Tag Archives: Fortnum & Mason
A scotch eggstravaganza (The Guardian)
A just-set egg in sausagemeat with a light and crisp crumb coating is a lovesome thing. What might your twist on the traditional recipe be, and would it win tonight’s scotch egg challenge?
In his fascinating blog at forevereggsploring.com, David Constable, the self-proclaimed King of The Scotch Egg avers that the damn thing has never had anything to do with the Scots. The original “Scotched Egg” was a snack devised by royal cornershop Fortnum and Mason to fortify travellers leaving Piccadilly on the stagecoach for points west.
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Fortnum & Mason (with salmon)
Fresh from the fridge, the Fortnum & Mason salmon Scotch egg is cool and clean. The soft texture of the salmon is light and strangely refreshing. The breadcrumbs are rolled with sesame seeds for a sweeter casing, resembling the Asian Jin deui (sesame seed ball). A perfect egg sits inside the shell, the large, yellow yolk smiling out at you. Parsley and dill are mixed with the salmon for a soft, sweet taste.
While not strictly a traditional Scotch egg (no meat), I was surprised at how well the salmon and egg combination worked. All kept secret by the crunch of the sesame and breadcrumbs. Served cold, it’s exhilarating.
Price:
Overall: 4/5
Filed under The Contenders
Fortnum & Mason (with haggis)
I suppose a haggis Scotch egg makes sense. Afterall, much like the sausage, it contains an array of minced meat (organs – the sheep’s ‘pluck’) and spices, prepared inside a casing of sheep’s intestine, as many sausages are. Ingredients include onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock. Wrapped around a boiled egg, it sounds delightful. Savoury and nutty.
Fortnum & Mason’s haggis Scotch egg is packed full of flavour. It’s soft and meaty with a pepper bite. There is a thin, golden breadcrumb casing that could be a little thicker (with more crunch?) but it’s suitable. The egg has a large, yellow yolk adding a welcomed creaminess to the spices of the haggis. You won’t need neeps & tatties for this snack, it’s perfect the way it is.
Price:
Overall: 3.5/5
Filed under The Contenders
Fortnum & Mason’s World Record Scotch Egg Attempt
If chocolate eggs really aren’t your thing this Easter, then how about trying something more savoury. The Scotch egg is officially on the comeback trail, its popularity seeing it appear on more and more restaurant and pub menus, but now there’s a creation to top them all.
Fortnum & Mason’s innovation chef Luke Turner has created the world’s largest Scotch egg (officially still pending with Guinness World Records), beating the previous record from Brown’s Hotel, London set in 2008. The gigantic golden orb weighs a whopping 6.955kg and required 6kg of sausage-meat, two-pints of egg wash and over 100g of panko breadcrumbs for the coating. The Ostrich egg alone weighed 1.7kg.
A Scotch egg for some may come as an unwelcome flashback to a forgotten childhood picnic. Indeed, thoughts are likely to carry grave images and give rise to a metallic taste in the mouth, but this spherical delight is a British institution, a real classic.
Inventors of the Scotch egg in 1738, it seems fitting that the record should be set by Fortnum & Mason and the honour returned home. Indeed, the snack is so popular at the F&M deli that they shift around one-hundred a week, including several varieties of egg: quails egg, hens egg, ducks egg, goose egg and Ostrich egg.
“It might seem a bit odd,” said Turner, “but when a F&M butcher challenged me to ‘Scotch’ an Ostrich egg, I had to do it.”
The real challenge came with not wrapping the Ostrich egg in sausage-meat or even lifting the monstrous wedge, but deep-frying. “We just didn’t have a deep-fryer big enough,” remarked Turner, “so we decided to wrap it in muslin and have two people lower it into a pot.”
Not content with the attempt, Turner says that he may give it another go. “I’m not completely satisfied,” said Turner, “I think it could be rounder, bigger!”
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Forever Eggsploring 