Coddling Eggs

No fuss, no special equipment for coddling demonstration:


Older woman demonstrating how to coddle eggs in coddlers:


My fascination du jour on coddling is related to making a Ceasar Salad this evening. It requires either a raw egg or a one-minute coddled egg. I'm looking up coddling techniques, because I never did it before.

While the chef-instructor simply coddles the eggs. The older woman added bacon to hers as well as offered suggestions for other additions like flaked fish.

I was wondering how people eat coddled eggs. I found one reply, which may be of interest:

What is a coddled egg? wrote:One method for making a coddled egg involves buttering the sides and bottom of an egg coddler and gently breaking an egg into it. The egg is then seasoned and the top is placed on the egg coddler, which is then lowered into the pot of boiling water for about 5-6 minutes, depending on the size of the egg and desired doneness. The egg coddler is lifted from the pot and placed on a saucer. The diner then slides the egg from the pot onto the saucer and eats it. All sorts of additions may be made to a coddled egg, including lemon juice, bacon bits, ham chunks, salmon flakes and other savory items.

Sometimes youtube.com pops up some surprising stuff. A drunk guy with a woefully limited vocabularly demonstrates how to make Dublin Coddle - My Way. There is a rather surprising admission toward the end.

Regards,

At Jam, I watched a cook coddle eggs in plastic wrap. Lined a small cup with plastic wrap, cracked the egg in, tied off the plastic wrap at the top with a piece of string. It makes for one sexy egg.

I've tried to reproduce this technique, but the egg always sticks a little, even when I add a little butter or oil.

Hi Colleen,

The method you describe sounds very similar to Kennyz's method for poached eggs.

I'm going to coddle some eggs in buttered pyrex dishes. Some descriptions suggest the egg white will be tender with the egg yolk still liquid. Add some bacon or flaked fish, it should be divine. I will consider it a success if I can get the egg to slide out onto a dish.

I have seen so many demonstrations with chef using plastic wrap as the cooking vessel. Yet many homecooks avoid it.

Regards,

Cathy, I'm sure you've coddled eggs many times. A "coddled egg," translated to American English, is a boiled egg. No fancy equipment needed. (Technically, "coddling" is distinct from "boiling," because you do it in simmering, not boiling water. But no cook worth her salt really boils "boiled" eggs.)

The 1-minuted "coddled" egg for caesar salad just means an extra-soft-boiled egg. Immerse fridge-temperature eggs in the shell in water in a saucepan. Bring to simmering. Cover the pan and remove from the heat. After 1 minute, remove the eggs from the water and immerse in cold water to stop the cooking. (However, I share with this writer skepticism as to whether this procedure adds anything to salad dressing; you may as well use a raw egg.)

If you let the eggs sit in the hot water
- 3 or 4 minutes, you have soft-"boiled" eggs.
- 5 to 7 minutes, you have oeufs mollets.
- 15 to 20 minutes, hard-"boiled" eggs.

Egg coddlers are meant to be cook-and-serve vessels, so you don't have to worry about something sticking. You only need a coddler if you're cooking other ingredients in with the egg. But I prefer shirred eggs in that sort of context.

I've never really understood how the technique where you put the eggs in cold water, then bring the pot to a boil, then remove it from the heat works. For one thing, 15-20 minutes is an awfully wide range, and I would think the egg would be pretty different from one end of that window to the other. There are just too many variables, the biggest one being how much water you start with in the pan. That's going to have a dramatic impact on how much heat the egg ends up getting in the process. I always bring the water to a boil first, then add the eggs and keep them at a constant simmer until done.

I've been using the Time Life "Eggs and Cheese" book as a guide for soft/hard boiled eggs. They recommend three methods:

1. Bring the water to just under a boil and then add the eggs, keep water at just under a boil. Cook a large egg for 4-6 min, depending on how well done you like it (add a min longer for a newly laid egg).

2. Bring the water to just under a boil and then add the eggs, kill the heat and cook a large egg for 8-10 min.

3. Put the eggs in the pan, cover with cold water, bring water to just under a boil. Cook a large egg for 4 min if you want a barely set white and a liquid yolk; cook 10 minutes for a classic hard boiled egg in which the white and yolk are both firm. Cooking times between 4 and 10 min give a softer, moister yolk. When done, put eggs in cold water and then peel.

