Scotch eggs are made up of a hard boiled egg wrapped in a blanket of sausage, onion and herbs.  They are a unique, delicious food, but many people in the US have never heard of them before.  They started out in the UK as a picnic food, but these days in the UK you can buy them pre-packed in the convenience or grocery stores.  Around here you have to make them yourself, but you can find some pubs and restaurants that sell them as appetizers.  Brits Pub in Minneapolis, MN has some great ones!  The only way I have eaten them is warm, but it is common to eat them cold.

  If you make them yourself there are a couple of choices that give you some creative freedom according to your tastes.  For example, some like to deep-fry them.  However, I prefer to bake them because it doesn't get so oily and greasy.  After all, it's wrapped in sausage which is already high in fat content, so why do you need to soak it in oil?  There are other choices such as what kind of herbs and other ingredients you add to the sausage mixture or whether to buy pre-seasoned sausage.

This project page shows the techniques my family has used to make them at home. 

 I would suggest about 6 to 8 eggs for each pound of ground sausage meat.  6 allows you to make a pretty thick layer of sausage around the egg while 8 would leave a thinner layer of sausage.  Some prefer a thinner layer, so you should try it out to see what you like.

Scotch Eggs:

• 6 to 8 hard-boiled eggs, cooled
• All-purpose flour
• 1 lb sausage meat
• ½ yellow onion, finely chopped
• 1 c breadcrumbs
• ½ tsp dried parsley flakes
• Fresh ground black pepper to taste
• 2 uncooked eggs (for the sausage mixture)
• Additional breadcrumbs to coat
• Additional seasonings as desired (sage, thyme, chili powder...etc)

Boil eggs about 5 minutes, then cool immediately with ice water. Remove shells.

Dredge with flour while still wet, ensuring an even coating and set aside.

Combine sausage meat, onion, breadcrumbs and seasonings and mix well. Add raw eggs and mix thoroughly.

Divide sausage mixture into eight portions and ‘wrap’ each egg with the mixture, rolling each egg in the additional breadcrumbs to coat, before placing on baking tray covered with parchment paper. Alternatively, if you don't have parchment paper, you cna use a lightly oiled baking tray.

Bake at 350° F for about 40 minutes, turning if necessary.

Dijon Sauce for Scotch Eggs: 

• 2 Tb butter
• 2 Tb flour
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 tsp chopped parsley
• 1 to 1-1/4 c half-and-half
• 1 Tb Dijon mustard

In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, melt butter, whisk in flour; cook for about 1 minute, whisking constantly, until smooth and bubbling. Add seasonings, then add 1 cup of half-and-half until desired consistency is reached. Whisk in mustard; serve over Scotch eggs, vegetables or fried fish.

The first thing you need to do is hard-boil the eggs.  Boil the eggs just long enough to solidify the egg whites.  That keeps the insides a little softer.  Since they're baking in the oven they'll cook a bit more anyways.  After you hard boil them you cool them immediately with ice water.  Peel off the shells and put them all on a plate so they're ready.

Combine all your ingredients.  Put your ground sausage meat into a large mixing bowl.  Chop up the onions until they are finely diced.  They need to be small otherwise they will cause the sausage to fall apart too easily. 

Add the onions to the ground sausage meat.  Next add the bread crumbs and seasonings.  Add some pepper if you like (I use about 1/4 teaspoon).  There are also some herbs and spices that go well in the mix.  Now if you got an italian sausage or a pre-seasoned breakfast sausage then you might not want to add extra spices as the flavor can become overpowering.  If you buy plain bulk sausage then go ahead and add some seasonings.  What I use is Sage, Chili Powder, Thyme and Basil.  About a quarter teaspoon of each (per pound of meat) is about right.

 After you get it all added together you need to mash it up with your hands.  You could also use a countertop stand mixer for this step.  Next blend the raw eggs with a fork and add them to the mixture.  Mix well.

Now we need to roll them in flour.  Before you roll each one, make sure it is slightly damp on the outside.  You can run it under some tap water if it's dry.  Roll it so there's a good layer of flour on the outside of the egg.  Set them back on the plate as you get them coated in flour.

After they're all floured, you can case them in the meat. 

1. Split up your meat into equal sized ball.  Make one ball for each egg. 
2. Flatten one of the meat balls into a patty until you think it's about the right size to wrap around the egg. 
3. Place one of the eggs into the center of the patty. 
4. Wrap the meat around the egg and pinch it all together so it's one big ball.

I like to set all the balls to the side before rolling in the breadcrumbs, then I roll them all at once.  Alternatively you could coat with breadcrumbs after forming each ball.  As you can see from the pictures I used about 1 and a half pounds of meat so I increased the rest of the ingredients accordingly.

After all the balls are formed pour out some bread crumbs onto a plate.  Also get another pan ready for the balls after they're rolled in the breadcrumbs.  If you want easier cleanup put a layer of parchment paper down on the pan that you're going to cook on.  Start rolling the balls in the breadcrumbs.

After rolling each ball in the breadcrumbs transfer it onto the pan covered with parchment paper.

 Bake at 350° F for about 40 minutes, turning if necessary.

In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, melt butter, whisk in flour; cook for about 1 minute, whisking constantly, until smooth and bubbling.

Add seasonings, then add 1 cup of half-and-half until desired consistency is reached.  Add more half-and-half if you want a thinner sauce.  Whisk in mustard.  The sauce can be served over Scotch eggs, vegetables or fried fish.

After they're done cooking, take them out of the oven and set them in a bowl for the table.  Pour the sauce over the scotch egg and you're ready to eat.

As you can see from the pictures some of the eggs split open on the seam where the sausage was wrapped over the egg.  You can make sure to pinch that seam a little tighter to prevent this.  Also it's a good idea to put the seam side down on the pan.