Scotch Eggs - Bigger and Better

If you have even been to a Renaissance Festival, or a decent Irish themed tavern you will more than likely have heard of the heavenly concoction that is the Scotch Egg.

Just look at the picture ... how many foods do you know that can turn an ordinary plate into a happy face.

A Scotch egg consists of a hard-boiled egg wrapped in sausage meat, coated in bread crumbs and baked or deep-fried.

While I love to get a scotch egg when they are available, I feel that the commercially available scotch eggs fall a bit short in the meat department. I think the time has come for scotch eggs to make the leap from side dish or snack food to entree.

With that bold endeavor in mind here is what I used:

3 lbs of mild Italian Sausage (OK ... technically it was 2.91 lbs ... close enough)

14 eggs - 12 were hard boiled, 2 were used in the breading process

Panko bread crumbs

2-3 tbsp minced onion

1 tbsp Basil

1 tbsp of chopped chives

1 tsp ground sage

Grab a sharp knife and cut the sausage out of the casing.

Once the meat is out you can move on to the next step if you want, or you can add any herbs and spices that you fancy to the mix

At this point I added the minced onion, Basil, chopped chives, and ground sage.

I was going to add some thyme to the sausage, but my spicerack was lacking that key ingredient and I wasn't in the mood to run back to the store ... there is always next time.

mix until well blended.

You can ask 10 different people how to make hard boiled eggs and you will probably get 10 different methods.

Here is what works for me:

put the raw eggs into a saucepan and cover the eggs with cold water. It is ok if the eggs stand up in the water that means they are a few weeks old, but they are still good to eat. If any of your eggs float, throw those eggs out. They are no good.

Add a splash of vinegar to the water. The vinegar won't change the taste of the eggs, but it will prevent any blow outs if the shells crack in the cooking process. Added bonus, the vinegar makes the shells easier to peel.

Bring the water up to a boil, continue to boil for 5 minutes. You don't want to overcook the eggs, that will result in greyish green yolks and a sulfury taste.

remove from the heat and run cold water into the pan until the eggs cool down.

Once the eggs have cooled, hit the egg on the counter just hard enough to crack the shell. place your hand on top of the egg and apply gentle pressure while rolling the egg to crack around the center of the shell.

Peel the shell off the egg.

Divide the sausage meat into 12 equal portions.

At this point,some recipes will have you rolling the sausage out between plastic wrap or waxed paper. I find it much more therapeutic to simply squash the sausage flat by hand.

place the egg in the flattened sausage patty and bring the edges together to secure the egg in its meat cocoon.

once your egg is tucked in snugly, take the sausageball and roll it around in your hands briefly to even out the thickness of the sausage walls around the egg.

Put some flour into a bowl

Take those two eggs that didn't get hard boiled, put them in a bowl with a small amount of water to thin the eggs down to a wash.

The third bowl gets a generous amount of breadcrumbs.

I like to add a sprinkle of breadcrumbs to my "staging plate" where I get a batch of food ready to be cooked. It keeps the bottoms from getting soggy, like edible painters stands.

breading the scotch eggs is as easy as 1 2 3

1) flour

2) egg wash

3) breadcrumbs

a typical scotch egg is somewhere between the size of a golf ball and a racquetball .. my scotch eggs are the size of a baseball.

I got a new toy, so I cooked these in the air fryer. While I am still learning the best ways to use the air fryer, one rule that can't bend is don't overcrowd the basket. in order for the food to cook right there needs to be good airflow. With that in mind, I cooked only 6 eggs at a time.

These scotch eggs took 25 minutes to cook at 390 degrees Fahrenheit. A less meaty version (standard sized) scotch egg will typically take about 15 minutes at the same temp.

If you are deep frying, you want to have your oil at 350 degrees and turn the eggs occasionally to get the breading evenly golden brown. Usually about 6-8 minutes for a normal sized egg, 10-12 minutes for these super sized badboys.

Baking in the oven, Place the eggs on an ungreased cookie sheet (if you have a baking rack you can put them on that to avoid them sitting in the grease from the sausage and getting soggy bottoms.

Most times I get scotch eggs at a restaurant or bar they are served with a sauce made up of mayonnaise and mustard with a splash of lemon juice. Although I have never asked for the recipe for this sauce, from the taste I would guess it is 3-4 parts mayo to one part mustard and just a splash of lemon juice to add a citrus tang.

Some other favored toppings to go with the scotch egg:

hot sauce - Sriracha, Frank's red hot, Pain and Suffering Sauce .. whatever makes you happy

your favorite type of mustard whether it is hot and spicy, Dijon, or honey mustard

Grab your topping(s) of choice, a nice cool beverage, and make a happy plate :)