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Eggs, Scotch
Prepare a forcemeat of bread-crumbs, grated ham, an anchovy pounded, and mixed spices. Roll five hard-boiled eggs, freed from their shells, first into beaten egg, and then into the forcemeat. Put some good dripping or lard into a frying-pan, and brown the eggs slightly in it, turning them round that all sides may be done alike. Serve with good rich gravy in a tureen. Time, ten minutes to boil the eggs. Probable cost, 8d. or 10d.
An unusual version of Scotch eggs: no sausage meat at all, but a dry forcemeat of crumbs, ham and anchovy pressed onto the eggs and shallow-fried. The main difficulty is getting that coating to stay put.
- The hinge: make the forcemeat cohereGrated ham, crumbs and pounded anchovy will not bind on their own, and a plain roll in beaten egg gives you a shell that slides off in the pan. Work a little softened butter or a spoonful of the beaten egg into the crumb mixture so it packs like a paste, chill the coated eggs 20-30 minutes before frying, and dust the peeled eggs with flour first so the egg wash grips.
- Boiling the eggsTen minutes at a bare simmer gives a fully set yolk, which is what you want here since the eggs are handled and rolled. Cool them at once in cold water or the yolks green at the edge and the shells stick.
- Anchovy and saltOne pounded anchovy plus grated ham carries a good deal of salt. Season the forcemeat only after tasting it, and use unsmoked ham if you want the anchovy to read at all.
- "Mixed spices"A Victorian recipe of this kind would most likely intend a blend along the lines of mace or nutmeg, allspice, cloves and a little pepper; a pinch of mace and a grating of nutmeg is a reasonable reading of the intent. Modern "mixed spice" sold for baking is sweeter and heavier on cinnamon.
- Dripping or lardBeef dripping is a likely choice and gives good flavour; lard or a neutral oil works. This reads as a shallow fry rather than a deep fry: enough hot fat to colour the eggs without scorching them, turning them to brown all sides. They are only being coloured and heated through, so a few minutes in total.
- The gravy"Good rich gravy" means a meat gravy from stock and pan drippings, thickened lightly and served separately in a tureen so the crust stays crisp. A well-reduced brown chicken or beef stock with a little Madeira suits the ham and anchovy.
- Yield and servingFive eggs serve five as a savoury or first course, or two to three as a light main with the gravy and a salad. Serve hot; the coating goes soft as they cool, unlike the modern sausage-wrapped picnic version.
- CostEightpence to tenpence for the dish, a modest sum by the standards of the period.
Scotch eggs are generally traced to English cookery of the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century, and the connection to Scotland has never been satisfactorily explained; "scotched" in the sense of chopped or minced is one of the usual suggestions. What is clear from this entry is that the dish had not yet settled into its modern form: the eggs are wrapped in a seasoned crumb forcemeat rather than sausage meat, shallow-fried rather than deep-fried, and served hot with gravy at table rather than cold from a hamper. The anchovy is characteristic of Victorian savoury cookery, where a pounded fish provided the depth that later cooks would get from bottled sauces, and the whole recipe belongs to the frugal end of the book — five boiled eggs, some stale bread and the trimmings of a ham, turned into something that could be sent up as a course.