Scotch eggs are carry vessels for sausage meat, to eat when on a picnic. You need to buy the tastiest, best quality sausages you can find and treat the eggs gently when you wrap them.
Head straight on to the recipe ♥ for Scotch Eggs
I have a romantic notion about going on a picnic. This is reinforced every time I see one of those pretty picnic baskets for sale. You know the ones where everything has its place and all you need is the basket and some food? There are 2 plates, 2 sets of cutlery, glasses, a wine opener, a blanket and plenty of space for all the food one would take with. But, I never buy one when I see them as I know it would be a wasted expense. Dave and I do not go on picnics. We cannot drink on our beaches here, and that is the ideal place to have a picnic, sitting by the sea, watching the sun set over the bay. We do however have pseudo picnic meals when we travel. Nothing fancy and no blankets involved. We get a fresh baguette every day and it gets torn by hand and topped with whatever we have chosen, pâté in France, pesto and proscuitto in Italy, cheese and ham in the UK. We have plastic knives and forks that we take along with us, and that is probably the only concession to a real picnic. Sometimes we sit on a park bench, other times we have enjoyed our meal in the car while it rains, and we have even had a few meals on the beach. One year we had bought a dozen eggs to have for our breakfasts and when we got to the resort in Tropea we were told that breakfast was included. Not wanting the eggs to go to waste, we hard boiled a few each day and made egg mayonnaise with them to enjoy on our fresh baguette. If I had thought about it with a bit more effort, I could have made Scotch eggs. These are the perfect things to include in any picnic basket, whether you are enjoying the romantic one I keep imagining, or a plain meal on the side of the road at a park bench. The eggs are the vessel for the sausage meat and you really have to buy the most flavourful, good quality sausage meat that you can. I did not like the fried version of this recipe, and so tried baking them. You don’t get that beautiful golden brown colour on the crumbs as you would if you baked them, but you also don’t get oily crumbs. I will leave the choice up to you how you cook them, but please make these Scotch eggs the next time you go on a picnic.
Scotch Eggs
Ingredients
- 6 eggs
- 5 mls olive oil
- 1 baby leek, finely chopped
- 600 g sausage meat
- 3 g flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
- 1 g sage, finely chopped
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper to season
- 5 g flour
- 45 g bread crumbs
- Canola oil for frying
Method
- Boil 5 eggs until just hard boiled
- Place in cold water
- Once completely cold, peel the eggs and pat dry
- Place the olive oil into a frying pan
- Sauté the leek until soft
- Set aside to cool
- Preheat the oven to 180° Celsius *
- Place the leek, sausage meat, parsley and sage into a bowl
- Season well
- Lightly whisk the remaining egg and add to the sausage meat
- Mix well so that everything is combined
- Place the flour into a bowl and season
- Roll each boiled egg in the flour
- Wrap each egg with approximately 130g sausage meat, using damp hands
- Shape gently once completely wrapped
- Roll each wrapped egg in the breadcrumbs and shape
- Pour a thin layer of oil into a large frying pan
- Place onto a medium to hot temperature and heat
- Once the oil is hot gently place each egg into the pan
- Fry for 10 minutes, turning as the crumbs turn golden brown
- Make sure each side of the egg is cooked, including the ends
- Be careful as the eggs are fragile
- Remove from the pan and set aside to cool on some paper towel *
- Once the excess oil has been absorbed slice each egg in half lengthwise
- Sprinkle with salt and serve
- * I found that the sausage meat was not quite cooked and that the crumbs were very oily
- * I finished them off in the oven for 10 minutes
- * alternatively you can bake them without frying, for a total of 40 minutes, turning halfway through the cooking time
Notes
Click on the links for conversions and notes.
Disclosure: I was sent the book to review by Penguin Random House South Africa and this recipe formed part of the review and is published with permission. This post is in line with my blogging policy.
What I blogged November 2:
- one year ago – The Bootlegger
- two years ago – I Made It Challenge
- three years ago – Herbal Rose And Rosehips
- four years ago – In My Kitchen
- five years ago – Crayfish Pasta With Brandy
I haven’t made scotch eggs for the longest time. Pete and I last enjoyed them on our boat on the river.
Have a happy week ahead Tandy.
