A descendent of the Mughal Nargesi kebab of Lucknow? The creation of the Fortum and Mason Department Store in London? Originally made with minced fish in Whitby ? There are many theories about the origin of the Scotch Egg. Personally I choose the Nargesi origin, hard to look at these Indian kofta with boiled eggs within designed to look like the Narcissus flower (Daffodil to you and me) and not see scotch eggs.

Scotch eggs are both the punchline in jokes about English cuisine and a dish gentrified on gastropub menus with quail eggs, crab mince and chorizo. They are tradition and they are innovation. Most importantly they are bloody delicious.

Oh and they go perfect with a pint of bitter.  

Scotch Eggs are really such a very versatile food. As long as the mince will bind around the egg the world is your oyster. Sometimes I add in some black pudding to the mix , highly recommended.

Technique is king here. A scotch egg doesn’t have to have a runny yoke but is bloody lovely when it does. To achieve this I ended up ignoring pretty much all the advice I found on the internet as every instruction resulted in hard egg interiors. In the end I settled on bringing eggs to a simmer from cold, turning off the heat immediately, letting them sit in the hot water for 2 min, then cooling in running cold water before shelling and incasing in the forcemeat.

Ingredients:

10 eggs

1kg mince (pork, or lamb, I used veal)

500g sausage unskinned (or sausage meat)

Bunch of parsley chopped fine

Bunch of chives chopped fine

2 tablespoons garlic powder

2 tablespoon mustard powder

Lots of black pepper

Salt

Dredging flour

Breadcrumbs

•   Place 8 eggs in a saucepan of cold water and bring to a simmer, turn off heat immediately , after 2 min run under a cold tap for 5 minutes. Peel.
• Squeeze the sausages out of their skins and into a bowl and combine with mince.
• Add herbs , and spices including the lots of ground pepper to the forcemeat meat along with a little salt. Give it all a good mix together, take a teaspoon’s worth and form a little burger. Fry quickly and taste. Correct seasoning if needed.
• Divide into 8 portions
• Set up three bowls, one with a small handful of flour, one with the remaining eggs beaten, and a third with breadcrumbs.
• Wet your hands and flatten one of the forcemeat balls into an oval-shaped pattie.
• Roll a peeled egg in flour, encase in the forcemeat moving the meat up around the egg like a potter.  Use your wet hands to form a ball and seal it around the egg
• Roll the scotch egg in the flour, shake off any excess, then dip into the beaten egg, followed by the breadcrumbs. Roll in the egg and breadcrumbs again for a really good coating.
• Chill for 30min in the fridge, I often use the deep freeze.
• Heat oil to 175C in a deep fryer or saucepan. Lower scotch eggs one at a time into the oil and fry for 7 minutes turning the egg over every minute so to cook the mince evenly. Allow to cool either a little or entirely.
• Eat with mustard , pickles and beer.