Scotch Egg
A scotch egg consists of a boiled egg, wrapped in sausage meat, coated in bread crumbs and baked or deep fried. It is a common snack in most countries of the world. It can be eaten alone or with a dipping sauce or salad. It has a crunchy exterior with a moist interior. The taste of scotch egg depends largely on the type of sausage used. In this post, I share some techniques on how to make the perfect scotch egg.
INGREDIENTS:
(1) Boiled Eggs
(2) Sausages (See Note 1)
(3) Raw Egg(s)
(4) 1 Cup All Purpose Flour
(5) 1 Cup Bread Crumbs (I love using Panko)
(6) Oil for Frying
(7) Salt, Pepper and Spices (Optional) (See Note 2)
NOTES:
(1) Any type of sausage can be used. The number of sausages will depend on the number of scotch eggs you want to make. For regular sized sausages, go with the ration 1:1. Sausage meat can also be used in place of sausages.
(2) Sausages come already spiced. Thus, you might not need extra seasoning. It is however good practice to season the raw egg, flour and bread crumbs.
PROCEDURE:
The Procedure is divided into 4 steps
(A) Cooking Eggs:
(1) Boil eggs. The doneness of the eggs will depend on how you love your eggs. Note however that the eggs will still cook some more when the scotch egg is frying or baking. Allow the eggs to cool down before wrapping.
(B) Wrapping Eggs:
The next step is to wrap the cooked eggs with sausage. There are several ways of doing this:
A. Fast Method
(1) Dust your hands with flour. This would prevent the sausage from sticking to your hands.
(2) Remove casing from a single sausage, flatten the sausage in the palm of your hand, place boiled eggs in the middle of the flattened sausage and wrap the egg with the sausage. Its that simple.
B. Second Method (My Method)
(1) Remove casing from all the sausages.
(2) Place sausages in a bowl and mash together with a wooden spoon.
NOTE: To solve the challenge of evenly dividing sausage between eggs, weigh out sausages before removing casing to get total weight of sausages. Simply divide this number by the number of eggs you have and weigh each portion before covering eggs.
(3) Add spices to the sausage if you want to. I added some black pepper, chili flakes and thyme to mine. Mix sausage to incorporate spices well.
(4) Place a sheet of plastic wrap on your work surface. Put measured out sausage filling on plastic wrap and place another plastic wrap on the sausage meat. Flatten sausage meat with your palms or a rolling pin.
NOTE: Along with the size of each egg, the amount of sausage you use for each egg will determine the size of your scotch eggs. I love my eggs well padded with sausage meat. You can choose to use less.
(5) Take off the top plastic wrap. Place an egg on the sausage meat and gather up the ends of the plastic wrap, thus enclosing the egg. Twist the top of the plastic wrap to totally wrap the egg and shape the snack. You might need to finish shaping the scotch eggs with floured hands. This method guarantees a more even spread of the sausage and makes encasing the eggs easier.
(6) Complete the above steps with all the other eggs using the same plastic wraps (No need for fresh ones). Ensure wrapped eggs do not touch each other or they might stick to each other.
NOTE: Do not worry so much if your scotch eggs are not perfectly rounded at the point. You will have other opportunities to perfect the shape when coating.
(C) Coating Scotch Eggs:
(1) Make an assembly line of a beaten egg, flour and bread crumbs. Season each component with a little bit of salt and pepper. Use more of each component if needed.
(2) Working with one scotch egg at a time, dip it in the flour. This will coat it and help the egg stick better to it.
(3) Next dip the scotch egg in the beaten egg. This will help the bread crumbs stick to the scotch egg.
(4) Finally, dip the scotch egg in the bread crumbs. Pat the bread crumbs into the body of the sausage while shaping the scotch egg into perfect balls. Add more bread crumbs to the scotch egg if needed. The bread crumbs is what makes this snack crunchy.
(5) Complete the above steps for all the other scotch eggs.
TIP: Have a paper towel close by. Moving from one component to the other will leave residue of each on your hands. You might need to whip your hands often.
(D) Frying Scotch Eggs
(1) Heat oil in a deep pot or sauce pan. When oil is hot, reduce heat to medium.
(2) Fry scotch eggs in batches. Do not overcrowd oil or this will bring down the temperature of the oil.
(3) Fry one side for about 4 minutes, flip the scotch eggs and fry the other side for another 4 minutes.
