Coddled Eggs

A good breakfast egg is a delightful thing!  And, evidently a controversial one as well.  Inspired by the dust-up over Alice Water's wrought iron egg spoon (for a mere $250), I decided to take a look at some period egg recipes.

Today we look at the coddled egg.  I love eggs prepared in all ways, but coddling is not in my normal repertoire, somehow seeming fussier to prepare, although it really isn't.  To coddle is to pamper, to protect to the point of overprotecting.  A coddled egg is cooked out of the shell, gently and slowly, in water rather than over direct heat in a frying pan.   I've made coddled eggs in my modern life but was curious how a period recipe might vary.

A Period Version

The Praire Farmer, July 1852, p 331

I found this recipe copied verbatim in many cookbooks. The difference that stood out when I compared it to modern techniques, was that pouring boiling water on the eggs was the preferred method.  Every modern recipe I have read has the cook break the egg into a cup or small dish, then gently slide it all at once into the boiling water.     I was also very excited by the idea of actually coddling an egg on the breakfast table with no heat involved, but decided that would have to wait for another day.

Let's Cook!

Version 1:  Pouring on the Boiling Water

I chose to use a cast iron chicken fryer with deep sides.  I cracked my first egg into the pan, set at low heat, and gently poured boiling water over the egg.   This was the result - much of the white separated from the yolk and floated off like independent clouds.  NOT a desirable result.

Although you can see the water boiling in this picture, I reduced the temperature considerably and started timing.  At 2  1/2 minutes, I decided to pull the egg even though the recipe suggested 9.  The yolk was looking uncomfortably bright yellow for my taste; I prefer my eggs to have runny yolks.    Unable to capture all the coagulated free-floating egg whites, I wound up with this result.

The yolk was less done than I had feared, in fact, it still had some nice runniness

  

Version 2: Immersing the Egg

The whites were more than disappointing in the first attempt, so I decided to go with a more traditional coddled egg.  I slid the egg into the boiling water directly from the shell, which resulted in a  much more satisfying, tidy egg white  You can still see the free-floating egg white from the first attempt in the pan.  Our initial recipe does tell us that we can immerse our egg, although it regards that to be the inferior technique.

This time I was going to attempt the full 9 minutes suggested in the recipe, so I reduced the heat to the very lowest setting.  Since the pan was shallower than a saucepan, I spoon basted the water over the yolk.

The coddled egg at 9 minutes

For the ultimate test:  the firmness of the yolk!  The whites were clearly set nicely (the floating whisps are from the first attempt, which resulted in wandering whites)

This yolk is set more firmly than I normally enjoy, although it is acceptable as a soft boiled egg.  The runny yolk on the plate is leftover from the first egg.   I think the final cooking temperature would depend upon the results desired.   

A Third Way, Which I Did Not Attempt Yet, Two Eggs Being Enough for One Day

The Practical Cook Book  of 1850 gives us another option for timing.  The author, Mrs, Bliss, obviously agrees with my preference for a runny yolk.