A wonderful English pub staple, but to be honest, a bit of a pain in the ass to make. They are quite good though – when they come out right. In my experience, peeling boiled eggs can be effortless one time and a real disaster the next. I’ve yet to figure out exactly why that is. I have tried all the tricks. Vinegar in the water, baking soda in the water, start the eggs in cold water and bring up the heat. They all worked sometimes – and sometimes not. Here’s what I think might actually make a difference:
Use eggs that are at least a week old after purchase. I don’t know why but for some reason older eggs seem to peel easier than fresher eggs after boiling.
Prepare an extremely cold ice water bath – 6 to 7 ice cubes. I think the shock of the ice cold causes the hot eggs to contract inside the shell a little thus leaving a slim air pocket in between the egg and the inside surface of the shell, which makes them easier to peel.
These can be served with mustard, chives, sweet pickles, hot sauces, ranch dressing or anything else that goes good with eggs. Great for a holiday appetizer.
If you’re a pubber and want to go the more traditional pub route, you can back these scotch eggs with a pint of good dark beer, like Guinness, and some sweet pickles and/or pickled onions on the side and, of course, some good craic.
Need This
1 dozen large eggs (preferably about a week old)
All purpose flour
Panko bread crumbs
Vegetable oil (for frying)
2 – 1 pound rolls sweet or hot breakfast sausage (Parks, Jimmy Dean, Bob Evans) or whatever’s on sale.
Do This
In a large bowl add 6 – 8 ice cubes and cover with clean cold water.
Bring a large pot of water to a simmering boil. Add 8 eggs to the water and boil for exactly 7 minutes, then immediately dunk the eggs into the ice water. Let the eggs cool for at least 5 minutes.
While the eggs are cooling pour the vegetable oil into a large heavy pot (cast iron works great if you have one).* You’ll need enough oil to submerge the eggs – about 4½ inches in depth. Heat the oil to 350 degrees F. Use a heat thermometer to check it.**
Take out 3 small bowls. Dust some flour into one, shake panko bread crumbs into another and in the third bowl whisk together two eggs.
Now crack and peel your hard boiled eggs.
Put some flour on your hands.
Cut a 1 inch slice off a sausage roll and flatten it out in your hands into a thin and wide round, as if you were making a pizza. Place one egg in the center of the flattened sausage meat and wrap it around so that it completely envelops the egg. If it does not completely cover the egg patch-in some additional flattened out sausage meat until it does.
Repeat the process with the remaining eggs.
When the oil is at 350 F. it’s time to do the dunk-and-roll. Take a sausaged egg and dunk it into the flour first (roll it around to cover uniformly), next dunk and roll into the beaten egg mixture, then dunk and roll into the panko. Do 3 more eggs like that.
Re-supply the flour, panko and beaten eggs as needed.
Using a pair of tongs, lift each egg and gently submerge it into the hot oil. It should start to sizzle immediately.
Deep fry for 7 – 8 minutes until the eggs take on a deep brown color – like the color of chestnuts.
Remove the eggs from the oil and set them on a plate lined with paper towels.
Now do the other 4 eggs.
Serve with mustard, sweet pickles, pickled onions, hot sauce and anything else that feels good.
Serves 4. My cost approx. $ 5.38 total – about $ 1.35 per serving
*Or, if you have a deep fryer, better yet.
**Keeping the oil at 350 degrees F is crucial to the success of this dish. At the right temperatures, all cooking oils (vegetable, corn, canola, peanut) will render a nice deep crunch without sogginess. At the wrong temperatures all cooking oils will soak through leaving you with an unpleasantly oily texture – yes even Wesson. GMN