🙂 Mandy xo
I think I shall make them next time we go fishing 🙂
Tandy the scotch eggs look so delicious and make me want to go on a picnic. I bought one of those picnic baskets, I did manage to buy it on sale so I don’t feel too guilty that I have not used it yet. You might see it in a blog post one of these days. 🙂
I really hope you get to use it Moya 🙂
I’ve always been a huge fan of scotch eggs, but I never attempted to make them so thanks so much for the recipe Tandy!
I am sure you will find these super easy Shashi 🙂
Oh love that these can be used for breakfast or a heartier meal later in the day…also great for picnics!:-)
Thanks Jess, and thank you for the visit 🙂
I love scotch eggs! These look delicious, Tandy. They are definitely worth making your own! I will try the recipe out soon!
Please let me know when you do Jess 🙂
That is something my best friend – Cez would love to have!! 🙂
Hope you pass it on Agness 🙂
I love a good scoth egg and these look great! Have seen some fancy version recently – duck eggs wrapped in black pudding but I prefer the traditional version 🙂
Oh, I would love to try the fancy version 🙂
Oh, I do love Scotch Eggs – such great picnic food. Know what you mean about the picnic baskets – what always stops me is that unless you don’t have to keep your food for any length of time there is no where to keep food that needs to be kept chilled and here in a hot summer you need a chilly bin, iskey, ice box.
Love the term chilly bin! We have the same problem here Rachel 🙂
I’ve heard of Scotch eggs from plenty of people, but for whatever reason I haven’t gotten around to making it or eating it. I definitely have to change that. There’s something about it that always intrigues me. Thanks for this reminder and posting this recipe.
My pleasure Kia 🙂
Tandy, I have not seen a recipe for Scotch eggs since 1974 in high school home ec class. Lovely recipe… Peter enjoyed some of these when we were travelling. xx
I hope this brought back happy memories Liz 🙂
These look fabulous Tandy and would be perfect for traveling or breakfast on the run.
Hope you try them the next time you ‘change’ house 🙂
I’ve never had Scotch eggs, but they sound delicious! Especially cold on hot days like we’re having now. 🙂
I am sure you can take these with you on your long road trips Krista 🙂
YAY! So many fond memories. When I was an apprentice chef, all my senior chefs were very old school, I think I was lucky enough to learn some of the classics including scotch eggs. Def making them and delivering a batch to my old boss. Thanks for the trip down memory lane. 🙂
This is definitely a classic Anna 🙂
This is such an awesome recipe, Tandy. I love scotch. Can’t wait to give it a try.
There is no whisky in this sadly 🙂
We love picnics and have them a few times a year as we live opposite a big park. These would be such a lovely treat to have on one! 😀
That is nice that you can just walk across the road to have your picnic 🙂
Tandy, I”ve never seen anything like these! So creative. And picnics are lovely, we’re going hiking today at Letchworth State Park, huge waterfalls there (guess I”m just lucky because I’m near Niagara Falls too). And we are picnicking!
Enjoy! I love waterfalls 🙂
I never tried scotch egg before! I have to give it a try!
PS. It’s Marcela (tortadellafiglia). I moved my blog to a new domain: http://tastefolio.com
Hope you’ll have time to stop by!
I saw that you had moved 🙂
Oh my lovely! There is a place in the FIDI district of Manhattan that has this amazing restaurant called rabbit that has the best scotch eggs I have ever tasted in my entire life. I (somehow) forgot about them until I read this post, thank you x1000 for this very enlightening reminder 😉 You have great taste in food I can already tell!
XOXO
Thank you Kelly 🙂
Can you believe I’ve never had Scotch eggs?? they are something I’ve always wanted to try though. Thanks for the recipe!
I had never had them either Amy 🙂
I agree those picnic baskets are a romantic notion but a dust collector in real life. Better to wing a picnic.I only had my first scotch egg a few years back but fell in love. Thanks for the recipe, on the bucket list.
Hope they taste as good as your memory of them 🙂
I only had Scotch eggs once but did enjoy them. They were served as a bar treat while having a glass of wine. I think it would be fun to serve some at a small cocktail party.
I think a cocktail party would be the perfect place to serve them Karen 🙂
I always love the idea of going on a picnic with my hubby but we still haven’t gone on one yet. I love eating boiled eggs and this recipe looks amazing. I can’t wait to make this.
http://doreensstylediary.com
Hope you enjoy them, and the picnic Doreen 🙂
You really explain it very well! On my list to make in two days! Yummm!
Hope you enjoy them Sophie 🙂