Behind the Recipes
Coddling may be an old-school egg tradition, but it’s loaded with modern appeal: tenderwhites and runny yolks, a hands-off method, and endless flavor potential.
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Published Aug. 7, 2023.
Ibet you’ve never coddled an egg. It’s an old‑school British preparation that doesn’t share the iconic foothold of boiled, fried, scrambled, or poached, and its English manor vibes give it a rather bygone feel.
But I’m a recent convert to coddling, and the fact is that we’ve all been missing out. First, coddling is, by definition, one of the gentlest ways to cook an egg. You crack one or two into a greased ramekin or cup (or, traditionally, an egg coddler) and then nestle the container into a simmering water bath on the stove and cover the pot. The ramekin’s walls enclose the egg like a cocoon, and the hot water from below and steam from above efficiently but softly set the white and thicken the yolk so that it’s just a notch tighter than runny, similar to a perfectly cooked poached egg.
But unlike with poached eggs, the coddler setup keeps the white neatly contained instead of letting the thinner portion separate and drift away. Plus, you can add all sorts of seasonings directly to the ramekin before and/or after cooking and spoon up the contents or slide them as one package onto toast. Each diner gets their own ramekin, which is particularly charming for company.
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Set Up for Success
It’s always tricky to achieve that set-white, runny-yolk contrast: The white naturally starts to set at a lower temperature than the yolk, and you have to ensure that the yolk thickens just a bit without letting the white turn rubbery. In poached eggs, because the yolk is fully exposed to hot water, it can firm up too much by the time the egg is done; in soft‑boiled eggs, the white can become tough before the yolk achieves the proper silky viscosity.
But the cool thing about coddling, I realized, is that it actually helps create the contrast between the white and yolk. Crowding a couple eggs into a 3-inch-wide ramekin causes them to settle into a thick layer with the yolks mostly submerged—and further insulated—by the whites.
Top-to-Bottom Seasoning
Salting the bottom of the ramekin as well as the eggs before cooking means that every bite will be well seasoned.
Meanwhile, a strategic water-bath setup encourages the eggs to cook evenly from top to bottom. All you need is a relatively deep lidded pot. A tall vessel provides ample headspace; in a shallow one, the headspace fills up very quickly with steam and causes the eggs to cook faster from the top than from the bottom.
Testing the Water
To start, I cracked two eggs into each ramekin, making sure that they were fridge-cold to reduce any temperature variables in the recipe. Traditional coddling recipes then call for gingerly lowering the ramekins into a pot of simmering water and covering it until the eggs are done, but since it puts your hands precariously close to the water I wanted a safer approach. Plus, when I tried it just to see how the eggs would cook up, I found the whites along the bottom and sides a tad rubbery compared to the more tender portion near the top—the result, I guessed, of the whites at the perimeter seizing up too fast.
Science: The Ultragentle Nature of Coddling
With the right setup and method, coddling insulates eggs from direct heat and encourages particularly even cooking.
THE SETUP
- Water Bath: Efficiently conducts heat to the sides and bottom portion of the eggs.
- Deep Lidded Saucepan: Creates ample headspace for trapped steam to fill the pot gradually, so the eggs don’t cook faster from the top than from the bottom.
- Ramekin: Insulates the eggs from direct heat; small diameter also encourages the eggs to “stack” on one another so that the whites surround and protect the yolks from overcooking.
- Paper Towels: Prevent the ramekins from skittering noisily around the pan.
- Fridge-Cold Eggs: Eliminate any textural contrast for consistent results.
THE METHOD
The usual method for coddling eggs is to place them into a pot of simmering water, where they steam until set. We add the filled ramekins to the pot and then pour boiling water around them. The water cools when it hits the pan, giving the eggs a slightly gentler start to cooking that ensures that the outer portions of the white don’t overcook, but is still hot enough to encourage a temperature differential between the white and yolk.
But I couldn’t pull back completely on a hot‑water start. Adding the ramekins to cold water and then turning on the burner would be too gentle and wouldn’t create enough of a textural contrast between the white and yolk. Instead, I placed the filled ramekins in an empty pot and poured boiling water around them, the way we do for most water bath–cooked dishes. The water instantly cooled when it hit the pan, giving the eggs a slightly gentler start to cooking, and adding the hot water after the ramekins kept my hands out of harm’s way.
Want to Scale Up?
As long as you have enough ramekins and lidded pots, it’s easy to coddle enough eggs to serve a party. A large saucepan plus a Dutch oven can hold up to 9 servings; add another Dutch oven, and you could make 15 servings.
All Dressed Up
Most coddled egg recipes call for sprinkling only the top surface with salt before cooking, but Idecided to salt the bottom of the ramekin as well so that every bite would taste more evenly seasoned. Fresh pepper goes on after cooking for some fragrance and bite.
As for other toppings: A knob of plain butter or a splash of heavy cream is classically British and lovely. But as with any egg preparation, you can customize and really have a lot of fun. When I make these for friends and family, I set out a full bar of toppings: the aforementioned bacon bits, grated cheese (which, along with the black pepper, hints at cacio e pepe), chili crisp, and minced fresh herbs. When I’m thinking ahead, I like to soften some butter, stir in Dijon mustard and fresh tarragon, and drop a spoonful into each ramekin just before serving.
And just like that, this old-timey piece of egg cookery feels new again—and, dare I say, improved.
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