(4) Place scotch eggs on a plate lined with paper towels to absorb the excess oil.
Serve scotch eggs warm or at room temperature.
END NOTE/HOW TO MAKE BREAD CRUMBS
(1) Place bread slices on a baking tray. Do not overlap slices. It is better to use old/stale bread. Cut off the crusts from the bread before using.
(2) Bake bread in preheated 300 degree oven for about 20 minutes or until bread is dry. Flip bread half way through.
(3) Place bread in a food processor and process into crumbs. Alternatively, place bread in a ziploc bag and pound into crumbs.
Terry Adido is passionate about showing people how easy it is to recreate restaurant quality meals in the comfort of their kitchens. With a style of cooking he refers to as Afro-European Fusion, his meals are influenced greatly by French and Italian Cuisine with a West African twist. If you love good food, you are in for the ride of your life.
thanks dearie. av bin wanting to know how dis is made.
You are welcome Queen
good job. the sausage and breadcrumbs, can I get it in shoprite here in Nigeria?. thanks
Thanks. Maybe. I dont know.
Sausuage is it the only name to find it and is this the original scotch egg if yes what of the one we do after egg roll and dip inside bread crumbs and call it scotch eggs. Thanks so much you have done a grate job.
Thanks. Yes to sausage, yes to original recipe. I dont quite get the rest of your question.
Nice job
Thanks Kachi
Hey,thanks a lot!!your recipes are so easy!!looking foward for your cookies recipe…
Thanks Angie.
God bless terry for me. Trying this on xmas eve
Thanks Kemmy.
Am so trying this, thanks God bless you!!!
Thanks. You will love it.
I look forward to receiving new posts.
Thanks Ugonna. I’d keep them coming.
hmm gr8!
Thanks Aisha.
Am surely going to try this next weekend, thanks Terry, you are one in a million, God bless you
Thanks Hawawu.
Wow…I never knew sausages we’re what is used in making scotch eggs, never eaten on b4 too. Definitely going to try this! Thanks Terry
You are welcome Julianah.
Its interesting to see and knw men who deal wid de kitchen and Terry is one of such men,well done, but i’ll luv ot if u’ll teach me more cos av fallen in luv wid ur kitchen styles,dey very simple……. Ure blessed ma dear!!!!!
Thanks Grace. You will learn a lot here.
Thank you so much for this recipe,but this sausage is minced meat to me cos the sausage here even when pounded will not look this way. i enjoyed d procedures. Thanks a lot
Thanks. This is not minced meat as you can clearly see the sausages still in their wraps. There are different types of sausages.
I love all about it, thanks.
Thanks Nkiruka.
Thanks for this easy recipe. Just tried it out and it’s err not bad for a first trial lol. Making it again for my guests on Tuesday. Thanks.
You are welcome. All the best the next time.
Thumbs up Mr T. U r a blessing to many of us still finding our way in d kitchen.
Thanks Joyce
Thanks for this recipe. Tried it twice now. My first attempt was good, though I used a fine sausage meat but didn’t really give me the scotch egg taste. Second attempt gave me the scotch egg taste, the sausage I used looks like yours, but some of it opened up while frying on a medium heat. What could have been the problem please?
Hi. Thanks for the feedback. Cracking occurs when the sausage meat is stretched too much to cover the egg. You might also prevent cracking if you double coat your scotch eggs.
Thanks Terry for this, can it be baked?
Yes. But you will end up with a different texture.
U know Terry its a little hard to get sausage where i live(umuahia)actually pretty hard.we had wanted to learn how to make sausage roll and scotch egg in d catering class i attend and one of us was asked to buy sausage she had tried for almost a month without success until she told us one day she finally got one we prepared the batter and it turned out she bought hotdogs we didnt know what to call the rolls we made that day!lol anyway now that i see ur post i must make this scotch egg by fire by force.buy sausage is now in my to-do list wen i get down to enugu(hope to see it in shoprite or roban stores)sorry about my long post.u are d best Terry
🙂 Thanks for your message. I’m certain you would find it in shoprite. All the best.
Very nice thanks.i will try this
Do give it a go Miracle!
Hi Terry,
Do you have a recipe for egg roll? I’m looking fo rthe perfect recipe to try for my kids.
Thank you!
No I dont Maureen.
Hi Terry. Thank you so much for this recipe. God bless you.
My pleasure.