China hens

[Binky Profile]

You know the sort I mean, glazed pottery to keep your raw eggs in. I had assumed they were purely decorative but have read in an old book the following (it's a section on British breakfasts)

"Really nice homely families kept their little flotilla of breakfast eggs coddled in hot water under the china hen. The bases held the eggs in hot water which kept them from going hard."

Now, I thought that a coddled egg was made in a special pot (called a coddler) and that you had to immerse it in boiling water for 6 mins. Leaving your eggs in a china pot -slowly going cold - would not coddle and egg properly. Or do you cook them first and then leave them in the hen??

[Sakkarin Profile]

Well eggcups is not far off (for keeping cooked eggs in rather than raw...), here's one I saw the other day that made me grin, and this seems a good a thread to feature it...

http://www.iwantoneofthose.com/gift-nov ... 64715.html

[Binky Profile]

Blimey. A Dal-egg.

(dalek, geddit?)