Coddle
Coddling is cooking food very gently in water kept just below the boiling point, so the water stays hot and steamy but never bubbles vigorously. The name is most often attached to coddled eggs, which are cooked slowly in their shell or in a small lidded cup called an egg coddler set in a pan of hot water. The low, gentle heat produces an exceptionally soft, custardy, delicately set result.
Coddling suits foods that turn tough or rubbery when cooked too hard or too fast, eggs being the classic example. To coddle an egg, break it into a buttered coddler or ramekin, cover it, and set it in a pan of barely simmering water for several minutes until the white is just set and the yolk is still soft. The same gentle-water principle applies whenever a recipe warns you to keep the liquid at a bare tremble rather than letting it come to a full boil.
Coddling suits foods that turn tough or rubbery when cooked too hard or too fast, eggs being the classic example. To coddle an egg, break it into a buttered coddler or ramekin, cover it, and set it in a pan of barely simmering water for several minutes until the white is just set and the yolk is still soft. The same gentle-water principle applies whenever a recipe warns you to keep the liquid at a bare tremble rather than letting it come to a full boil.