Posted by Terence McManus on June 12, 1997 at 02:11:55:
In Reply to: Re: Questions about Boiled Eggs and now Buttered Eggs posted by Bob Hollis on June 11, 1997 at 20:05:26:
A poached egg is cooked, out of the shell, in boiling water. It looks
very like a fried egg but with a plumper white.
A coddled egg is soft boiled in the shell for a very short time
so that the white as well as the yolk is still runny. Coddled eggs
are traditional fare for invalides: I guess to give them an incentive
to get well as quickly as possible.
Poached eggs seem to be pretty universal: they are a common item on hotel
breakfast buffets in many parts of the world. Coddled eggs seem to be much
rarer and so there may be regional variations.
I once saw a film in which the American hero showed off his cooking skills
to his girl friend.
He cooked a soft boiled egg and stood it in a double ended egg cup shaped
like a goblet with a deep base. When he sat down to eat he lifted the egg
out of the cup, reversed the cup, broke the egg into the base and stirred the
white and yolk together before eating it. I did wonder if he had only coddled
the egg.