How to Make Scotch Eggs?
"The Farmer will come along, take her babies and boil them in hot water" Extract from "Ricky Gervais Explains Scotch Eggs"
If that doesn't sound like your style, you could follow this recipe Scotch Eggs with Fresh Herbs by Delia Smith - which is exactly what I did. The beauty of making Scotch Eggs yourself (aside from the fact you can't easily find them ready-made, here in Northern California), is that you can control the quality of ingredients. The source of a mass-produced shop-bought Scotch Egg is disturbingly unclear. Fearful visions of battery farmed chickens and anything-goes sausage meat will not warm you to the version you might buy in a regular supermarket. But with my homemade Scotch Eggs I knew where everything came from:
Eggs - a mix of Happy Quail Farm & Marin Sun Farm
Sausage meat - With plenty of advance warning I asked The Fatted Calf if they would sell me some uncased Toulouse, my favourite of their sausages. This particular sausage is headstrong, with pronounced garlic, ensuring that the Scotch Eggs were anything but bland.
Herbs - I used the stunning chives and parsley from White Crane Spring Ranch and some green onion from Chue's Farm.
Breadcrumbs - I just ground up some of ACME's croûtons.
The only difficult part of this recipe for me was trying to maintain the oil at the correct temperature on my rather challenging and ancient electric stove top. It is really important to bring the oil to temperature before adding the eggs because that way they will seal fast and won't become as greasy as their sometimes sorry reputation.
Breakfast in a ball shape: I gave a whole one to the Frenchman next morning, straight from the fridge. Having never heard of a Scotch Egg, not knowing it was an English recipe lacking in positive PR and having no clue as to how it had been made, he ate it without the burden of any preconceptions. And you know what... Eee liked eet. Of course he did. And so might you.
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23 Comments:
At 29/8/07 21:39,
Barbara said…
My mother makes the most awful Scotch Eggs. If Fred ate hers eee would 'ate eeet.
At 29/8/07 23:18,
Pille said…
I became very fond of Scotch Eggs in Scotland :) They're a wonderful snack, and I've been planning to make them myself for a while now. Good to hear that you're giving Delia's recipe thumbs up!
At 29/8/07 23:24,
Stephanie V.W. Lucianovic said…
Hooray for Scotch eggs! I do believe that they are most possibly the best picnic food around.
(And when I say "picnic," it means I sit on a blanket in the middle of my living room and pretend I'm outside. Any excuse to eat those lovelies, any excuse.
At 29/8/07 23:51,
Anonymous said…
they go pretty well cooked in the oven too.. yum!
At 30/8/07 01:40,
Anonymous said…
When I first moved to the UK I was shocked and disgusted by 'the scotch egg' - but yours actually look yummy!
Its like the UK version of the pickled egg.
At 30/8/07 03:22,
Beccy said…
You've got me drooling here, it's years since I've eaten a scotch egg and those homemade ones look divine.
At 30/8/07 05:52,
Kevin Kossowan said…
I'd actually never heard of them until you posted the party photo. I should have clued in that 'scotch' would translate to 'ingredient(s) in the deep fryer'.
At 30/8/07 09:50,
Caffienated Cowgirl said…
Oh, I adore Scotch Eggs...had them for the first time when we arrived in England 3 years ago...and they've been a favorite ever since.
At 30/8/07 11:03,
meathenge said…
I have to say, you're one mean badass for getting the sausage so evenly placed. Excellent.
Biggles
At 30/8/07 11:36,
Anonymous said…
yum. so bad and so good at the same time. what a good idea getting the sausage meat from fatted calf.
At 30/8/07 16:30,
Anonymous said…
Whoa! I have never even seen a scotch egg before...what a perfect photo!
At 30/8/07 19:33,
Anonymous said…
I've heard of Scotch Eggs in passing, but never understood their brilliance. This sounds insane. Eggs...good. Sausage...good. Fried breadcrumbs...good. All together...awesome. It is on my to-do list.
At 31/8/07 01:38,
Abitofafoodie said…
These look fantastic! I used to hate Scotch eggs - my mother always used to bring shop-bought ones on picnics. Then one day, I saw the light! A great friend made a batch from scratch. Being polite, I tentatively bit into one with dread - it was so delicious I have never looked back. They are a completely different species to the nasty, rubbery supermarket examples. Delicious.
At 31/8/07 03:51,
ChrisB said…
I bet you don't remember me making these when you and beccy were children (they were always a bit hit and miss) !!
At 31/8/07 07:36,
BreadBox said…
Sam! Thanks a million for posting this! I'm going to have to try it this weekend, I think....
N.
At 31/8/07 11:39,
Chubbypanda said…
I love Scotch eggs. I make mine using quail eggs. That way, guests can just pop the whole thing in their mouths, and you don't get that annoying bit where the sausage can sometimes separate from the egg white.
At 31/8/07 14:47,
Anita (Married... with dinner) said…
your Scotch Eggs were the model for all others -- I'd never had one before that I liked, despite the fact that boiled eggs and sausage are two of my food faves. I just -new- they could be good, and you proved it!
At 31/8/07 15:10,
Violet said…
Scotch are one of the best things ever invented. Yours look great. I make a version using ground Cuban ham instead of sausage. Yummy.
At 31/8/07 15:51,
Mercedes said…
Fabulous. My boyfriend's British/Scottish, and so has certain nostalgic things he loves. Generally involving all things fried and Cadbury chocolate. I've been wanting to make these for him. We, of course, love Ricky Gervais as well.
At 31/8/07 18:09,
Civic Center said…
The San Francisco Symphony are on tour in Europe for a couple of weeks and they've actually started a photoblog of the tour that's quite entertaining. Their first stop was in Edinburgh and guess what the second photo turned out to be. Here's a link:
http://tinyurl.com/2fzrlr
At 3/9/07 00:17,
Anonymous said…
Hi!
I don't know a lot of dishes from eggs and cook them again and again. I was looking for something new and thanks to your blog I found. Not sure that my eggs will be so nice like in your photo, but I'll try.
At 4/9/07 09:38,
BreadBox said…
Sam,
Thanks again for posting the recipe link, and for providing the initial inspiration to me:-)
I posted a photo at my blog of the end result: they were delicious!
N.
At 23/7/08 10:29,
Anonymous said…
For so many years now I have banged on about making Scotch eggs - I still haven't got around to it. I love the toulouse sausage idea - it is also a favourite in our house. I love how they are so garlicky and so highly seasoned. Perfect for scotch egging.
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