In cooking

Cooking

Cooking is the process of preparing food by use of heat. Cooking techniques and ingredients vary widely across the world, reflecting unique environmental, economic, and cultural traditions. Cooks themselves also vary widely in skill and training...

, coddled eggs are gently or lightly cooked eggs

Egg (food)

Eggs are laid by females of many different species, including birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish, and have probably been eaten by mankind for millennia. Bird and reptile eggs consist of a protective eggshell, albumen , and vitellus , contained within various thin membranes...

. They can be partially cooked, mostly cooked, or hardly cooked at all (as in the eggs used to make Caesar salad

Caesar salad

A Caesar salad is a salad of romaine lettuce and croutons dressed with parmesan cheese, lemon juice, olive oil, egg, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, and black pepper. It may be prepared tableside.-History:...

 dressing, which are only slightly thickened for a thicker end-product). Poached egg

Poached egg

A poached egg is an egg that has been cooked by poaching, that is, in water.-Preparation:The egg is cracked into a bowl of any size, and then gently slid into a pan of simmering water and cooked until the egg white has mostly solidified, but the yolk remains soft...

s are eggs that, arguably, are coddled in a very specific way: they are very gently cooked, in water that is just below boiling point

Boiling point

The boiling point of an element or a substance is the temperature at which the vapor pressure of the liquid equals the environmental pressure surrounding the liquid....

.

Methods

There are two methods of coddling

Coddling

In cooking, to coddle food is to heat it in water kept just below the boiling point. The term comes from the English verb to coddle, meaning to treat gently or pamper.-Cooking examples:...

 eggs. The first is to cook the egg in its shell, by immersing it in near-boiling water. This can be done either in a pan where the water is kept below boiling point, or by pouring boiling water over the egg and letting it stand for 10 minutes.

The second method is to use an , porcelain cup or ramekin with a lid used similarly to a bain-marie

Bain-marie

A bain-marie is a French term for a piece of equipment used in science, industry, and cooking to heat materials gently and gradually to fixed temperatures, or to keep materials warm over a period of time.- Description :...

. The inside of the egg coddler is first buttered in order to flavour the egg and allow it to be removed more easily. A raw egg (sometimes with additional flavourings) is then broken into the coddler, which is then placed in a pan of near-boiling water for 7-8 minutes.

Coddlers have been manufactured by Royal Worcester

Royal Worcester

Royal Worcester is believed to be the oldest remaining English pottery brand still in existence today.-Overview:Royal Worcester is a British brand known for its history, provenance and classically English collections of porcelain...

 in Worcester

Worcester

The City of Worcester, commonly known as Worcester, , is a city and county town of Worcestershire in the West Midlands of England. Worcester is situated some southwest of Birmingham and north of Gloucester, and has an approximate population of 94,000 people. The River Severn runs through the...

, UK

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, since at least the 1890s, and were probably invented there. Many companies now make egg coddlers, and some are highly sought after collectors’ items.

Because coddled eggs are not boiled, some people may be concerned of the risk of salmonella

Salmonella

Salmonella is a genus of rod-shaped, Gram-negative, non-spore-forming, predominantly motile enterobacteria with diameters around 0.7 to 1.5 µm, lengths from 2 to 5 µm, and flagella which grade in all directions . They are chemoorganotrophs, obtaining their energy from oxidation and reduction...

and other bacteria. It is therefore recommended to use fresh eggs. According to the US Dept of Health, eggs should be cooked until both the white and the yolk are firm, and the water temperature should be 74–82 °C (165.2–179.6 °F), but children, the elderly and persons with compromised immune systems are advised against eating lightly cooked eggs because of possible under-cooking.