Coddling Eggs
Coddling Eggs-
Coddling eggs reminds me of my childhood. Rainy days and coddled eggs and little toast soldiers (strips of lightly toasted bread) ready for dipping. My sweet Mother always had pretty porcelain egg coddling cups lined up in a row in our cupboard. I admired their pretty painted patterns and bright silver lids, they looked like little trinket jars. I think that may be a new uses for old things idea 🙂 I have one I purchased and two from my Mother.
Coddling eggs is exactly that, a gentle coddling of the egg while it cooks. I don’t hear much about people coddling eggs, do you think it has fallen out of favor with our hurry up world?
How To Coddle an Egg
Before you do anything place your coddler into a saucepan and fill the saucepan with water to reach about half of the way up the coddler to determine how much water is needed. Remove the coddler and place the water filled saucepan on the stove and bring to a boil.
Grease the inside of your egg coddler with olive oil, butter or margarine and crack a room temperature egg (cold eggs take longer to cook) into the coddler. Sprinkle a bit of salt and pepper or grated cheese, chopped herbs or even a little bit of cream (to make your egg more rich in favor) over the top of the egg. Twist the lid on but not to tightly. Carefully place the prepared coddler upright into the boiling water. Do not let the water reach above the bottom of the lid. Reduce heat to medium and simmer for about 8-10 minutes. It will gently steam the egg (like poaching). Remove the saucepan from the hit and let the egg coddler sit in the water for another 5 minutes ( time to make toast). Then remove the egg coddler from the water using the lifting ring ( the loop at the top of the lid). I usually just slip a fork through the lifting ring and I wear an oven mitt on my other hand to hold the bottom of the coddler to prevent it from falling (just in case the lid has come loose). Place the coddler on a tea towel or onto your serving dish/plate, twist the lid with an oven mitt or towel to loosen it.
Ta Daa coddled egg!
The two egg coddlers in the background are gifts from my Mother ♥. The one on my plate is the one I use most often 🙂
That bright yellow daffy is from our front garden. We had snow today so I am not sure if the rest will make it.
Have you ever coddled an egg?
I’ve never coddled an egg, but as I frequently enjoy piling eggs on toast I’d sure love to acquire a coddler – especially one as darling as those. I feel like egg coddlers are one of those items one occasionally comes across at tag sales that you pick up, admire, and then put back down because you’re not sure what it is at all.
Katherine, I have never had a coddled egg in my life. This was a great post.
Thanks for the info. yvonne
Katherine I love coddled eggs but I have never owned an egg coddler. What a gorgeous post, yours are just gorgeous! I love coming to your site because it’s always so, so pretty here!! Love to you my friend! xo
Kathy your sweet comment is a lovely way to start the day. Thank you so much. Knowing that you find your visits to Katherines Corner a positive experiences is enough to make me smile all day long xo
I LOVE the little coddlers and how beautiful it all looks. You do a great job and give us new things to try. Carrie, A Mother’s Shadow
Thank you so much sweet Carrie. I hope you will give coddling eggs a try. It really is a lovely and tasty way to have breakfast or brunch xo
I don’t think I have ever heard of coddling eggs. The coddlers are beautiful…yes that would be a great new uses idea! I really love the toast soldiers and that all they are are strips of toast, I love the simplicity of them; in our hurry up world I don’t think there is enough left to the imagination. I want to make my boy some, I feel lucky that he is very imaginative and he would really enjoy them! 😀
Heather I truly hope your son enjoys his little toast soldiers with his breakfast. His imagination may inspire a whole new breakfast adventure. xo
I have never made coddled eggs either, they do look beautiful though. Hope you’re having a lovely weekend!
Thank you,hoping your week is off to a wonderful start xo
I have never made coddled eggs but I saw one of these “coddlers” at a thrift shop the other day and thought to myself “how beautiful….how could I use it?”! I’m rushing back there next week to hopefully purchase it! I love this!! Happy weekend and thank you!~~Angela
Angela I hope its still there. I would love to see it xo
I don’t know how it happened – but you fell off my radar Katherine!!!
