Sunday, June 21, 2009

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!!
~~

7 comments:

Heather S-G said...

Delicious!!

Bob said...

Awesome. My mom used to make those all the time (of course, she called them poached). I loved them turned out over toast. Good times.

Michele said...

This is an "eggcellent" technique! OMG, that's so corny! Anyway, I love this! I like yolks runny so I can dip bread in them. I'm going to try this! I think I may like it better because it's neater. Sometimes when I poach eggs I lose some of the whites and it looks messy.

Dajana said...

I like the whites well done and the yolks runny. Those look egglicious!
And those ramekins are equally delicious looking

Shane T. Wingerd said...

GirliChef - Thank you!

Bob - My mom did the same thing. :) It wasn't until the first time I tried to make eggs Benedict that I found out what a real poached egg was.

Michele - HA HA I thought it was funny! Yes, it works great for older eggs, then the white doesn't hold together as well and spreads REALLY bad when trying to poach them.

Dajana - Thanks! I love those ramekins for this, cause they are easier to remove from the hot water than my little Bormioli glass ones.

Spryte said...

I have never had a coddled egg... but now I really really want one!!

Those look awesome!!

Unknown said...

OMG!!! First off...i love poached eggs cuz the center is runny and I get to dip my toast in them (like Michele likes...hee hee) but what a mess and I never can make them right. I think this is sooo much better! I maybe have heard of a coddled egg but never knew what it was and now that I have ramekins I can soooo do this! Shane...you're the totally awesome!! (hahahaha)