Scotch Eggs
- 8 Large Eggs, hard boiled and peeled
- 2 tubes of bulk sausage (1.5 - 2 lbs, depending on how large the eggs are)
- Bread crumbs
- Flour
Simply: enrobe/encase the eggs with sausage, coat with breadcrumbs, and fry (or bake).
Tips/tricks:
- Coat (roll) the eggs with flour -- it helps the sausage stick to them. I'd do two coats, five or so minutes apart.
- Keep the sausage cool, it makes it more sticky... so either work fast, have a partner helping, or form all the balls first & coat them with crumbs afterward.
- Make an un-even thin sausage patty, with the patty in one hand, place an egg in the center of the patty, then fold & smoosh the sausage around the egg until it is completely enclosed, like a pork & egg version of nigiri.
The hard part: Next to getting the sausage to stick to the boiled & peeled eggs (which if you follow the tips above won't be the hard part), the hardest part is cooking the big sausage balls all the way through, evenly. Baking would probably be a better solution (and perhaps a skosh healthier).
I first heard of these "Scotch Eggs" back in 1994. Several of us from RAF Mildenhall had taken some leave and gone down to attend the Reading Festival -- this enormous 3-day outdoor music festival (think Woodstock). We all made a nice big camp in one of the fields, and the camp right next to ours was a big group of Scots. One of them was this hilarious, rough (and bald as an egg herself) Scottish chick who should have had a career in stand up comedy. She wandered into our camp one day munching something, cracking jokes, and making fun of everyone with hangovers. After trying to discretely figure out what the heck she was eating, I finally just asked... and she told me all about Scotch Eggs (although I think her eggs were pickled). Last night was my third time making these... and I had told myself after the second time that the NEXT time I would try coating the eggs with flour first, since getting sausage to stick to slippery eggs was difficult (understatement). Bingo!
[edited to get rid of a code snippet that had somehow found its way in]
