Scotch egg

Scotch egg

Scotch egg, halved
Type	Picnic food
Place of origin	United Kingdom
Main ingredients	Hard-boiled egg, sausage, bread crumbs

A Scotch egg consists of a hard-boiled egg wrapped in sausage meat, coated in bread crumbs and baked or deep-fried.

The London department store Fortnum & Mason claims to have invented Scotch eggs in 1738, but they may have been inspired by the Mughlai dish nargisi kofta ("Narcissus meatballs").

The earliest printed recipe appears in the 1809 edition of Mrs. Rundell's A New System of Domestic Cookery. Mrs. Rundell—and later 19th-century authors—served them hot, with gravy.

Scotch eggs are a common picnic food. In the United Kingdom packaged Scotch eggs are available in supermarkets, corner shops and motorway service stations. Miniature versions are also widely available, sold as "savoury eggs", "picnic eggs", "party eggs", "snack eggs", "egg bites" or similar. These contain chopped egg or a quail's egg, rather than a whole chicken egg, and sometimes contain mayonnaise or chopped bacon.

In the United States, many "British-style" pubs and eateries serve Scotch eggs, usually served hot with dipping sauces such as ranch dressing, hot sauce, or hot mustard sauce. At the Minnesota State Fair Scotch eggs are served on a stick. Scotch eggs are available at most Renaissance Festivals from Maryland to Texas.

In the Netherlands and Belgium, Scotch eggs may also be called vogelnestje ("little bird's nest") because they contain an egg or eierbal ("eggball"). In Italy they are known as polpettone, consisting of a meatloaf filled with eggs.

Several local variations exist. The Manchester egg uses a pickled egg wrapped in a mixture of pork meat and Lancashire black pudding, and the Worcester Egg uses an egg pickled in Worcestershire sauce and clad in a mixture of local sausage meat and white pudding.

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