The Parchment Paper Trick For Perfectly Poached Fruit Every Time

Among the ways to enjoy fruit, poached pears are the perfect way to upgrade your next bowl of homemade vanilla ice cream. Poaching involves cooking food in sugar water often imbued with aromatic ingredients such as whole spices, citrus peel, and wine. Yet, there is a delicate art to poaching that involves maintaining the somewhat low temperature of your cooking liquid while simultaneously keeping your fruit fully submerged for even cooking. When placing firm raw fruit in a pot of hot liquid, you may have difficulty keeping it under the surface. Luckily, with the help of one kitchen necessity, there is an easy and effective way to simmer your favorite fruits over the stove. Thanks to strategically cut parchment paper, poaching becomes a simple, foolproof way to prepare fresh fruit.

Fruit varies in volume, meaning some varieties are less dense than water. That causes certain produce to float or bob along the surface. Whether you're poaching cherries, plums, or pears, the last thing you want is undercooked fruit as a result of uneven cooking. Fix the problem by cutting out a round piece of parchment paper — a cartouche — to act as a lightweight lid substitute. Instead of using your pot's lid, which creates unwanted condensation, a ring of parchment paper placed directly on top of your fruit allows just enough steam to escape while keeping the fruit evenly heated on all sides.

To make a cartouche, take a piece of parchment paper slightly larger than your pot, fold it into a rectangle, then once again into a square. Align the folded edges and fold the paper into a triangle, then a dart. Position the tip to the center of your pot, cut away any excess paper, and snip off the tip. Unfolded, you'll have a handy ring you can place on the surface of your poaching liquid. Steam rises and becomes trapped beneath the paper, allowing all sides of your fruit to cook evenly. By upgrading your poaching experience with the help of parchment paper, you should now know the fruits that benefit from utilizing this cover.

Fruits with firm flesh that naturally float are the most desirable contenders for a cartouche. Since sturdier fruits usually take more than 10 minutes to poach, this parchment ring is worth the effort. While pears are common for poaching, select a variety of fruits with firm flesh and less delicate characteristics. Apples, figs, and various stone fruits such as apricots, plums, peaches, and cherries are all good choices. Peel, core, and remove seeds before poaching. The temperature of your poaching liquid will vary depending on the variety of fruit you choose. If smaller produce attempts to break free through the hole in your parchment paper, use a spoon to push it back under the surface and cook until tender. 

Surprisingly, you can also poach softer fruits like raspberries and blueberries, but remember that delicate fruits require less cooking time. For example, raspberries and blackberries poach in just a few seconds, while blueberries and strawberries poach in 2 minutes or less. In this regard, a cartouche may be more effort than it's worth. Maintaining a low cooking temperature and frequent stirring may be a better alternative for quick-cooking fruits.

On the other hand, grapes and cherries take up to 5 minutes to poach effectively, so use your best judgment when deciding if a cartouche is necessary. All in all, regardless of the type of fruit selected, the top tip for the most flavorful poached fruit has everything to do with your fruit's ripeness at the time of poaching. Poaching fruit effectively and evenly with a cartouche is best with firm, slightly underripe produce. Avoid creating a sloppy, unstructured sauce-like mixture by taking careful consideration when selecting and poaching fruit. To create a variety of cooked fruits with varying textures, remove the cartouche from your pot of poached pears or stone fruits toward the end of the cooking process before adding smaller fruit like mixed berries. For a fuss-free way to create delicious poached fruit every time, utilize a homemade cartouche for extra satisfying results.