Celebrating Heritage British Food & Cooking
Scotch eggs are boiled eggs wrapped in sausagemeat, coated in breadcrumbs and then baked in the oven or deep-fried.
Why they are called scotch eggs no one is really sure. Fortnum & Mason, a high-end London department store claims to have invented them in 1738 as a travellers snack included in their famous hampers.
Others claim that they were invented as “Scotties” by William J Scott & Sons in Whitby, Yorkshire. But these were originally eggs wrapped in fish paste and breadcrumbs. You can still buy versions of the Scottie on the Yorkshire coast.
An alternative claim is that they originated as Nargisi Kofta, a spicy meatball with a boiled egg inside from the days of the British Raj and were exported back to England but without the spices.
In the UK most people eat them served chilled, but the best ones are served warm with a runny yolk.
Give making them a go, it sounds complicated, but with a little patience, you will be rewarded with a delicious snack. This recipe adds a coating of crushed ready salted crisps for some crunch.
For an interesting alternative try a so-called Manchester egg, where the sausagemeat is replaced by black pudding.
Next time I make some, I’m definitely going to give the Manchester version a try!
Scotch Eggs
Ingredients
- 5 eggs medium, at room temperature
- 450 g pork sausagemeat
- 2 eggs beaten
- 60 g plain flour
- 100 g ready salted crisps
- 1 l sunflower oil
Conversions
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200ºC (180ºC Fan).
- Boil eggs. Bring a pan of water to a rolling boil, add your room temperature eggs and cook for 5 min 30 seconds. Once time is up, remove eggs and immediately plunge into ice-cold water.
- Once eggs have cooled, peel carefully and set aside.
- Meanwhile, prep your assembling station. Fill a bowl with warm water, add beaten eggs to another bowl, add flour to another bowl and crush ready salted crisps in bag with a rolling pin (open the bag slightly so it doesn’t burst when you hit it) and put them on a plate.
- To make a scotch egg, wet your hands with warm water and take a 1/5 of the sausagemeat (approx. 90g) and flatten it out to the size of your palm. Add the egg to the middle and carefully fold the sausagemeat around the egg. Make sure the entirely egg is covered, but be gentle.
- Once all the eggs are covered, chill in the fridge for 10 minutes to firm them up.
- Remove from fridge, and take one egg at a time and roll in a light coating of flour, then roll in the egg mixture and finally coat in the crushed crisps.
- When ready to cook, bring a pan of oil to approx. 180ºC temperature. Fry your scotch eggs in batches for three and a half minutes, using a metal slotted spoon. Remove from pan, and place on a baking tray. Once they’re all fried, place tray in oven and cook for a further four minutes.
- Once time is up, remove from the oven and slice each scotch egg in half, and serve immediately, with a little bit of piccalilli.
You may also like one of my other favourite recipes …
