surprisingly simple scotch eggs
they're actually far easier than you'd think! 🥚
Welcome to thyme & butter recipe club, a weekly newsletter where I share my favorite recipes. Thank you for being here! 🌿💛
If you’ve stumbled across this post but are not yet subscribed, allow me to help you with that:
Last year I challenged myself to cook one thing a week that I had never cooked before. The challenge started off as a way to get creative in the kitchen and stave off some of the homesickness I was experiencing living far away from my family and friends, but it quickly turned into a passion project where I chose increasingly complicated recipes. It was great fun, and I encourage you to try it if you’re ever looking for a fun way to test your culinary skills! If you’re curious, you can see everything I made in 2022 by visiting the hashtag #JessMakes52 on Instagram.
Now that I’m back on the east coast and writing this newsletter, I’ve been thinking back on some of my favorite recipes from that year. Scotch Eggs stand out as an instant staple, as we’ve made them at least 3 times since that first Instagram post. They’re surprisingly quick once you hit your stride, and though they appear like they’d be tricky, they’re actually quite easy once you get the technique down!
Yield: 4
Ingredients:
4 cups vegetable oil (or preferred frying oil)
6 large eggs (cold)
1lb loose breakfast sausage
1 pinch nutmeg (optional)
1 pinch cayenne (optional)
2 eggs (beaten)
½ cup all-purpose flour
1 cup panko breadcrumbs
½ teaspoon garlic powder
salt
pepper
Instructions:
In a deep fryer or sauce pan, bring the frying oil to 350 degrees F.
Heat a pot of water on the stove and bring to a boil. Slowly place in your cold eggs, and boil for 6 minutes. Remove from heat and run under cold water (or dunk in an ice bath) to cool them.
Once cool, gently peel your eggs.
Unwrap your sausage and mix in desired seasonings (nutmeg, cayenne, etc) then roll into 4 balls.
Yes, we boiled 2 extra eggs just in case. There’s no better way to guarantee a failed peel (or sausage wrap) than to boil only the exact number of eggs you need, since they are soft boiled they are less forgiving if the white of the egg cracks. If you are an egg peeling pro, feel free to omit the extra eggs.
Sandwich one of the sausage balls in a piece of plastic wrap and gently flatten it. Place your egg in the center of the flat disk of sausage and begin to press the sausage around the egg to cover it completely. Repeat until you have used each ball.
A quarter pound per each egg will create quite a large scotch egg, but I find this is a good ratio for first-timers. As you become more familiar with wrapping the eggs, you can reduce the amount of sausage and maybe even wrap that 5th or 6th egg!
Mix flour, panko, garlic powder, salt and pepper in a bowl. Beat 2 eggs in a second bowl.
Dip and roll each sausage wrapped egg into egg wash, and then coat in flour bread crumb mixture. Place on a plate until ready to fry.
Depending on the size of your frying vessel, fry the eggs one at a time or in pairs, for about 6 minutes or until golden brown on all sides.
Transfer your scotch eggs onto a wire rack to cool before digging in.
Serve with a dipping sauce of your choice. Honey mustard, spicy brown, mustard from Germany (thanks Sabrina!) or even Chick-Fil-A sauce are all scotch egg approved in our house!
Enjoy!
Find me on Instagram and Pinterest 💕
All past recipes will be available in the archive, so you never have to worry about missing one!
Thank you for reading thyme & butter. These posts are public so you are always welcome to share them! 🧈💚