Scotch Eggs

[liuzhou]

If anyone can give me a recipe for making Scotch Eggs from scratch, I will love you long time!

All the recipes I　looked at via Google said to use various kinds of sausage meat. I don't have access to regular Western sausage meat. I live up a mountain in the middle of nowhere in Asia (seriously!).

Eggs, pork and most primary ingredients are available.

Edited June 1, 2007 by liuzhou (log)

[fisherman]

if you have access to pork and a sharp knife or mincer, then you have access to sausage meat!

Half belly and half shoulder gives a good mix of lean/fat, then add whatever herbs you have available and think suitable, plus seasoning.

[prasantrin]

I think the easiest would be to mix up some ground pork with minced onions, salt, and pepper. Then encase a hard-boiled egg with some of the pork mixture, roll in bread crumbs (maybe do the flour, egg thing first if you want a good coating), and fry.

If you have some herbs and/or spices like thyme, marjoram, paprika, nutmeg, sage, cayenne pepper, etc, throw some into the pork mixture, but I think it would be OK with just the ground pork, minced onions, salt, and pepper. (I like Penzey's breakfast sausage seasoning, and use it for my sausage rolls, so if you have anyone who can send you some, it would be nice for future scotch eggs.)

[pax]

But how do you get the sausage to stick to the eggs?

I tried this for my ex about half a hundred times and I never got it.

[fisherman]

The sausage meat doesn't need to stick to the egg, encase the egg in the meat, and then crumb it, no sticking required!

[Anna N]

I always roll the peeled, hard-boiled eggs in flour and then make a large patty of the sausage mixture in the palm of one hand and place the flour egg in the centre and simply "fold" the meat around the egg with the other hand until it's completely sealed.

[pax]

You guys make it sound so easy. I had sausage crumbles everywhere.

I seriously considered operating on a big sausage casing and just shoving the egg in there.

[fisherman]

Maybe your sausage meat was too dry?

[Pweaver1984]

Gervais Recipe

[Richard_D]

On one of Gary Rhodes' TV programmes he once demonstrated one of the most foolproof methods I've seen for wrapping the egg in the meat. That was to put the sausagemeat patty on some clingfilm, put the egg in the middle and gather up the clingfilm, twist to seal/compact it, then rest in the fridge for 30 minutes or so.

Some ideas for great variations on a traditional scotch egg can be boughthere and as a regular customer I can safely say they're all fantastic.

[helenjp]

Very popular in Japan, where they are made with minced/ground pork, though I sometimes make it with minced/ground chicken.

Recipes vary quite a lot, but for 4 smallish hen eggs or 10 quail eggs, roughly:

1/2 onion (or 1/4 leek/asian long onion) to 200g ground pork (minced pork),

plus about 1/4 cup breadcrumbs (dry the bread in the air a little first if breadcrumbs are not available. Left-over rice is a possible substitute too).

to bind - EITHER 1/2 egg beaten, OR 2 tablespoons mayonnaise (Kewpie type), yogurt, or milk.

Salt and pepper (or soy sauce, worcestershire sauce, ketchup, nutmeg etc) parsley to taste.

Small amounts of finely chopped funghi such as those long thread-like things we call enoki in Japan are good too. Or grated apple, a little cheese...

Knead well (a key point!), flour the peeled boiled eggs, and press the meat mixture around them.

I don't season them too heavily, because I cook them like this. I find the deep-fried version can be dry and unappetizing in lunchboxes.

Instead of deep frying, pan-fry to brown, then add about 2 tablespoons each of ketchup and worcestershire sauce, 2 tablespoons of vinegar or white wine/Chinese or Japanese rice wine, and about 1/4 c water, depending on the size of your pan. Put a lid on loosely, and cook, shaking pan occasionally, till sauce reduced and clinging to scotch eggs.

In Asia, minced chicken meat, flavored with Szechuan pepper and ginger, is also a good bet.

If you prefer to deep-fry scotch eggs, flour the meat-covered eggs, dip in egg beaten with 2 tablespoons of milk (works better than straight egg), and then dip in finely crushed dry breadcrumbs. You can do the flour/egg routine twice if you really want a firm coating.