For the first two methods, start with room temperature eggs (otherwise the cooking times will be slightly different and the eggs may not cook as evenly). For the third method, you can begin with eggs from the fridge.

The first two methods lead to tender, soft whites. The third methods leads to firmer whites and is what you'd use for "hard boiled eggs".

The difference between the first and second method is simply that the second method is a gentler, slower cooking.

Kennyz wrote:I've never really understood how the technique where you put the eggs in cold water, then bring the pot to a boil, then remove it from the heat works. For one thing, 15-20 minutes is an awfully wide range, and I would think the egg would be pretty different from one end of that window to the other.

The timing depends on the size of the eggs: http://www.eggs.ab.ca/recipes/basics/ha ... ooked.html

The advantage of the technique is you can use eggs straight from the fridge without worrying about cracking them. And, with hard-cooked eggs, if you let them sit a minute or two too long, it doesn't make that big a difference.

LAZ wrote:

Kennyz wrote:I've never really understood how the technique where you put the eggs in cold water, then bring the pot to a boil, then remove it from the heat works. For one thing, 15-20 minutes is an awfully wide range, and I would think the egg would be pretty different from one end of that window to the other.

The timing depends on the size of the eggs: http://www.eggs.ab.ca/recipes/basics/ha ... ooked.html

The advantage of the technique is you can use eggs straight from the fridge without worrying about cracking them. And, with hard-cooked eggs, if you let them sit a minute or two too long, it doesn't make that big a difference.

But the timing also depends on how much water you start with. An egg that starts this way in a cup or two of cold water in a small saucepan is going to come out way different from an egg that starts in a big stockpot full of water. The difference will be significant, too, depending on how quickly the water comes up to a simmer. Did you start at high heat or medium heat? Seems like way too many variables. I have maybe 1 out of 30 eggs crack when I put them right into the simmering water.

Kennyz wrote:But the timing also depends on how much water you start with. An egg that starts this way in a cup or two of cold water in a small saucepan is going to come out way different from an egg that starts in a big stockpot full of water. The difference will be significant, too, depending on how quickly the water comes up to a simmer. Did you start at high heat or medium heat? Seems like way too many variables.

Weren't you the guy who said, "It's just an egg"? You start with enough water to cover the eggs. They come out fine.

Darren72 wrote:I've been using the Time Life "Eggs and Cheese" book as a guide for soft/hard boiled eggs. They recommend three methods:

1. Bring the water to just under a boil and then add the eggs, keep water at just under a boil. Cook a large egg for 4-6 min, depending on how well done you like it (add a min longer for a newly laid egg).

2. Bring the water to just under a boil and then add the eggs, kill the heat and cook a large egg for 8-10 min.

3. Put the eggs in the pan, cover with cold water, bring water to just under a boil. Cook a large egg for 4 min if you want a barely set white and a liquid yolk; cook 10 minutes for a classic hard boiled egg in which the white and yolk are both firm. Cooking times between 4 and 10 min give a softer, moister yolk. When done, put eggs in cold water and then peel.

For the first two methods, start with room temperature eggs (otherwise the cooking times will be slightly different and the eggs may not cook as evenly). For the third method, you can begin with eggs from the fridge.

The first two methods lead to tender, soft whites. The third methods leads to firmer whites and is what you'd use for "hard boiled eggs".

The difference between the first and second method is simply that the second method is a gentler, slower cooking.

I've successfully been using method 3 for many years when I make hard boiled eggs. There is a surprisingly large time window when making them this way. I've gone up to 15 minutes without any bad effect (no dreaded grey ring around the yolk, etc.).

LAZ wrote:

Kennyz wrote:But the timing also depends on how much water you start with. An egg that starts this way in a cup or two of cold water in a small saucepan is going to come out way different from an egg that starts in a big stockpot full of water. The difference will be significant, too, depending on how quickly the water comes up to a simmer. Did you start at high heat or medium heat? Seems like way too many variables.

Weren't you the guy who said, "It's just an egg"?

Maybe, but at some point in my quest for fatherhood, I changed my opinion. Eggs are special.

