Scotch Eggs
Scotch Eggs
Scotch Eggs are always a popular choice with crews, although not a meal as such, Wikipedia describes Scotch eggs as “Picnic Food”, when served with salad or fry’s and a dipping sauce, such as HP, Scotch Egg certainly makes a delightful lunch. Although I grew up thinking Scotch Eggs was a Scottish Invention it seems its heritage may in fact be Indian from the time of the Raj.You can use any sausage meat of your choice, I make a couple of different sausage type and I use whatever type I have to hand. Cooks don't tend to make sausages, sausages are traditionally made by butchers, but as a cook sausage making can be rewarding. Although it now seems fashionable for TV chefs to make scotch eggs with soft boiled runny eggs, I don’t recommend you make yours that way. Anyway enjoy these scotch eggs the recipe may be basic, but I am sure your crew will enjoy them too.
Ingredients
- 2 kg Sausage Meat Pork
- 16 Eggs Hard Boiled
- 500 grams Seasoned Flour For Coating
- 6 Eggs For Egg Wash
- 500 grams Breadcrumbs Dried
Instructions
- Boil the eggs stored at room temperature for approximately 7 minutes, if your eggs are chilled in the fridge boil for 10 minutes.
- Peel the eggs and put to one side, I find peeling the eggs while still slightly warm easier, the shell seems to come away easier, the process can benefit for dipping in water as you peel to help loosen the shell if you find the shell sticking to the egg.
- Make enough egg wash for the number of scotch eggs you are making, don't add and milk or water to the egg wash just use beaten eggs, it will give better adhesion.
- Put your egg wash flour and breadcrumbs into suitable containers of bowls.
- Put your Pork Sausage meat into a bowl, and give it a good mix to ensure it is pliable, if you are using a large amount it may be easier to place the sausage meat in a machine bowl and mix for 2 minutes using the beater attachment on slow speed.
- Take a boiled egg and roll it in the flour, start one as a time.
- Take a suitable amount of your sausage meat and roll and mould it into a ball in your hands, then flatten it between your palms until it reaches a suitable size and thickness to surround the egg.
- Place the flattened sausage meat on the bench and place the floured boiled egg on the top
- Roll the sausage meat around the egg, then pick it up and manipulate the sausage meat around the egg to bring the edges of the sausage meat together so that the egg is totally encapsulated, ensure that you have a good join where the sausage meat meets.
- I find it easier to use a little more sausage meat than is required and end up with this rather strange shape, you may find a different or better technique,
- I then just pinch off the excess sausage meat off each side and put the excess meat back into my sausage meat bowl.
- Repeat this process with the rest of your eggs
- Roll each sausage covered egg in flour
- Repeat this stage with the rest of your eggs.
- Take one egg and dip it into the egg wash
- Add more eggs and turn the eggs over to ensure they all get a good coating of egg wash.
- For this next stage I recommend you coat each egg in the breadcrumbs one as a time taking care to ensure you get a nice even all around the egg.
- Repeat the process until all your Scotch Eggs are coated in breadcrumbs.
- Now this next stage is by far the most difficult stage, the frying, and we need to pause and consider what it is we are trying to achieve, Our egg is already cooked, but it is now wrapped in raw pork meat. We need to ensure that the pork meat is fully cooked to a minimum of 75°C without over browning the outside breadcrumbs. This is were the skill comes in cooking the sausage meat thoroughly without over browning the breadcrumbs on the outside.
- Fry one Scotch Egg alone first to test the temperature cooking time required. I usually set my deep fat fryer to 175°C TO 180°C The temperature you set your fry to will depend on the fryer and the temperature of your sausage meat when placed in the fryer, especially if your Scotch eggs have been made in advance and stored in the refrigerator. 8 to 10 minutes is a good benchmark for the cooking time.
- Here we can see in this image the temperature of the sausage meat as close to the surface of the egg has reached 82.9°C which is perfect. It is important to recognize that it is the temperature of the sausage meat around the egg we are interested in and not the core temperature of the egg. However it is important to also understand that the sausage meat must be cooked thoroughly to the surface of the egg.
- Here we can see what our scotch egg looks like when cut open, we can see the the sausage meat is evenly cooked and even in colour right through to the surface of the egg. Also notice the nice bright yolk of the egg, a perfect sunny yellow yolk with no dark green ring where it meets the white of the egg.
Nutrition
Serving: 16gSodium: 2550mgCalcium: 102mgVitamin C: 1mgVitamin A: 420IUSugar: 2gFiber: 1gPotassium: 455mgCholesterol: 315mgCalories: 685kcalTrans Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 17gPolyunsaturated Fat: 6gSaturated Fat: 13gFat: 41gProtein: 33gCarbohydrates: 44gIron: 15mg
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!