Scotch Eggs

The ultimate picnic food! These beauties are perfect for outdoor eating, they are just as good hot or cold, and require no knife and fork!

The secret to a good scotch egg is getting the right ingredients.
The eggs should be fairly small in size but of good quality.


The sausage meat should be pork; you can use ready made sausage meat or make your own. The easiest and best way is to buy some of your favourite pork sausages and squeeze out the sausage meat from the casings. You know what sausages you like, so I won't interfere in your choice! You can always add extra spices if you wish.
For the breadcrumbs you can use some stale bread and bung it into a food processor. I find this is better than shop bought breadcrumbs but the choice is yours. If you can get some good quality breadcrumbs from a shop then by all means use these.

Ingredients

8 eggs (6 for the Scotch eggs and 2 for the egg wash)

6 pork sausages

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp sage

1/2 tsp thyme

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp mustard

50g plain flour

a dash of milk

6 slices old white bread

Method

Place 6 eggs carefully into a pan of cold water and put on to boil. When the water is boiling turn down to simmer for at least 6-8 minutes. I know some people like their eggs a bit runny, but for Scotch eggs you really need hard boiled eggs. When the eggs are boiled for the desired time, remove from the pan and place into a bowl of cold water. 

Split the casings of the sausages and empty out the meat into a bowl. Add the mustard and spices and mix well. Ensure that the sausage meat is smooth and soft; you don't want any lumpy bits in there. Split the sausage meat mix into 6 equal portions.

Cut the crusts off the bread slices and chuck the slices into a food processor. Blitz this for a few minutes until you have small crumbs. You can add spices to the breadcrumbs as well if you like.

Peel the cooled eggs carefully.

Place the breadcrumbs into a bowl. Place the flour into another bowl and beat the 2 remaining eggs together with the milk into a third bowl. 

Place a length of cling film onto a clean work surface and flour this lightly. Take one of the sausage meat portions and place this onto the floured cling film. Then place a second piece of cling film over the first. Roll out the sausage meat until it is large enough to cover one of the eggs. Remove the top sheet of cling film.

Dip an egg into the flour and then place in the centre of the sausage meat mixture. Roll the meat around the egg until you have a smooth and even covering around the egg. Dip the sausage covered egg into the bowl of flour to cover with a light coating. Then dip into the egg wash, and lastly into the breadcrumbs. Dip back into the egg wash and finally back into the breadcrumbs.

Repeat with the 5 remaining eggs. 

Fry the eggs 2 at a time in oil using a deep fat fryer or high sided pan at 170 C for about 7 minutes until golden brown. Drain the cooked eggs on kitchen paper.

Enjoy!

DID YOU KNOW?

Fortnum and Mason of London claim to have invented the Scotch egg in 1738. 

DID YOU KNOW?

A Pakistani dish, Nargisi Kofta, is remarkably similar to the Scotch egg, and predates it by several centuries.

So the humble Scotch egg may not be as Scottish as we would like to think. No matter, it tastes great regardless of where it comes from!