Twice this week I’ve needed some hard boiled eggs.  Once for Kedgeree and once for sandwiches – so I’m taking that as a sign and here is how I do it.

Not surprisingly, it begins with the egg.  I buy free-range – always.  It’s more expensive but if you’ve ever seen the conditions battery hens are kept in you’ll understand why.  Within the EU, an egg labelled ‘free-range’ guarantees the hens have had continuous day-time access to outdoor runs ‘mainly covered in vegetation’.  An egg labelled ‘organic’ is automatically ‘free-range’.  That’s not ‘worldwide’ so you’d need to check if you live outside the EU.

Doing anything with an egg is much easier if you know how old your egg is.  If you buy eggs in a box which is stamped with the lion mark it will give you a best before date.  That date is 21 days after laying so you can do some calculations.

The other way to tell the age of an egg is to float it in cold water.  A newly laid egg will sink to the bottom of a glass and lay entirely horizontal.  This is because there’s no air pocket.  As the egg ages the porous shell will absorb air which will collect in the rounded end.  When you float an egg with an air pocket it will cause the egg to tilt upwards.  A egg which sits vertical is stale.

A newly laid egg will poach effortlessly and, really, anything else is best not poached.  It’s also better for fried eggs, scrambling, making omelettes and for any recipe which asks you to separate the yolk from the white.  When an egg is fresh the yolk is plumper and the white clings to it.

Not only does the porous shell absorb air it allows the natural moisture in the egg to evaporate.  As the egg ages everything becomes flatter and looser.  For peeled hard boiled eggs the optimum egg is one between 5-12 days old.  You can, of course, hard boil an egg of any age.  What you’ll struggle with is the peeling.  When the egg is fresh the inner membrane which surrounds the egg white adheres like glue.  As the egg ages that membrane becomes looser and the shell slips off effortlessly.

Start with your egg at room temperature.  That air pocket which settles at the rounded end – prick it.  Being a woman of limited interests, a gadget to do just that is what Father Christmas put in my stocking a few years ago.

Pricking the egg before boiling lessens the chance of the shell cracking.  Sometimes that matters and sometimes it doesn’t.

Use a saucepan which minimises the amount of space the eggs have to bounce about.  Again, that’s about not cracking the shell during cooking.

Place your eggs in the saucepan in a single layer and cover with cold water so it covers the eggs by 1cm/½”.

Bring the water up to simmering point – and set the timer for 7 minutes.  This will give you a set yolk.  If your egg is fresh, less than 5 days old, cook for 7½ minutes.

Overcooked eggs taste like rubber.  They are also the ones which tend towards having a dark line around the yolk.  The solution is to stop the egg cooking as quickly as is possible.  It no long matters if the shell cracks so tip it into a colander and run cold tap water over it.  Keep going until the egg is cool to hold.

Finish cooling in a bowl of iced water.

Tap the egg all over on your work surface and start to peel at the wider end (where the egg pocket is).  I always peel over the bowl and use the water to deal with any tough to peel bits.  If you’re really struggling to get the shell off cleanly then peel under a running tap.

Back into the iced water until completely cold.

A bowl of hard boiled eggs, kept in the fridge, is great for snacking on.

Eat.

Hard Boiled Eggs

• Eggs.  5-12 days old and at room temperature.

Prick the air pocket at the rounded end of the egg and place in a single layer in a saucepan.  Cover with cold water.  Bring to a simmer and then set the timer for 7 minutes (adding an additional 30 seconds if your egg is fresh).

Drain in a colander and rinse in cold water to stop the egg cooking.

Transfer to a bowl of iced water.  Once cool enough to handle, peel.  (If the shell is sticking, peel under cold running water.)  Return to the bowl of iced water until completely cold.

Eat.

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The holy grail of the Scotch Egg is a runny yolk when you cut it open.  How proud am I!!!!

As with all dishes of antiquity there’s controversy as to who first created it.  Fortnum and Mason’s in London claim they did – in 1738 – as a portable snack for wealthy travellers starting their journey from one of the Piccadilly coaching inns.  (Fortnum’s was founded in 1707 and holds countless royal warrants.  I’d kind of like it to be their creation.  It’s still a very nice, if aspirational, foodie shop…)  There are those who believe it’s a British Raj adaptation of ‘nargisi kofta’.  (Possible – we are a nation of culinary magpies.)  The ‘scotch’ part is generally thought to be an abbreviation of ‘scotched egg’ which is an egg that has had something done to it in ye olde speake, as opposed to anything geographic.

Regardless of its origins the scotch egg is currently experiencing a resurgence in popularity, having weathered the travesty which is the rubber bouncing ball type you can buy in the chilled cabinets of motorway service stations.  If you happen upon any there, walk away.  It’s an eating experience it takes years to recover from.  Like stewed cabbage.

Home-made scotch egg is the way to go.

Remember all that beef dripping from the chunky chips …..

(In fact, if you’re having chunky chips for supper and want to pack up something delicious for lunch the following day you can combine the ‘fry’.They make great picnic food…)  Melt the solid beef dripping in a saucepan until liquid and transfer, if using, to a deep fat fryer.

The rest of the ingredients are more appealing to look at.

