Scotch eggs are a great picnic snack or party appetizer. It's delicious, easy to make, and can be customized with your favorite sausages and spices.
Ingredients
For 6 servings of Scotch eggs
- 6 eggs, for boiling
- 2 extra eggs, for coating
- 300 grams of raw bratwurst sausage or other sausage meat
- 300 grams of ground beef or additional sausage meat
- 60 grams of wheat flour
- 120 grams of bread flour (panir)
- Salt and pepper for taste
- Vegetable oil, about to fill 2 cm pan
Spices (choose one):
- 45 mL (3 tablespoons) fresh celery, saga, and/or thyme, chopped.
- 15–30 mL (1–2 tablespoons) curry powder or mustard powder
- 15 mL (1 tablespoon) finely chopped ginger and chili slices for added flavor.
- 15 mL (1 tablespoon) cumin, coriander, and paprika.
Step
Step 1. Make a hard-boiled egg
Fill a pot with water, bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low. Stir in six eggs until submerged and cook for six minutes. Starting to put the eggs in hot water instead of cold water will make the eggs easier to peel.
- Cooking this many eggs in one pan can save time. For more consistent results, cook the eggs in two waves.
- Use eggs from trusted and high-quality sources. Hard-boiled eggs do not kill Salmonella bacteria, so eggs from infected sources can cause serious illness in children or the elderly.
Step 2. Cool the eggs
Place the eggs in an ice cube bath or in a bowl of iced water in the refrigerator to stop the inside of the eggs from cooking. Cold eggs are usually easier to peel.
Step 3. Mix the meat with the spices
The easiest way is to buy 600g of sausage meat and done. However, this method results in a greasy meat, so some cooks choose to mix sausage meat with ground beef, in a 50/50 ratio. You can also amplify the taste by using a rich-spice sausage, or opt for plain sausage and mix it with your favorite vegetables and herbs.
- You can also use raw sausage meat – just slice and peel off the sausage layer and place the meat in a bowl.
- Sausage meat usually contains a fair amount of salt and sugar, but you may want to add a little more if you are using ground beef.
Step 4. Peel the Eggs
Tap the entire surface of the egg with the back of a spoon, then peel off the shell.
Step 5. Prepare the assembly
Put each ingredient in a different bowl and line them up on the table:
- Half boiled egg
- Meat
- 60 grams (½ cup) flour
- 2 additional raw eggs, beat until soft
- 120 grams (2 cups) breadcrumbs (bread)
Step 6. Wrap the bacon around your egg
Divide the meat into six equal portions, then shape each portion into a ball. Dip the eggs into the flour to help stick the meat together. Use your thumbs to make holes in each meatball, insert one egg, and cover the bacon around the egg.
Step 7. Coat the Scotch egg with flour
Use your array of ingredients to add a crunchy outer layer to your eggs:
- Roll the egg wrapped in the flour
- Dip in beaten egg
- Roll in breadcrumbs
- Dip again in beaten egg
- Roll again in breadcrumbs
Step 8. Fry in hot oil
This is easiest to do in a frying pan, but you can fill a frying pan with vegetable oil, to of the pan. Heat the oil to 170ºC, then cook the eggs for about ten minutes. If using a skillet, cook two or three eggs at a time and back and forth as often as possible until all the layers are crispy and golden brown. Transfer the eggs to a bowl lined with paper towels to remove excess oil.
- If you don't have a temperature gauge for cooking, put a piece of bread in the oil to test the heat. Your oil is hot when the bread is sizzling and browned, but not burnt.
- Cooking time may vary, depending on how much sausage meat is coating each egg, and how thick the eggs are coated. If you're worried that the beef will be undercooked this way, transfer the cooked eggs to a preheated 190ºC oven for a few minutes.
Step 9. Serve immediately or refrigerate
You can enjoy the bacon-wrapped eggs warm, or store them in the fridge for later. For food safety reasons, don't leave bacon-wrapped eggs out in the open for more than two hours (or one hour, in a hot room).
Tips
- Serve with any savory dipping sauce, or add to a Greek salad or Caesar salad.
- You can make healthier egg wraps by baking them, but the eggs will crumble more easily. Try reducing the meat to 450 grams and cooking it over 200ºC (400ºF) for 25–30 minutes.
Warning
- Do not use breadcrumbs that have not been dried, as they can absorb too much oil. You'll need dry breadcrumbs or cornflakes for a crunchy texture.
- Freshly harvested eggs are very difficult to peel. If you own your own chickens or buy eggs from a local farm, use eggs that are at least one week old.
