Scotch eggs
Old fashioned favourite
Scotch eggs have nothing Scottish about them! However, they are the ultimate picnic food, easily transported and tasty – especially if they're home-made. |
They are simply hard-boiled eggs with a sausagemeat and breadcrumb casing. Therefore, if you make them with fresh, free-range eggs and the best quality sausagemeat, finally frying them in a good clean vegetable oil, they’ll taste divine!
It is said that they were invented by Fortnum & Mason back in the 18th century, to fit nicely into their picnic hampers. I believe that the word "scotch" meant "to chop".
If you want to have a go and make some yourself, then this is a simple Scotch egg recipe:
- 5 medium, free-range, eggs
- 225 grams of good quality sausagemeat
- 2 tablespoons of fresh herbs (i.e. a mix of sage, thyme, parsley, chives)
- 2 tablespoons of plain flour,
- 75 g of white breadcrumbs
- salt and pepper
- oil for frying
Hard-boil 4 of the eggs by covering in cold water, bringing to the boil and simmering for 5 - 6 minutes. Then pop them into cold water to cool quickly and so avoid a black ring around the yolk.
Beat the fifth egg in a shallow plate and leave aside. Put the flour in another shallow plate with a good seasoning of salt and pepper. Put the breadcrumbs in another.
Mix the herbs into the sausagemeat and divide into 4 portions. Shell the hard-boiled eggs and roll in the seasoned flour. Then flatten and mould a portion of sausagement around each egg, making sure there are no gaps. Roll and coat in the beaten egg and then in the breadcrumbs.
To make a nice crispy crust, coat in the beaten egg and roll in the breadcrumbs a second time.
Heat a good 4 cm of oil in a small, deep frying pan or saucepan (big enough to hold the 4 eggs at once or two at a time) until it is hot enough to brown a small cube of bread in 60 seconds. It must be very hot so be careful and do not leave unattended.
Fry the coated eggs for about 5 minutes, turning them until they are brown all over and the sausagemeat is cooked. Drain quickly on kitchen paper and leave to cool.
When the Scotch eggs are completely cold you can keep them in the fridge until you’re ready to transport them.
You could use the same recipe for quails eggs (obviously using more of the tiny eggs) and this would make an elegant gourmet picnic starter with some pretty salad leaves and some mustard dressing.
You can also vary the sausagemeat by adding other ingredients to it. One of my favourites is a mix of black pudding and sausagemeat.
The Hairy Bikers (David Myers & Simon King) demonstrated an Indian version on one of their TV programmes and it sounds really yummy although I have yet to try it myself.
They called it a Nargis kebab and it's rolled in sesame seeds instead of breadcrumbs (which I guess you could do with the above recipe too)
For the casing they use:
- 250g minced lamb (or you can use beef)
- 2 garlic cloves, peeled & crushed
- 2.5cm/1in piece root ginger, peeled & grated
- ½ tsp ground coriander
- ½ tsp ground cumin
- ½ tsp chilli powder
- ¼ tsp ground cloves
- 1 tbsp cornflour
- an egg yolk
- salt
Do let me know what you think of it, if you try it before I do!And let's hear about any other versions out there. You can add your own recipe here.
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