Love your ” coddling eggs ” but had to ask John about them because I’d never heard of them before – he immediately broke into a huge grin – ahhh – memories – he said lol
Good to see you – hope all is well in your world
Big hugs
Suzan
Hi Suzan!! So happy to see you visiting again. So nice to learn that my egg coddling sparked a smile for John too. Big Hugs!
I have never heard of coddling eggs either. I must say, though, those jars are so pretty. This would be perfect for a Sunday brunch.
Hi Rachel, I do enjoy having coddled eggs as part of a brunch menu too.Enjoy your weekend sweetie. Hugs
Oh my word! Thank you so much for posting this! I am clueless when it comes to anything dealing with food haha! I cant wait to try this out and its just in time for easter! Love love love!!!
Dani your comment excited me to think you will give this a try. I hope you will let me know how you like coddling eggs. xo
Oh how pretty your coddlers are. Whether you ever coddle an egg or not, these are beauties just to have around. I’ve never eaten a coddled egg. Maybe I should give it a try. laurie
Thank you Laurie, they really to make a pretty statement on the plate. I hope you will give egg coddling a try. Hugs!
Hi Katherine, What gorgeous egg coddlers. Just lovely. I am a great fan of poached eggs as well as coddled eggs.
I hope your weekend is relaxing and wonderful!
Hello Annie, thank you. The one I use regularly ( on the plate in the photo) is looking a little bit worn. I’d love to add a few more to my cupboard. Hugs and happy weekend wishes!
My Dad used to accuse me of coddling my kids. I’ve never coddled an egg.
giggle
I love this post! What pretty little jars and a great idea. xx
Thank you sweet Marla. Bug hugs coming your way 🙂
I’ve never had coddled eggs, not sure I ever knew how to coddle one ~ but I do now! What pretty containers. I’ve seen them in antique stores but never knew how they were used. Great idea for collecting! And they are so pretty! Thanks for sharing….Now I know
Thank you Renee, I am happy to have introduced you to coddling eggs and their beautiful cups. Maybe next time you see one in a shop you will take it home and give it a try. xo
This also reminds me of my childhood. We didn’t have coddled eggs, but my folks loved soft boiled ones and we had these cute little egg stands. I used to love dipping “toast fingers” into those runny eggs….it’s funny, I can’t remember what I had to eat last week, but when I looked read your post I remember the smells from having soft boiled eggs as a child. I think the egg coddler is a “cracking” idea. I could totally see this style of cooking eggs making a comeback. I’m not sure what it’s like in your neck of the woods, but brunch is now the new “it” meal to have on weekends and something like this would be great for that. Thanks for sharing some of your childhood and introducing some of us to coddled eggs. 🙂
Hi Trevor, I am always happy to learn something I share sparks a happy memory. I still have soft boiled eggs often and yes I have several if those little egg cups.:-) Hubby and I enjoy brunch regularly, We live in suburbia, I’m not sure if we have an “it meal” giggle. Being the foodies that we are I think they all are 🙂 hugs P.S. You “crack” me up
I honestly had never heard of doing this. But I LOVE eggs so I am very interested in trying this out!
Amanda, I hope you enjoy coddling eggs. It may even become one of your breakfast favorites. hugs!
My grandmother had a few of these and never knew what they were. Thanks Katie for sharing this and have a great weekend now 🙂
Janine, I love sharing and I wish you a beautiful weekend . xo
I have never done this before, but it looks quite interesting!! I hope you have a gorgeous weekend my sweet xx
Perhaps one day you can give it a try. I think you might like it. Big hugs sweet Kizzy!
My mom made those. I wonder where those coddlers went? Probably in a rummage sale. She used to make soft boiled eggs too. New memories and a new dish to ponder. Thanks for sharing. Have a nice weekend.
Linda
Sweet Linda, I sparked a fond memory and that is always a reason to smile. I wonder if there might be a coddling cup stashed away somewhere. I like soft boiled eggs too. xo
What a lovely blog post. I’d never heard of coddled eggs…is that a British term? It sounds like poached eggs, which I love. I saw your post on Google+. Happy to have found your blog. 🙂
Hello Mary, It does originate in England ( where I am from) but it has been in the US for a very long time too. not sure of the history of it all but if you like poached eggs you’ll like coddled eggs. Thank you so much for finding me. Big Hugs!