What is a Ramekin? Everything You Need to Know

Over the past 50 years, the definition of the ramekin dish has evolved in the restaurant industry. A traditional ramekin is a shallow, straight-sided ceramic dish used for baking and cooking. It is typically a one-serving dish that goes from preparation to baking to service. This is usually used in a dish called crème bruleé, which is one of the most common desserts to be prepared in a classic ramekin. But you may also see them used for molten chocolate cakes (small souffles), ice cream, egg dishes, and more.

What is a Ramekin?

A typical circular glazed ceramic dish has a fluted texture and exterior. It comes from the French and means the tiniest version made in the same style as the soufflé dish. These individual baking dishes may be small, but they're made to withstand the heat. They're usually used for baking custards, cheese soufflés, and even individual servings of mac and cheese. They're often mentioned in cookbooks, and in a variety of dishes.

The delicious Crème bruleés you have encountered are most likely made in ramekins. The torch used to burn those cremes gives off a lot of heat, and the ramekins won't break even under direct flames. You can prepare these dishes without using a set of ramekin dishes but the end results aren't very pretty. It would be nowhere near as appetizing as a nicely prepared, individually-sized dish. If you like to entertain, then you might want to get a set. An individual Ramekins typically hold about four ounces, so they're perfect for portion controlling everything from custard to pudding.

What is a Ramekin Used for?

Ramekins are versatile enough to be used for baking French desserts, but they can also be used for baking other types of dishes. Ramekins can be used to organize ingredients before cooking so that clean up would be easier and avoid cross-contamination if you're working with raw animal products (e.g., meat). You can use ramekins as cute little plates for small snacks, like nuts, vegetable sticks, or dips. Snack foods and desserts served in ramekins can help you with your individual portion size control.

Here are some more ideas for what popular dishes to make and serve in ramekins, from breakfast to dessert.

Other Types of Ramekin

A ramekin is a specific type of dinnerware, but the term has evolved to include a wide variety of similar items. They are also known as sauce cups, cheese pipkins, oyster cups, monkey dishes, or souffle cups. They all have similar purposes.

Here we’ll take a look at some common varieties.

Cheese Pipkin

A pipkin is a type of earthenware cooking pot that was used for cooking over direct heating from coals or a fire. Examples of these heat-resistant, early pipkins included handles, lids, and three feet on the base of the vessel.

However, the more modern ramekin version of this became popular as a holder for the cheese to be used on crackers or bread, but it was not widely adopted until the 1980s. A small ceramic dish holds the cheese apart from the rest of the ingredients on this platter.

Oyster Cups

The actual origin of oyster cups is a bit of a puzzle. Oysters served on the half shell usually come with a variety of toppings such as mignonette or cocktail sauce. So maybe it’s just that simple.

Oyster cups are basically just sauce cups or condiments cups. They're usually ceramic, stainless steel or glass Here is where we start to differentiate our ramekins from traditional ones. Ramekins are used for preparing, cooking, and serving a single serving of food. An oyster cup is not typically employed in food preparation or cooking.

They're called lobster butter cups because they look like little lobsters. Whatever you call them, these are a handy way to keep sauces and condiments from spilling everywhere when serving them.

Monkey Dish

One of the most amusing terms used for this type of serving item is ‘monkey dish.’ The true origin of the phrase ‘monkey dish’ is a subject of debate. Some say that they originated from monkey skulls. Some say that the built-in-portion control of ramekins were used by royals to serve small portions of foods to monkeys to test for poisons. Another theory is that these cups were used by monkeys who worked for organ grinders. They would be given a small cup or dish and sent out to collect tips from passersby.

Regardless of whether the true story is that the monkey dish was created by a chef at a French restaurant in New York City, or that it was invented by a man named George from Kansas, the monkey dish has remained a fixture on restaurant tables for decades. A monkey dish is typically used for things like jelly or cut fruit salad, but it's different from a true ramekin in several ways. Monkey dish is not normally used for cooking or food prep. Monkey dishes are flat, wide dishes with shallow sides. They're often used for serving rice. Whereas a ramekin has higher sides and is usually used to both cook and eat its single portion foods.

Souffle Cups

A more puzzling fact is that it seems like the name “souffle cup” would imply that you could cook a Soufflé in it, but that isn't actually true. That was the original intention but soufflé cups are most often associated either with paper or plastic disposable sauce cups, or condiment cups.

Dip your french fries in ketchup? You probably used a souffle cup. Get your salad dressing on the side? It probably came in a plastic souffle cup (with a plastic lid).

Disposable soufflé cups are one of the most commonly used disposable items in the restaurant industry. They are very flexible, and it’s difficult to imagine doing a takeaway business without them in some way or another.

However, they too vary from the traditional ramekins in that you cannot bake or cook with them. They're also smaller than the other types of things we call ramekins.

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