Scottish Scotch Eggs

"Yes!" Wallace shouted back. "Fight and you may die. Run and you will live at least awhile. And dying in your bed many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that for one chance, just one chance, to come back here as young men and tell our enemies that they may take our lives but they will never take our eggs!"

Even with William Wallace's fierce devotion to the snack his knowledge of its origins are somewhat misplaced as, contrary to what the name would suggest, Scotch Eggs aren't remotely Scottish, they were invented by Fortnum & Mason in the 18th Century and take their name from the Olde English verb 'to scotch', meaning to wrap in meat and breadcrumbs then deep-fry. As such the Scottish in the name of these Lorne sausage wrapped beauties is far from redundant.

Paint your face blue and white and tuck in.

Scottish Scotch Eggs Recipe

Ingredients

Makes 4

500gr of Lorne Sausage, bought or made (recipe here)

5 medium eggs, room temperature

Breadcrumbs, made from 3 slices of liquidised stale white bread

A little plain flour

Method

Bring some water to a light boil then boil 4 of the room temperature eggs for 6.5 minutes.  Remove, crack the shells all over (this will burn your fingers) and then dump in iced water for 10 minutes to cool.

Split your Lorne sausage into 4 and wrap aropund your eggs.  To do this I spread each lump on a piece of clingfilm till about 15cm round, then wrap around the egg.  Once it's a nice shape (pinch the joins so well connected) you can peel the clingfilm off.

Beat the final egg with a pinch of salt.  Dust each meat-covered delight in plain flour, then dip in egg then breadcrumbs, coating well.

Heat oil to 160C then deep-fry the eggs for 6-7 minutes, until golden and cooked through, before draining well on kitchen roll.

I like to serve with mustard, just make sure it's not English.

Comments

[meemalee]

I really hate myself that I thought you were referring to Puddingface.

These look gorgeous though - and yay for keeping the yolk soft :)

[Kavey]

Coo, I never knew that... about the origins and name...

[Joshua Armstrong]

Meemalee - 6.5 mins from room temp seems to work for me, done it three times now with success

Kavey - The Fortnum & Mason bit is real, I may have completely made up the Olde English 'to scotch' bit though.

[[email protected]]

Are these the Scotch eggs that you then grilled...? :)
I am very embarrassed to say that I have never eaten Scotch eggs, these look very very good though.

[Joshua Armstrong]

That's the ones.

There are good scotch eggs and bad ones. To be honest I'm happy with either but probably best to go for a good one for your first.

[meemalee]

Kavey, Joshua - I've read that "to scotch" was indeed an Old English verb that meant roll in meat and fry in several places, so you're not just making it up :)

[Paul]

Love em! Pure and simple, I probably have at least two a week and these looks fan-dabby-dozy! (a little nod to the scottish there)

[Joshua Armstrong]

Meemalee - how funny. I thought I was making it up and carrying on in the farcical manner of the rest of the post.

Paul - two home made ones a week? If so good going.

[Tori (@eat-tori)]

How this made me laugh this morning. Am also desperately wishing there was one of those right here to have with some toast and tea. Loving the googly yolks.

[pigpigscorner]

I've never seen such delicious looking Scotch eggs! Love the soft centre.

[Joshua Armstrong]

Tori - it's a bit of a nonsensical post, the eggs are tasty though.

Tori & PPC - one of the bes things about making your own is the yolk. I've found 6.5 minutes for a room temperature medium egg works perfectly for me. Enough to set the whites fully but the yolk still oozes out.

[Kavey]

Haaa, my thought processes have been whipped forwards and backwards. Who knows what to think now?! ;P