A Scotch egg is a boiled egg wrapped in

sausage A sausage is a type of meat product usually made from ground meat—often pork, beef, or poultry—along with salt, spices and other flavourings. Other ingredients, such as grains or breadcrumbs, may be included as fillers or extenders. ...

meat, coated in

breadcrumbs Breadcrumbs are a culinary ingredient consisting of flour or crumbled bread of varying dryness, sometimes with seasonings added. They are used for a variety of purposes, including breading or crumbing foods before frying (such as breaded cutlet ...

and baked or deep-fried.

Origin

Various origin stories exist. The '' Oxford Companion to Food'' gives the first instance of the name as of 1809, in an edition of Maria Rundell's '' A New System of Domestic Cookery.'' They did not, at that time, have a breadcrumb layer, although by 1861 Isabella Beeton suggested this as an option. According to the ''Oxford Companion to Food'', food historian Annette Hope speculated in 1987 that the inspiration may have been Indian koftas such as the Mughlai dish called '' nargisi kofta'' (" Narcissus meatballs"), in which a boiled egg is encased in a seasoned ground-meat mixture and then fried. Other claims include the item having been invented at Fortnum & Mason at Piccadilly in 1738. According to ''Culinary Delights of Yorkshire'', they originated in Whitby,

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

, England, in the 19th century, and were originally covered in fish paste rather than sausage meat. They were supposedly named after William J. Scott & Sons, a well-known eatery which sold them. It has also been suggested that they were originally called "scorch" eggs, as they were cooked over an open flame, though according to surviving recipes they were deep-fried in lard. 'Scotching' as a culinary process is also sometimes cited as the origin, though what "scotching" was is open to interpretation, from the inclusion of anchovies to simply mincing meat. Further confusion is added by the large trade in eggs from Scotland in the 19th century, which sometimes involved dipping eggs in a lime powder to preserve them, a process possibly also known as "scotching".

Preparation and serving

Scotch eggs are prepared by hard- or soft-boiling an egg, wrapping it in sausage meat, and deep-frying it. It is often eaten in pubs or as a cold snack at picnics. In the Netherlands and Belgium, Scotch eggs may also be called ''vogelnestje'' ("little bird's nest"), because they contain an egg. One 1880s Scottish recipe also calls them birds' nests.

Regional variation

The

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

egg consists of a pickled egg wrapped in a mixture of pork meat and

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

black pudding. Vegetarian versions have also been made. In 2022, Guinness World Records certified a vegetarian Scotch egg as the world's largest. It used an ostrich egg in the center, with a coating made of peas and cheddar cheese. The Harwood Arms, a Michelin-starred restaurant in London, started selling a vegetarian Scotch egg that uses a plant-based meat alternative in 2020, and the next year, the supermarket chain

Tesco Tesco plc () is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in the United Kingdom at its head offices in Welwyn Garden City, England. The company was founded by Jack Cohen (businessman), Sir Jack Cohen in ...

started selling a vegan version.

Nutrition

A fatty food, a typical sausage-coated Scotch egg has about 200 mg dietary cholesterol per 100 grams.

References

External links