the meat or cutting into it is less reliable.
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• Lift the chicken out.

The meat will look pale. Low, wet heat does not brown food, so poached chicken misses the deep flavor that browning gives. In return, it stays moist.

The liquid left in the pan can become a sauce. Reduce part of it, then thicken or enrich it with beurre manié, by mounting it with butter (monté au beurre), or with a spoonful of cream. A little of a rich sauce lifts the whole plate.

No special pan is needed. Any sauté pan or saucepan that holds two to three inches of liquid will do, although special fish poachers are sold for poaching a whole fish.

Poaching an egg

Poached eggs go wrong for many cooks. Most failures are avoided by keeping the water below a simmer.

• Bring about 3 inches of water with a splash of vinegar to roughly 170°F. Small bubbles should cover the bottom of the pan but should not rise and burst.
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• Break the egg into a small cup first.
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• Swirl the water in a circle. Lower the cup to the middle of the pan and tip it so the egg slides in gently.
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• If loose threads of white drift away, guide them back with a spoon or a heat-proof spatula.
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• Poach for about 4 to 5 minutes. Jiggle the egg with a spoon: the white should feel fairly firm, and the yolk should still wobble.
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• Lift it out with a slotted spoon and drain it on paper towels.
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To get ahead for service, put poached eggs into ice water. When it is time to serve, warm each one for about 40 seconds in water at poaching temperature.

A poached egg can sit on buttered toast or go into Eggs Benedict. It can also top a salad with a sharp, acidic dressing; when the yolk breaks, it runs into the dressing and becomes part of it.

9.2 Steaming

Hotter than poaching, but gentle

Water turns to steam once it goes past 212°F, so steamed food cooks at a higher temperature than food that is poached, braised or stewed. Steaming is still gentle in one way. In boiling or simmering water, food is pushed about; in steam it sits still. That makes steam a good choice for delicate food such as seafood.

Steaming has two more advantages. The food is not under water, so fewer nutrients leach out into the liquid. And it cooks fairly quickly.

Steam, like water, normally tops out at 212°F. Put it under pressure and it gets hotter; the more pressure, the higher the temperature. Cooking with pressurized steam needs special equipment that a beginner usually does not have.

How to steam

On the stove you need only a pot and a steamer basket.

• Pour a little liquid into the pot and bring it to a simmer.
• Set the food in the basket above the liquid.
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• Cover the pot. The steam moves around the food and cooks it fast.
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A microwave can steam too. Put the food in a microwave-safe dish, sprinkle it with water or another liquid, and cover it with plastic wrap pierced with a few small holes. A few minutes is usually enough. Microwave steamer baskets are also sold for cooks who steam this way often.

Steaming vegetables

Steamed vegetables earned a poor name in two ways. Some were served with no seasoning and tasted of nothing. Others were cooked far too long and turned into dark, flavorless mush. Season them, and take them off the heat in time.

Done well, steaming suits many vegetables, potatoes included. Broccoli and cauliflower can go soggy when simmered, so steam is a better choice for them.

Steam also works as a first step before another method.

• Steam broccoli briefly before it goes into a fast stir-fry, and it will end up crisp-tender.
• Steam potatoes before you slice and grill them, and the grilling takes much less time.

Steaming fish and shellfish

Seafood takes especially well to steam. In a compartment steamer, the liquid underneath can carry flavor: use broth, stock or wine, with aromatic herbs, and keep it at a gentle simmer. The moist air in the steamer keeps fish juicy and tender.

Some shellfish make their own steam. Put mussels in a big covered pot with only a little wine. As the pot heats, the mussels release juice, cook in its steam, and the juice mixes with the wine to make a sauce.

En papillote

En papillote is French for "in paper". The food, often fish, is sealed in a parcel of parchment paper or foil with a little liquid such as wine. Lemon, herbs or thin slices of vegetable can go in too. The parcel is heated in the oven or on a grill, and the food cooks in the steam trapped inside.

Steam and health

9.3 Moist heat for tough cuts; acids and enzymes

Why tough cuts need moist heat

Less tender cuts of meat are cooked with moist heat. The two moist-heat methods for meat are braising and stewing. Both show how heat and moisture together change the proteins in meat.

