Baked Scotch Eggs

I don't do deep fried food at home. As a landlord, I found myself obsessively reading about house and apartment fires in the paper. They all seemed to boil down to faulty wiring, careless smoking, or putting a pot of oil on the stove then wandering away. Given my well-documented ability to forget what I am doing right in the middle of doing it, deep-frying is not for me. I figure I can find other, less dangerous, ways to stuff myself with an excessive quantity of calories.

I do like a nice Scotch egg though. Baking them means they are less greasy and much easier to clean up after. One of these is actually quite substantial - serve it with a little salad, and you've got a full meal. I keep meaning to try them with smaller eggs - I think they would make a great appetizer made with quails eggs, cut in half.

Note: November 13, 2009. I made these using quail eggs, which worked very well. Boil eggs 1 minute, leave in the hot water for 5 minutes. One pound sausage mixture will cover 12 quail eggs. Bake them for 20 to 25 minutes. Mind you, the quail eggs are picky and I'm not sure you might not be just as well off cutting larger eggs into quarters to serve as an appetizer.

4 servings
2 hours - 30 minutes prep time, and one hour to chil


4 large eggs, hard boiled (not too large)

450 grams (1 pound) ground lean pork or ground turkey
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon rubbed sage
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1/8 teaspoon clove

flour
1 large egg
2 cups fine dry breadcrumbs

Hard boil the eggs by putting them in a pot with cold water to cover, and a tablespoon of salt. Bring them to a boil, boil for one minute, then turn them off and leave them covered for 10 minutes.

Rinse them in cold water until they are cold enough to handle. Peel them and set them aside.

Mix the meat with the seasonings. Of course, you could also just use prepared sausage meat.

Wet each egg in water then dust it with flour until evenly coated. Take one quarter of the prepared meat, and wrap it as neatly and evenly as possible around each egg so they are completely covered.

Beat the remaining raw egg, and roll each egg in it until coated, then likewise with the breadcrumbs. Chill the prepared eggs for 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 400°F and bake the eggs for 30 minutes, until the meat is done and the eggs are hot through.