Coddle

Culinary definition of coddle:  To poach slowly in water, just below the boiling point.

C@H FOOD FOR THOUGHT
The term coddle is used primarily to describe a method of cooking eggs in the shell. All soft to hard boiled eggs are in fact coddled, but the culinary definition of coddling eggs would yield a very soft and unappealingly runny egg cooked for just 3 to 4 minutes (right). 

Thankfully, an order of coddled eggs in a restaurant today would almost surely return eggs cooked to soft-stage in their shells for 5-7 minutes. 

A whole egg, coddled in its shell for 'just' one minute is considered to be the gold standard for use in Caesar salad dressing.

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