Do you remember the cookbook series: Monday is Meatloaf, Tuesday is Chicken, Wednesday is ...? Well, it seems Monday is now Meatballs here. I've slipped into the groove of it, and following my resolution to make a different meatball recipe every week, this weekend with a bowl of hard boiled eggs sitting in the fridge alongside a bit of leftover sausage, I just couldn't hold myself back from making a Scotch Egg, a fried, sausage-covered hard-boiled egg. I'd never made one before, but I simply had to do it; as far as meatballs go, this is the granddaddy of them all!
Scotch Egg
Adapted from Great British Cooking by Jane Garmey
Hard-boiled egg -I used a duck egg, but quail eggs would be perfect here (Our quail won't be laying eggs until it's 70 degrees outside, which probably won't be until July)
peel egg and put in a small Ziploc bag with 1/4 c. flour, and shake gently to coat egg.
Flatten a portion of breakfast sausage to form a patty large enough to encase the egg
In a small bowl, beat 1 egg. Dip floured hard-boiled egg into beaten egg, and coat completely. Place egg in center of sausage patty, and wrap and form sausage around the egg to completely cover it.
Place sausaged-egg in another Ziploc bag with 1/4 - 1/2 c. Italian-Seasoned bread crumbs and roll to coat.
Heat oil to hot. Use a slotted spoon to lower the egg into the hot oil, and deep fry until well-browned all over.
Drain on paper towels for 1-2 hours before serving.
I know very few of us are going to be eating one of these as a part of our daily diet, though Jane Gramey says this is a popular pub snack in England. Having no personal experience with British pubs, I can't say if people really tuck into these on a regular basis or not, but I can just hear some of you exclaiming, "Good grief! Who is going to eat a colossal sausage-covered hard-boiled egg?" Well, if you have any friends hiking the Pacific Crest Trail and you are meeting them for a food drop -a couple of these is just the thing to bring them. If you know a fisherman, lumberjack or coal miner, I'd suggest putting one of these in their lunchbox. Otherwise, what I suggest for the rest of us to do with a Scotch Egg is to share one.
My grandfather called this sort of thing a 'Dutch Lunch.' I remember excitedly eating similar lunches that my Grandmother Leona would put together for us, when I spent the night with them as a child. Served as part of a picnic spread, or simply on a lunch plate at the kitchen table, a SLICE of Scotch Egg with cheese, crackers and an array of home canned pickles -here my Dilly Beans, Bread and Butter Pickles, Pickled Beets, and Sweet Pickles- is a tasty treat.
Fantastic, I have never made my own Scotch Eggs, you can buy them in every Grocery shop, store over here in good old Blighty. Good Butchers make their own and they are far superior to the mass produced ones, I will have a go. I have never seen them in pubs but I have seen pickled eggs served in pubs, you drop them into a bag of crisps (chips). They give you a raging thirst so you have to buy more Ale! Scotch eggs are often served as 'party' food for a buffet and also make good picnic food.
ReplyDeleteI've never heard of a Scotch Egg ~ I would love to try one! And your 'Dutch Lunch' looks like my favorite kind of meal ~ I eat like this when my husband's out of town.
ReplyDeleteAnd speaking of meatballs, did you see the 'Pork & Lemongrass Meatballs in Lettuce Cups' in the new issue of Bon Appetit? I'm a meatball enabler now ;)
Too cool!!
ReplyDeleteInthesky -Thanks so much for the British perspective on this Brit food item. Do have a go at making them yourselves, it was pretty easy.
ReplyDeleteMel -I just got the latest Bon Appetit in the mail yesterday, and I am super excited to make those lettuce cups! Yum.
I make Scotch Eggs with quail eggs or medium sized eggs. I actually bake them because it's easier and I am lazy. I just don't use the flour/egg/breadcrumb mix. I lightly roll in fine breadcrumbs and let the fat in the sausage do the rest. I use whatever sausage, I get that week from the farmer's market.
ReplyDeleteLove your blog! :O)
la takahashi -Not lazy, just smart! Thanks.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoy popping in to your blog, thank you for popping over to mine :) You left a comment for Glamorgan sausages, when I made them I had this post in mind. I think they would make great 'Scotch Eggs' but we would have to call them 'Welsh Eggs'. I havn't tried to make them yet but I am sure it would work and make a nice vegetarian alternative to the Scotch Egg. I am not sure you could make a dutch lunch of it! Transcontinental, Cosmopolitan, good old fashioned home cooking!
ReplyDelete