You can, of course, make your own sausage-meat – and since Liddy, my one and only daughter, bought a mincer attachment as a fathers’ day gift, we’ve started to.  (We’ve yet to produce a sausage I’d show you, though.  It’s tricky!!)  Assuming you’re not going to do that, simply choose a sausage you like and remove the meat from the casings. Today I’ve gone for a very traditional plain pork, well seasoned with black pepper. You need 100g/3½oz per egg.

To that I add lots of fresh herbs – chives, parsley, thyme and sage.  Roughly a tablespoon of mixed herbs per scotch egg.

Then 1 teaspoon of Dry English mustard powder per egg.

Mix.  Clean hands are the best tool!

Divide your sausage-meat into portions.  (And, yes, since  you’re asking, I do weigh it. 100g/3½oz.)

At the centre of a scotch egg is … a soft boiled egg.

It helps to know how old your eggs are.  Assuming you don’t have chickens, the best way to gauge how fresh your eggs are is to float them in a glass of water.  If it lays horizontally at the bottom of the glass, it’s fresh and you’ll need to give your eggs an extra 30 seconds on the timings below.  If it’s tipping off that horizontal but isn’t vertical, then it’s a little older.  Vertical and your egg is stale.

Mine are pretty fresh, certainly less than four days old, (though you can see it beginning to tip).  I’ll give it the extra time.  They need to be at room temperature.

Eggs have an air pocket, so a pinprick made in the rounded end of your egg allows the steam to escape which will stop the shell cracking.  (Father Christmas gave me this handy gadget.)

This is how I do it. Into a small saucepan (a large one would give them too much space to bounce about and make it much more likely they bash into each other and crack) place enough water to cover the eggs by 1cm/½ inch.  Bring that to a gentle simmer (small bubbles on the bottom of the pan, but no movement on the surface of the water), then carefully lower the eggs in.

Set the timer for 1 minute.  At the end of that – remove the pan from the heat, cover and leave for 6 minutes (that will give you a runny yolk and a just set white).  I’m adding 30 seconds.  Set a timer.

When the buzzer goes, transfer them to a bowl of iced water.  If you don’t, they’ll carry on cooking …  When they’re cold, peel.

Then get organised.  You need three bowls.  One with the seasoned flour.  One with eggs, beaten and loosened with a splodge of milk.  And a third with breadcrumbs (I keep a stash of these in the freezer and there’s no need to thaw.)

If you dampen your hands you’ll find this next bit a little easier.  Flatten your sausage-meat balls to a size that looks like it will wrap around an egg.

Put your peeled egg in the seasoned flour.  It’ll help the sausage-meat to adhere to the egg.  Then gently bring the meat up to wrap around the egg.  Pinch the meat together so there’s no gaps and – gently – roll between your hands to make a neat ball.

Then it’s a production line.  Flour, egg wash, breadcrumbs.  I love the crunchy outside, so do a second dip in the egg wash and breadcrumbs.  Felicity Cloake uses panko breadcrumbs and I’ve taken to using them on the second dip.

Then it’s time for the fryer.  I fry at 160ºC.

For exactly 10 minutes.  And I do one egg at a time.  As you can see, my fryer isn’t quite deep enough – so annoying – so I gently turn it in the oil to make sure it browns evenly.

And, then, because I like to be safe – I pop them into the Roasting Oven of my Aga for 5 minutes.  200ºC/ 400ºC.  Drain on kitchen paper.

I love them fresh from the fryer, with brown sauce and a salad.  My salad here is baby salad leaves, a little celery and the celery leaves – plus warm Kentish cobnuts (hazelnuts is a good substitute) which I’ve toasted in the oven with olive oil and salt.

Cold, scotch eggs make great picnic food.  Blowy autumn day with a scotch egg and a flask of roasted tomato soup – yum.

 

Scotch Eggs – as many as you want and have eggs for, but I’m making 7

• 11 eggs (that’s 1 egg per scotch egg – plus 2 eggs for every four)
• 700g of sausage-meat (that’s 100g/3½oz per egg)
• 7 tablespoons of mixed herbs (1 tablespoon per scotch egg) – chives, sage, parsley and thyme are favourite English herbs.  More if you wish.
• 7 teaspoons of English mustard powder (1 per scotch egg)
• Plain flour/all purpose flour, seasoned with salt and pepper
• Breadcrumbs – 100g/3½oz
• Panko breadcrumbs – 100g/3½ oz
• A splash of milk to loosen the egg wash
• Beef dripping to fry

Mix the sausage-meat with the fresh herbs and English mustard powder.  Shape into 100g/3½oz balls.

Place your pricked eggs into a saucepan of simmering water for 1 minute, remove from the heat and allow to sit in the warm water, lid on, for 6 minutes.  Plunge into iced water and leave until completely cold.  Peel.

Set up your conveyor belt.  One bowl of seasoned flour.  One of lightly beaten eggs, loosened with milk.  A third of breadcrumbs.  An optional fourth of spiky panko breadcrumbs for added crunch.

Flatten your sausage-meat balls and place a floured egg in the centre.  Bring the sausage-meat up and around.  Gently roll between your hands to make a neat ball.

Coat with flour, then the egg wash, and then the breadcrumbs.  Back into the egg wash and a final coating of breadcrumbs/panko breadcrumbs.

Fry at 160ºC for 10 minutes.

Place the cooked scotch eggs on a baking tray and bake for 5 minutes. (2ooºC/400ºF)

Drain on paper towel.

Eat.

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