Scotch Eggs Experiment

I am playing with recipes for Scotch Eggs for a proposed breakfast served at Winter Weekend. I made up mixtures of traditional pork sausage or beef or beef/turkey with a mix of herbs from my bed and either bread or cracker coating.My guinea pigs were the good people attending Angel's Tuesday Night Fighter Practice in Monrovia. None of the versions were bad, according to them. The beef/turkey seemed to have the best consistency and maintain shape during cooking. Also, cracker coating was much more uniform than bread crumbs and crisped very nicely when fried. Scotch eggs took for-ev-er though. Maybe I will look at some other main meal options, too!

 

Here's the best recipe from my first experiment:

12 semi-hard boiled eggs (peeled)

1 lb ground beef +1 lb ground turkey

1 tsp each, minced fresh parsley, thyme, oregano

1/2 tsp each, minced fresh rosemary and sage

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1/4 tsp garlic powder

 3 green onions minced finely

1 egg beaten for coating

1/2 cup flour for coating

1/2-2/3 cup pulverized oyster crackers

safflower or canola oil for frying (1/4"-1/2" deep in the pan)

Mix meat with herbs and seasonings, take a ball about the size of the egg (or divide the meat into 12 parts) and smoosh it flat then wrap it around an egg. Repeat for all the eggs. Let them sit for 10 minutes. Heat the oil till a piece of crumb sizzles and bubbles as soon as it's dropped in. Dust flour over the balls, then roll in beaten egg, then roll in the cracker crumbs. Arrange in the oil so that there is turning room. I found that turning it 6 times (so that it had 5 'sides' and a top and bottom) yielded a nice round egg at the end. It took up to 2 minutes cook time per turn to get them golden and done, but not too dark. 

 If I were going to make these ahead and chill them for later reheating in the oven, I would only cook them 1 min per side, then cook them 20 minutes at 350F en masse on a cookie sheet.