Pampering Your Poultry - Coddled Eggs

I love eggs, always have and probably always will. Poached, Fried, Baked (oeufs Cocotte), Boiled and my most favorite of all, Coddled. The term "coddling" doesn't seem to have really caught on the U.S. Thus Coddled eggs are often simply, but incorrectly, referred to as "Poached" even though poaching technically requires contact with the cooking liquid or oil.

The "inserts" for sauce pans;

instruct cracking an egg into the indentations and setting the insert in a saucepan of simmering water. They are always labeled as egg poachers, but this is really a coddler. The idea is to "pamper" or literally "coddle" the egg by cooking it gently like you would when using a Bain Marie (Double Boiler) over, or setting in, barely simmering water for about 8 minutes. This leaves the egg at about 160 degrees, however the white stays tender due to the gentle cooking and the yolk remains runny, although I tend to leave mine in for an extra minute so the yolk JUST begins to gel.

Even without a Poacher/Coddler, you can still make great coddled eggs at home with a few ramekins and a saute pan.

Begin heating a saute pan with about 1 inch of water in the bottom.

Butter about 4 - 6 ramekins, depending on how big your saute pan is.

Crack an egg into each one, sprinkling with salt and pepper as desired.

Then I always add a little Parmigiano-Reggiano.

Once the water reaches about 185 degrees, slip the ramekins in the hot water, and cover.

Simmer for 7-9 minutes depending on how cooked you like your yolk.

Remove ramekins from hot water and either serve as is on a plate with a little pat of butter (I used a touch of White Truffle butter from my freezer).

Or run a butter knife around the edge and turn the egg out onto a plate.

As I stated earlier, when I make coddled eggs, I tend to cook them just a touch longer so the yolk barely gels,

instead of leaving it runny. Delisioso!!!

Mangia!!
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