The Poaching of Fish

Poisson poché au fumet teaches one true thing: the poaching liquor is already the future sauce. Use very little fumet, make certain it is pale, clean, and free of bitterness, then keep the heat gentle. Weak fumet leaves nothing to reduce; overcooked fumet concentrates every harsh note.

The original method assumed very white stock never off the fire, a saucier ready with the accompanying sauce, and enough hands to baste a whole sole, brill, or small turbot. Here eight fillets cook in one buttered, covered dish, and their liquor becomes a simple sauce with cream and cold butter. The separate sauce station was brigade scaffolding; the shallow poach and reuse of its liquor are the dish itself. The buttered-paper cover goes entirely, as the source advises, and an ovenproof lid or foil becomes its clean home equivalent. One cook, one stove, one evening.

When it is right, the fish parts in moist pearly flakes and the ivory sauce lies over it with a butter-bright gloss. Taste the fumet before touching the pan. If it is bitter, replace it now, because neither cream nor hope will hide it later.