King Charles Has A Strict Egg Rule That He Demands His Staff Follow

Being in the news as much as he is (and also being ruling monarch of the United Kingdom), some unusual reports about King Charles' food preferences have come to light. Besides the stories of how King Charles doesn't eat lunch, or how King Charles avoids certain luxury foods like foie gras, there's an especially unusual tale about the king's diet involving eggs. Supposedly, he has extremely specific preferences for how he likes his eggs prepared; his chefs would boil several eggs for different lengths of time, and lay them out for him to choose. Then, these stories claim, he would choose his favorite and discard the others.

So, is it true? Well, the bit about him demanding several eggs of different styles seems to be a runny myth, and one that spokespeople for the king have denied. However, those who've cooked for the king agree that he prefers his eggs to be boiled for about three minutes, and that he usually enjoys these super soft-boiled eggs in a side salad with his meals. This makes the eggs easy to spread over the salad like a sort of mayonnaise. If the eggs were boiled for too long, they'd be too solid to serve as salad dressing. This style of egg is often called a coddled egg, and it lands just short of being a soft-boiled egg, which needs to be boiled for a few minutes longer.

There's certainly an appeal to very lightly cooked eggs. Unlike other boiled eggs, coddled eggs are easier than poached eggs to whip up and don't need as much prep. If you want to get really fancy, specialized egg coddlers are small containers meant to softly boil the egg without submerging it in water. However, you don't need a coddler to coddle an egg. You can achieve the same royally runny coddled egg consistency by boiling eggs normally in a small pot or ramekin — just for a couple of minutes. The contained space helps hold the egg together while it's cooking.

King Charles' alleged habit of mashing up the egg over his salad might seem unusual, but coddled eggs are an unusual food, and that is a legitimate way to eat them. Coddled eggs are also easy to use as an ingredient in homemade mayonnaise because they're already mushed up and creamy. Ready to eat right out of the container, coddled eggs are largely safe because the egg is lightly cooked. But, considering that such a gentle simmer probably won't kill salmonella, they're best to make with pasteurized eggs. If this dish is fit for the king, it's good enough for the rest of us.