The other thing I do when making hard boiled eggs is lay them out horizontally the night before, so that the yolk moves to the center. I hate hard boiled eggs that are all white on one side.

Kenny - interesting that you leave the eggs out overnight. As you probably saw in my post above, two of the methods the Time Life book recommends call for room temperature eggs. But since I generally eat eggs in the morning and don't want to wait long enough for them to come to room temperature...I got a problem. So I presume there aren't any spoilage issues with leaving an egg on the counter overnight.

Darren72 wrote:Kenny - interesting that you leave the eggs out overnight. As you probably saw in my post above, two of the methods the Time Life book recommends call for room temperature eggs. But since I generally eat eggs in the morning and don't want to wait long enough for them to come to room temperature...I got a problem. So I presume there aren't any spoilage issues with leaving an egg on the counter overnight.

I didn't mean outside the refigerator. I just meant that the night before I plan to boil the eggs, I turn them on their side so that they're lying horizontally instead of standing upright in the egg carton.

Got it - thanks. My pre-9am grogginess leads me to misunderstand simple posts and also to overcook eggs.

My understanding of the cold-water method is that it gives everything time to come up to temp simultaneously: you're starting with cold eggs, so the cold water gives the egg time to decrease the differential in temperature between egg and water and respond to the heat at a similar rate than the water. I'm guessing the theory is that it cooks more evenly, rather than it cooking from the outside-in - I could see where this would not only address cracking but the dreaded green ring as well.

The method I trust is similar to #3. I put the eggs in cold water, cover the pot, bring the water to a simmer, turn off the heat completely, wait 12 minutes and then rinse in cold water to stop the cooking. There's some wiggle-room in this method, as well. I don't know if there's actually any science behind it, but it works for me.

Right. The purpose of the third method is that sometime you want firm whites and this method accomplishes that. For example, you might want to halve or quarter the eggs. The other two methods will lead to firm whites if you cook them long enough, but they designed as "best methods" (according to the book) for achieving soft whites.

Since you are putting the eggs in cold water in the first place, there's little to be gained by starting with room temperature eggs. That is, the method doesn't rely on having cold or room temp eggs; it simply means there isn't much difference in cooking time between the two.

The green ring is caused by a reaction between hydrogen and sulfur in the whites when the egg is overcooked. You can easily eliminate it by not overcooking the egg in the first place and by putting the cooked eggs into cold water as soon as they are done to stop the cooking process.

Mhays wrote:My understanding of the cold-water method is that it gives everything time to come up to temp simultaneously: you're starting with cold eggs, so the cold water gives the egg time to decrease the differential in temperature between egg and water and respond to the heat at a similar rate than the water. I'm guessing the theory is that it cooks more evenly, rather than it cooking from the outside-in - I could see where this would not only address cracking but the dreaded green ring as well.

I've heard that stuff too, but I think it's fallacy and overly complicates the egg boiling process by introducing too many unnecessary variables.

For hard-boiled, from one of my Escoffier books-
Cold water to cover, bring to boil, boil like hell for 10 minutes-shock&peel.
I've been doing this for eons, but it does not work for volume. Tried it once for several dozen eggs and they were hopelessly overcooked. The amount of H20, and how long it took to reach the boil was the culprit.

Kennyz wrote:I've heard that stuff too, but I think it's fallacy and overly complicates the egg boiling process by introducing too many unnecessary variables.

Not sure what you mean by unnecessary variables: my method, you put eggs and water in the pot, put it on the heat, wait for it to boil, turn off the heat & set the timer, rinse in cold water. Your method, you put water in a pot, put it on the heat, wait for it to boil, put the eggs in & set the timer, turn off heat, rinse in cold water. Seems like I have one less step than you. Not to say you're doing it wrong, but like skinning a cat - there's more than one way.

What I like about my method: no chance the simmer will turn into a rolling boil when you're not watching. If your heat source is unpredictable, it doesn't matter - and if you forget and it boils for a moment, it doesn't do much damage since you immediately turn off the heat.

In their inimitable empiricist manner, Cook's Illustrated tested all the usual suspects on the way to the perfect boiled egg. It is surprisingly like method #3, above.

