[Sca-cooks] Scotch Eggs

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

Also sprach Stefan li Rous:
>Adamantius mentioned:
>>Also sprach Micheal:
>>>   Actually where I learned cooking,  meat loaf wrapped around a hard
>>>  boiled egg was called a "scotch egg".
>>
>>Except classically, a Scotch egg is breaded and fried (I mean. on top
>>of the meat wrapping), more like Mari's rissoles, and the egg is
>>still the main component of the dish. Today it's mostly done with
>>sausage meat, but originally was, apparently, done with chopped raw
>>ham.
>With chopped raw ham instead of sausage? That would change the taste 
>a bit. Any further info on this? I doubt this takes it back to 
>period, though.

Um, "I read it in a book"? I actually did, but not sure where. I'll 
probably run across it again before I die, in which case I'll be sure 
to let you know.

I doubt there's any special relationship between any use of chopped 
ham (I'm talking a raw ham like Smithfield or something akin to 
Westphalian) and the periodicity of the dish, or the lack thereof.

FWIW, I just reached over to the bookshelf on a whim and checked Mrs. 
Beeton, who says you use a forcemeat (no details given, but what with 
one thing and another, finely ground veal with other stuff added 
would be a likely suspect), but she does say you can substitute some 
pounded anchovy for the ham, which leads me to suspect that at least 
some of the other stuff in my putative, theoretical  veal forcemeat 
might be chopped ham. Veal and ham are sort of a classic Victorian 
combination for pies and such.

Again, though, what I was originally talking about was minced raw 
ham, possibly the fatty trimmings. Yes, it would change the taste 
more than a bit, and I suspect we're not talking about the 
grapefruit-sized meatballs with an egg hidden distantly within that 
some people refer to when they say Scotch Eggs...

Adamantius
-- 




"S'ils n'ont pas de pain, vous fait-on dire, qu'ils  mangent de la 
brioche!" / "If there's no bread to be had, one has to say, let them 
eat cake!"
	-- attributed to an unnamed noblewoman by Jean-Jacques 
Rousseau, "Confessions", 1782

"Why don't they get new jobs if they're unhappy -- or go on Prozac?"
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