Coddled Eggs Recipe | How To Coddle Eggs | What's Cooking America (2024)

FAQs

What is an English coddled egg? ›

A coddled egg is an egg that is gently cooked whole in a small dish that's placed in a hot water bath. When this culinary technique is done properly the yolk should be slightly runny while remaining unbroken. It's similar to a poached egg.

The usual method for coddling eggs is to place them into a pot of simmering water, where they steam until set. We add the filled ramekins to the pot and then pour boiling water around them.

To coddle an egg without a coddler, start by bringing a pot of water to a simmer. Place the egg in a heatproof bowl and carefully pour the hot water over the egg until it's submerged. Cover the bowl with a lid and let the egg sit in the hot water for about 5-7 minutes, depending on how runny you want the yolk.

Screw on lid and stand coddler in a pan of boiling water taking care that the water level only reaches halfway up the porcelain body. Simmer for 7-8 mins.

The truth is that coddled eggs have a somewhat cloudy history. According to Royal Worcester, a centuries-old British porcelain producer famed for its egg coddlers, there's no record of who exactly invented the technique. All we know is that by the late 1800s, coddled eggs were a popular dish found across Europe.

Shirred eggs get their name from the traditional dish in which they are baked, a small gratin dish called a shirrer. Unlike French oeufs en cocotte or coddled eggs, shirred eggs are not baked immersed in a water bath.

In cooking, to coddle food is to heat it in water kept just below the boiling point. In the past, recipes called for coddling fruit, but in recent times the term is usually only applied to coddled eggs.

Some Southerners swear by adding a little milk, cheese, or even sour cream to their scrambled eggs to give the dish a delicious finish, but there is one secret ingredient that is sure to result in the fluffiest scrambled eggs you've ever tasted or served. It's water. That's right.

A frame within the egg coddler holds four eggs under the boiling water keeping them warm, and the cover prevents hot steam from escaping and assists the boiling process. The earliest egg boilers date from the 1790s.

Definitions of coddled egg. egg cooked briefly in the shell in gently boiling water. synonyms: boiled egg. types: hard-boiled egg, hard-cooked egg.

Are coddled eggs healthy? ›

Coddling has two things going for it nutrition-wise: it uses minimal added fat (presuming this is an issue for you) and it cooks the eggs at low temperature. Doing so helps preserve the egg's nutrients, as opposed to, say, frying or boiling which uses high heat and can compromise the healthfulness of the egg.

What are coddled eggs? Think of coddled eggs as poached eggs' easier-to-prepare cousin. Since they're cooked in ramekins, they take the shape of the dish, perfectly round and about ½" thick. Traditionally, they're simmered in a water bath on the stove.

In cooking, coddled eggs are eggs that have been cracked into a ramekin or another small container, placed in a water bath or bain-marie and gently or lightly cooked just below boiling temperature.

You might have heard that you should drop your eggs into room temperature or cold water and then bring the water to a boil. This is a myth. In our tests, bringing the water to a boil first and then lowering the eggs into the bath made for easy peeling and more accurate timing.

The oven technique is similar to the preparation of baked eggs, the difference being that the preparation of baked eggs does not have to employ a water bath. The word coddle evolved from the name of a warm drink, "caudle", and ultimately deriving from the Latin word for warm drink, calidium.

Egg coddlers are simply porcelain or glass containers that allow the egg to be soft-cooked without being placed directly into water. As you can see from the photo above, there are some very pretty egg coddlers; the most iconic British ones being made by Royal Worcester.

Soft-boiled eggs with toast soldiers are a classic English breakfast. Simply cut toast into strips and serve with dippy eggs for a fun, kid-friendly breakfast recipe.