Preparation Notes: 40min, plus cooling and chilling
Cooking Notes: about 20min
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below
Yields:
16
Prep Time:
40 mins
Total Time:
40 mins
Ingredients
16
fresh quail eggs
650g
Cumberland sausages, skinned
40g
(1 ½oz) plain flour
2
medium eggs, beaten
100g
(3 ½oz) fresh white breadcrumbs
vegetable oil, to fry
Directions
Step 1
In a large pan of boiling water, cook quail eggs for 2min exactly. Transfer to a large bowl of iced water. Set aside to cool completely. Lift eggs out and carefully peel (they will feel soft).
Step 2
In the palm of your hand, flatten about 40g (11/2oz) sausage meat into a circle about 9cm (31/2in) wide. Put a quail egg in the centre and carefully draw up the edges of the sausage meat to encase it. Carefully roll into a ball. Repeat with remaining eggs and sausage meat. Set balls on a baking tray, cover and chill for 30min.
Step 3
Put the flour, beaten eggs and breadcrumbs into three separate bowls. Coat each ball in flour (tap off excess), then egg, then coat in breadcrumbs.
Step 4
Fill a large, deep pan (with a lid) with oil to 7.5cm (3in) deep. Heat oil to 180°C or until a cube of bread turns golden in 15sec.
Step 5
Using a slotted spoon, lower four Scotch eggs into the oil and cook for 4min. Lift out on to kitchen paper. Repeat with remaining Scotch eggs, monitoring the oil temperature as you go. For runny centres, serve immediately (eggs will continue to cook on cooling). Sprinkle with salt and serve with mustard.
GET AHEAD Complete recipe up to 2 days ahead. Store cooled eggs, covered, in fridge. To serve, transfer to a baking tray, preheat oven to 180°C (160°C fan) mark 4 and reheat for 8min (yolks will be cooked through).
When frying, monitor the heat under your pan or use a digital thermometer to ensure oil stays at an even temperature.
An experienced and highly skilled team of food writers, stylists and digital content producers, the Good Housekeeping Cookery Team is a close-knit squad of food obsessives. Cookery Editor Emma Franklin is our resident chilli obsessive and barbecue expert, who spends an inordinate amount of time on holidays poking round the local supermarkets seeking out new and exciting foods. Senior Cookery Writer Alice Shields is a former pastry chef and baking fanatic who loves making bread and would have peanut butter with everything if she could. Her favourite carb is pasta, and our vibrant green spaghetti is her weeknight go-to. Lover of all things savoury, Senior Cookery Writer Grace Evans can be found eating crispy corn and nocellara olives at every opportunity, and will take the cheeseboard over dessert any time (though she cannot resist a slice of tres leches cake). With a wealth of professional kitchen know-how, culinary training and years of experience between them, they are all dedicated to ensuring every Good Housekeeping recipe is the best it can be, so you can trust they’ll work (and if they don’t – we’ll have the answer for why*) every time (*90% of the time the answer is: “buy an separate oven thermometer”!).