Terms to know for cooking tough cuts:

• collagen
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• gelatin
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• elastin
• myoglobin, the meat pigment, and its forms, oxymyoglobin and denatured globin hemichrome
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• non-enzymatic browning

Ways to tenderize

Tenderizing techniques fall into three groups:

• Enzymes. Meat is treated with proteolytic enzymes such as bromelain or papain, used as enzyme tenderizers.
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• Mechanical. The meat is ground, or it is swissed: pounded flat.
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• Acid. The meat sits in an acid marinade for a long time.
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The shared pattern: brown, then cover and cook low

Almost every moist-heat recipe for meat follows the same steps:

• Brown the meat in a little oil or shortening.
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• Add liquid.
• Cover the pan.
• Cook at low heat until the meat is fork tender, which means a fork goes in easily.
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Stewing

For a beef stew:

• Cut the meat into ¾-inch cubes and brown it well.
• Add water, salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce and a small piece of bay leaf.
• Simmer with the lid on for about 1 to 1½ hours, until the meat is tender.
• Take out the bay leaf and skim most of the fat off the top.
• Add carrots, potatoes and onions, and simmer about 30 minutes more.

The stew is thickened at the end with a roux: 2 tablespoons of oil or shortening cooked with 3 tablespoons of flour on medium heat until it turns a light brown, which takes 1 to 2 minutes. Add it a little at a time, bring the stew to a boil after each addition, and stop when it is thick enough.

A creamier stew uses browned meat simmered in bouillon and water with thyme and bay leaf for 35 minutes, then pearl onions and mushrooms for 15 more. Evaporated milk mixed with flour and nutmeg thickens it, and lemon juice and egg noodles are stirred in at the end.

Swissing and braising

Round steak shows how mechanical and moist-heat tenderizing work together.

• Cut through the epimysium around the edge of the steak every inch.
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• Sprinkle the steak with flour mixed with oregano, salt and pepper, and pound it with a swissing iron. Turn it, flour it and pound again. Keep going until the steak is about half as thick as it was.
• Brown both sides in a heavy skillet.
• Add tomato juice or water, cover tightly, and simmer over low heat for about 90 minutes, until fork tender.
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A breaded pork blade chop is braised in a similar way. After breading and browning, it cooks covered over low heat for about 45 to 60 minutes. Take care not to knock the breading loose while browning.

Lamb blade or arm chops are browned, then simmered under a lid with water, bouillon, celery, green onion and thyme for 30 to 45 minutes. The pan juices, skimmed of fat, become a sauce finished with sour cream, which is only heated through so that it does not curdle.

Pot roast: in the oven or under pressure

In the oven, a beef blade roast cooks this way:

• Brown it in an ovenproof skillet.
• Add tomato juice and onions and cover tightly.
• Cook at 300°F for 1½ to 2 hours, adding liquid if it dries out.
• Add potatoes and carrot about 45 minutes before serving.

A pressure pan cuts the time sharply. For a heel of round roast:

• Brown the roast slowly.
• Set it on a rack with onions and water.
• Cook for about 30 minutes at 15 pounds of pressure.
• Let the pan stand at room temperature for 5 minutes, then cool it further under cold running water.

The same tool handles other tough cuts. Beef tongue cooks in a pressure pan with water, onion, garlic, bay leaf and salt for 40 minutes at 15 pounds; after cooling, the skin is peeled off and the meat shredded for tacos. Pork shoulder, browned on each side and set in an electric pressure cooker with chicken broth, is cooked for 25 minutes on the pork setting and then shredded.

Gravy from the drippings

Pot roast drippings make the gravy:

• Let the fat rise and skim it off.
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• Cook 1½ tablespoons of flour in the pan for 1 to 2 minutes.
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• Add the rest of the drippings, topped up with water to 1 cup.
• Stir all the time until it boils, scraping up the browned meat juices stuck to the pan.
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• Boil for one minute, then season with salt and pepper.

Questions to answer

• Name the two moist-heat methods for less tender cuts. How do they differ?
• Give three reasons to cook meat with moist heat.
• List three common ways to tenderize meat before it is cooked.
• How is collagen different from elastin?