Put six cold eggs in a sauce pan in one layer [and before kennyz asks me for the H2O mass, in grams, let me say this: pretty much cover the entire bottom of the pan with eggs, eh?! What's that mean, a 1.5-2 liter saucepan? Let's stipulate that.] Fill with cold H2O to a height of eggs + 1 in [that's 2.54 cm, kennyz.... just trying to be precise, here. ] Raise rapidly to the boil. Cover, and remove from heat. Wait 10 mins., then shock the eggs by dropping them into an ice-water bath.

It works like a champ, time and again. No green ring, either.

Geo

Geo wrote:In their inimitable empiricist manner, Cook's Illustrated tested all the usual suspects on the way to the perfect boiled egg. It is surprisingly like method #3, above.

Put six cold eggs in a sauce pan in one layer [and before kennyz asks me for the H2O mass, in grams, let me say this: pretty much cover the entire bottom of the pan with eggs, eh?! What's that mean, a 1.5-2 liter saucepan? Let's stipulate that.] Fill with cold H2O to a height of eggs + 1 in [that's 2.54 cm, kennyz.... just trying to be precise, here. ] Raise rapidly to the boil. Cover, and remove from heat. Wait 10 mins., then shock the eggs by dropping them into an ice-water bath.

It works like a champ, time and again. No green ring, either.

Geo

So full of problems, this method. Are you supposed to stand around and watch the pot until it boils? You know what never happens if you do that! But if you don't watch, you're bound to miss it and overcook your eggs as a result. What's wrong with putting the eggs into a pot of simmering water, then taking them out after 10 minutes. It may be less sexy than these cold-to-hot methods, but's so much easier and more fool proof!

Currently, this Coddling Eggs thread is right next to the Cooking with Testicles thread in the same forum. Seems awfully appropriate.

What's wrong with putting the eggs into a pot of simmering water? wrote:kennyz

OK, you CAN do that, but *only if* you've got one of these, to prevent the air pressure buildup that would otherwise crack your egg more times than you would want it to (which, for me, is x > 0, fer shure)





And these thingys DO work, btw, but then, one has to mess about in the junque drawer, finding it.

Geo
PS. The law of physics about watched pots has a ceteris paribus clause. Hence, you can vitiate the law by looking away and whistling a happy tune for not less than 6 seconds.

Just to clarify, the first two methods that I described above (from the Time Life book) are not meant to make hard boiled eggs. They are meant to keep the whites (and yolks) pretty liquidy so you can scoop it out, spread it on bread, etc.

This is what I'm talking about...

Darren72 wrote:... Time Life "Eggs and Cheese" book ... Put the eggs in the pan, cover with cold water, bring water to just under a boil. Cook a large egg for ...10 minutes for a classic hard boiled egg in which the white and yolk are both firm...

article LAZ linked to at http://www.eggs.ab.ca/recipes/basics/ha ... ooked.html wrote:Hard or Soft-Cooked Eggs
Place cold eggs in a single layer in a saucepan (picture A).
Cover with at least 2.5 cm (1-inch) cold water over top of the eggs.
Cover saucepan and bring quickly to a boil over high heat.
Immediately remove pan from heat to stop boiling. Keep lid on.
Let eggs stand for appropriate time:
EGG SIZE SOFT-COOKED* HARD-COOKED*
Large 3.5 minutes 22 minutes

(emphases mine.)

Same process, but look at the dramatic difference in recommended cooking time! That's because nobody really knows how long it takes using this method, as there are too many variables.

Kenny, if I ever get it together to have a dinner party, I'll be sure to have hardboiled eggs just for you.

This might be my new favorite thread.

I just read about baking eggs as a viable option for preparing large quantities of hard, cooked in shell eggs (hard boiled sounds weird when they are baked) which makes sense since I now use a sous vide for all of my boiled eggs. However, the reason for my post and what I am betting is worth your time is a little something linked to in the comments where this guy shows you how to Peel eggs like a Boss!

It is also a nice bonus where explains that the baking soda "raises the ph and reduces the adhering"

I for one am excited to try it though I will be a little disappointed if it works since it should have been Alton Brown who brought this to my attention.