We grew up looking at the Scotch egg as humble party or picnic food but apparently its origins are shrouded in mystery. Typically in the world of big beast retailers Fortnum and Mason claim to have invented them in 1738. They sold them as a portable snack for rich coach travellers. Scots themselves reckon it was the crofters equivalent of the Cornish pasty. That is to say it was a highly portable food for workers.
Britain has a long food heritage of pinching good food ideas from where ever they could so a Moghul dish of minced meat and a boiled egg – Nargisi Kofta – could easily have travelled home from the Raj. After all India lead us to Kedgeree, Chutney and Indian Pale Ale which provides fond memories to this writer from my student days.
Our modern foodie culture sees a resolutely working class food now gracing the tables of Heston Bluemental restaurants and numerous delis. In the USA they serve them warm with dipping sauces. They are very good warm if you have never eaten them that way.
So whatever or where ever the Egg devil came from what could be a better way of using sausage meat than as a wrapping for an egg?
