My curiosity has been piqued: does anyone ever have their eggs coddled?

PREAMBLE

When I was a kid, I played with a couple of neighbourhood boys who were expatriate Brits. Sometimes, when I was invited to stay for lunch, we were served coddled eggs. When I told my mother about it, she had never heard of an egg coddler, so I had to explain to her what they were while she just shook her head, in wonder as to why such a device was necessary, I suppose.

Skip ahead many, many years... My father had passed away a few years previously, and my mother is packing a lot of stuff in preparation for downsizing from her house to a condominium. As we help her wrap and box items, lo and behold... two completely unused Royal Worcester egg coddlers, still in their original boxes. Needless to say, my request to have them was granted.

I used them once a couple of years ago, and again today when I saw the boxes hidden away at the back of a kitchen cupboard. Personally, this is my favourite way to cook eggs, even though it's an additional hassle, and even though I obviously don't do it often. While I was eating my egg lunch, I started to wonder whether anyone ever cooks eggs this way any more; hence, this poll.

Answer honestly, and without doing a Google search, wouldja?

Question:
Assuming you eat eggs at all, do you ever cook/eat coddled eggs?

Choices:
Yes, I have them often
Yes, I have them occasionally
No, I don't like eggs cooked this way
No, it's too much trouble to coddle an egg
No, I don't own an egg coddler
No, I don't know what an egg coddler is

 

Had them as a lad as a son of a diplomat many years ago. Never since. Still remember them fondly.

PH

I've always "coddled" eggs when preparing caesar dressing. Adds a bit of safety over a completely raw egg preparation.

I googled it after voting. According to what I read, I don;t see how a coddled egg is much different from a soft boiled egg.

quote:

Originally posted by Gentleman farmer:
I've always "coddled" eggs when preparing caesar dressing. Adds a bit of safety over a completely raw egg preparation.

Guess I've had them more recently than I thought! And if you're ever offered some of Gf's Ceasar, dig in. Just make sure your date is eating it too....

PH

PH

i don't eat eggs. i have no idea what a coddled egg is. therefore, i had to vote for "i don't know what an egg coddler is". d'uh!

I use only raw eggs for Caesar salad. Coddling an egg won't eliminate Salmonella.

quote:

Originally posted by Board-O:

According to what I read, I don;t see how a coddled egg is much different from a soft boiled egg.

I think that was my mother's point, too, though apparently it didn't stop her from buying a brace of coddlers.

Because they're fairly heavy ceramic material, I guess the principal involved is even heat conduction. Ten minutes covered in already-boiling water really does produce the perfect soft-boiled egg. The real advantage, though, is that you can add other products to it, which of course you can't do with eggs in the shell. The box liner suggests cooked bacon, flaked fish, herbs, salt & pepper, etc. Today at lunch, I lightly buttered the interior of the coddler, then added salt, pepper, 1 egg, chiffonade of basil, salt, pepper, 1 more egg, more basil, salt, pepper. Absolutely delicious, but the truth is, it takes more time than it should-- prepping, waiting for enough water to cover the coddler to boil, and then cleaning up. I guess it's just as simple to soft-boil a couple of eggs, then peel them and throw them into a bowl with the other ingredients that you want to use. The coddler just makes them taste so... well, perfect, I guess.

As I wrote previously, I was just curious about whether anyone still uses this method regularly. I don't remember the last time anyone ever mentioned to me that they had had a coddled egg, so I wondered whether it might now-- in our age of immediate gratification-- be past its time...

It sounds nice, but one correction. 10 minutes in already boiling water is a hard boiled egg. Soft boiled eggs are 3 or 4 minutes.

My grandmother used to make something she called "brucherein." It was soft boiled eggs chopped up with cut up pieces of buttered rye toast in a bowl. It was excellent.

I eat this still although not as frequently as I'd like to. Eggs are perfect food, raw, cooked or just to look at.

quote:

Originally posted by Board-O:
I use only raw eggs for Caesar salad.

Actually, I use EVOO instead of the raw egg...not a raw-egg gal myself...

My mother used to make soft-boiled eggs (3 min.) for me when I was young. I remember liking them, but I haven't made one that I can recall in my adult life. Truthfully, it sounds kind of gross, now. I'm not a fan of steak tartare, either.
I do, though, make a 1 minute egg which I use in certain salad dressings.
I think the key would be to have the eggs at room temperature to start, not straight from the fridge.

someday, i'm gonna build a world FREE of all you eggsuckers.

Animal: Now ain't that too bad? Tomorrow you'll have to suck a raw egg.

I guess we never know exactly what we are eating, do we PH?

And Board-O is absolutely right - coddling will not eliminate Salmonella. The coddling is a "risk-reduction" method for bacteria on the shell as I usually get eggs from a local farmer rather than the grocery.

tbird say
coddling is for panty-waists.

quote:

Originally posted by Gentleman farmer:
I guess we never know exactly what we are eating, do we PH?

At your place, I ask no questions. I just shut up and eat!!

PH

Sounds like an eggsellent idea, PH.

quote:

Originally posted by Gentleman farmer:


And Board-O is absolutely right - coddling will not eliminate Salmonella. The coddling is a "risk-reduction" method for bacteria on the shell as I usually get eggs from a local farmer rather than the grocery.

I read somewhere that salmononella exist outside of the egg on the shell. Not inside, the chance of getting it from raw eggs is low. Wash the outside of your egg.

quote:

Originally posted by Board-O:

It sounds nice, but one correction. 10 minutes in already boiling water is a hard boiled egg. Soft boiled eggs are 3 or 4 minutes.

My grandmother used to make something she called "brucherein." It was soft boiled eggs chopped up with cut up pieces of buttered rye toast in a bowl. It was excellent.

Soft-boiled eggs in their shells take about 3 minutes. However, the coddler is more than ¼-inch thick, so I guess it takes a while for the ceramic material to heat through. Instructions say to lower into boiling water and leave for 10 minutes; having tried it, I can confirm that that time produces a perfect soft-boiled egg.

Everyone's grandmother that I knew could cook mostly simple dishes really, really well. But where they all seem to have excelled was baking. It's becoming a lost art in people's homes, I think.

quote:

Originally posted by Seaquam:
they all seem to have excelled was baking. It's becoming a lost art in people's homes, I think.

It's hard to bake with global warming at your door steps. HOw do you know how fast the dough will rise? People give up...