To Coddle an Egg

There’s no denying it, eggs are good food! And this morning I woke up craving coddled eggs.

One of the way’s I enjoy cooking them is by coddling. Basically, it’s a poached egg that is cooked in some form of a container and lowered into a hot water bath for several minutes. The goal is to cook the white and leave the yolk soft or runny.

This method of cooking gained in popularity in the late 19th C. You certainly don’t see coddled eggs on menu’s now.

You can do this in several different containers. I have a set of egg coddlers that I enjoy using. You can also do this in a small canning/jelly jar, ramekin, or custard dish. Royal Worcester made a line of coddlers in some really nice patterns and in two different sizes. Mine are the large size, which can hold two small eggs or one large one easily. I found mine on ebay. I was going for the same pattern and size when I was looking but did not find two of the same. I haven’t been back to look for a while, so there may be twins to mine out there.

Whatever you decide to use for a container, the first thing you need to do is measure it against your water level. You want it up to the top as much as possible without having the water get in. That’s the nice thing about the coddlers or jelly jars, they have a screw on lid, so you can get the water right up to the bottom of the lid. An open container you will need to have the water down a touch more.

Grease the inside of your container with butter or olive oil. I just use my finger to get it all the way down to the bottom. The more butter, the better so they can tip out if you want to eat them that way. Otherwise, you can eat the egg right out of your container.

Here’s where the fun comes. You can add other things to your egg. Chopped up ham, cheese, slices of salami, more cheese, chopped onion, chopped peppers, more more cheese, a few drops of hot sauce, salt, pepper, and did I say cheese??? Get creative with your eggs!

Once you have finished doctoring your eggs how you like them, screw on your lid, and gently place them into your pot of boiling water. Keep your water at a boil, but watch it doesn’t get too bubbly, especially if you are using an open top container. Cook for 7-9 mins depending on how runny you want your yolk.

One of the nice things, you can take it out of the water, open the lid and check to see if it’s done enough. If not, back into the water it goes! I didn’t have any large eggs in the house so I did 2 small eggs per container today. The thing I found out about 2 eggs is that the bottom one gets cooked faster and firmer than the top one does. I end up with one almost solid yolk and one very runny one. I do run a paring knife around the inside to make sure they are loose.

To server these yummy eggs, you can tip them out onto a slice of toasted and buttered bread. Or make toast “soldiers” for dipping. Soldiers are cut strips of toasted buttered bread.

Good bread makes these eggs sing! Mine are on “everything bagel” sourdough with a bit of shredded Italian cheese blend in the dough. I baked the bread this morning. All in all an excellent breakfast on this colder morning after doing chores.

Enjoy!!!

In other farm news…

We have a storm coming in this weekend. First one they are predicting some snow for. Should hit late Saturday night and into Sunday. I’ll be moving a bale feeder into the pasture and putting out free choice hay. Seems we have come to that point in the year where hay will be fed out until spring. Pray that my hay supply holds out for me this year. It was a struggle to get what I did with the increase in prices this year. I managed to hold off on feeding hay for 6 weeks longer than last year.

I’ll also be digging out the floating tank heaters. They are saying temps down to 25 at night with the storm. I did have my first iced tank yesterday morning. I decided to forgo using the big 300 gal tank this winter. I had problems keeping it from freezing last year, and I think the heaters will work better in the smaller tanks this winter. Plus they are easier to dump if it gets too much ice build up.

The sheep are all quite fluffy and I have no concerns over them staying warm. The LGD’s will curl up in a pile with each other in their house full of hay. Nick the horse will be wearing his wool coat to help him deal with his body heat. Brandy the horse is as fat as a tick. Plus the barn is ready if anybody needs to go in. I don’t suspect it will be that bad of a storm, but it is Wyoming so you never know!!

I am breaking down and putting the flannel sheets back on the bed today. Everything is hanging outside and getting that great fall crisp scent. I hope I won’t have to turn the heat on, our propane delivery didn’t get here yet, plus I have issues trying to get the pilot light lit on the furnace. Joy.

I also have to replace one of the batteries in the diesel truck this weekend. Ugh. I miss Rob so very much for this kind of thing. I can do it, but I am no mechanic.

Aging Well News Janice has an excellent article on generational parenting this week! Check it out!

Grace Rother's Newsletter Grace touches on identity and art this week. Great read!

Blessed Be!