If you like scotch eggs, then you’ll know they are expensive to buy…
I’ve just checked on my favourite butchers page to see how much his scotch eggs are, and they are £1.59. To be fair, they are really delicious and a good size, but I still begrudge paying out over £1.50 for a scotch egg I could make myself for under 25 pence each. I’ve just checked Tesco prices and you can get 2 for 99 pence at the moment. However they’re obviously very small at that price and I’ll be honest, I’m not keen on buying them from a supermarket. You don’t know how fresh they are, or what ingredients and additives have been added.
I stopped buying scotch eggs years ago when I realised it’s quite easy to make my own. Hubs and grandson love them and they’re big enough that with a salad and new potatoes for instance, they make a great main meal. On their own, they’re a delicious snack or quick lunch.
You can also add different ingredients to the sausage meat. I’ve been experimenting and this batch turned out really delicious. They got a thumbs up from hubs, so I’ll be making them again. They are also really easy to make and can be made within half an hour. (After eggs are boiled of course).
Ingredients
- A roll of sausage meat. I get mine from my local butcher, It costs £2.50 and will make 5-6 scotch eggs. I got 5 from this batch.
- Eggs (As many as required). If you find you’ve boiled too many, use the rest as egg mayo. I boiled 9, used five for scotch eggs and made egg mayo with the rest.
- Golden bread crumbs
- Egg to coat (Add a dash of milk to ensure it goes further)
- Dash of paprika
- Half a diced onion (I cheated and used ready diced from Lidl)
- Oil
- Salt n pepper to season (Optional)
- Sprinkle of flour
Method
- Boil the eggs, leave to cool. then peel shell away.
- Heat up the oil in a pan, (I use my wok). It is very important the oil is really, really hot.
Don’t use virgin oil, it’s too expensive for the quantity you need, plus it doesn’t get hot enough. - Beat your egg (and milk if using) in a bowl and put to the side
- Put some golden breadcrumbs into a bowl and set aside. (Lidl do a very nice golden breadcrumb in their own brand)
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Put sausage meat into a large bowl, and add all of your seasoning and onion. Make sure everything is fully mixed together.- You need to wrap the sausage meat around the eggs. Divide it into big enough portions that you think will be enough. To be honest, this is sometimes trial and error. You need to make sure you’ve got enough sausage meat around each egg otherwise they won’t work. Also work them on a floured board so they don’t stick.
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Work each egg gradually by compressing the sausage meat around the egg using your hands, gently rolling it on your floured board so the meat completely covers the egg. Make sure there are no cracks at all in the sausage meat otherwise when cooking the oil will get to the egg and it won’t look right. Once you’ve done your first one, you’ll soon get the knack.- Now you need to coat your scotch egg in the egg mixture so the breadcrumbs will stick. Make sure they are well coated
- Now roll your eggs in the golden breadcrumbs, keep rolling until they are well coated.
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They should look like the one to your left. - The time has now come to add your scotch egg to the pan for frying. It is very important that the oil is smoking hot. If not hot enough, then the sausage meat will absorb the oil and the eggs will be greasy and won’t taste as good. I drop a bit of bread in the oil to ensure it’s hot enough.
- Drop the eggs in one at a time (This is also important). If you put them in the oil all together, then the temperature of the oil will decrease and you’ll have the same problem mentioned above about the oil soaking into the sausage meat.
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Now you need to make sure they are nicely and evenly browned. I tend to use enough oil so that it comes halfway up the sides of the scotch eggs, it’s expensive otherwise to fill up the pan with oil. So as soon as you’ve dropped an egg into the oil, start turning it so it gets a nice even brown colour. (The darker bits on mine are the diced onion).- Once cooked, remove from the pan with a suitable spoon and leave on some kitchen paper to drain off any excess oil. There shouldn’t be much if the oil was hot enough to start with. Notice on my image below, there is barely any oil soaked into the kitchen paper.
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You should now have at least 5-6 delicious scotch eggs.
Mine turned out really delicious. We had one each for tea the day I made them with a huge mixed salad and jacket potatoes. We’ve eaten another two today for lunch with the rest of the salad, and there’s one left that I’m going to take for grandson later today for a snack.
Put sausage meat into a large bowl, and add all of your seasoning and onion. Make sure everything is fully mixed together.
Work each egg gradually by compressing the sausage meat around the egg using your hands, gently rolling it on your floured board so the meat completely covers the egg. Make sure there are no cracks at all in the sausage meat otherwise when cooking the oil will get to the egg and it won’t look right. Once you’ve done your first one, you’ll soon get the knack.
They should look like the one to your left.
Now you need to make sure they are nicely and evenly browned. I tend to use enough oil so that it comes halfway up the sides of the scotch eggs, it’s expensive otherwise to fill up the pan with oil. So as soon as you’ve dropped an egg into the oil, start turning it so it gets a nice even brown colour. (The darker bits on mine are the diced onion).Obviously you don’t have to add onions or any other seasoning. Plain scotch eggs are really tasty as well, I just like experimenting..
Anyway, that’s one of my takes on scotch eggs. If you’d like me to ‘experiment’ with any other ideas I’m happy to oblige. I have a willing guinea pig here at home willing to try them out.
