The Scotch Egg Takeover

Petitie 4’s Scotch egg dish. (Courtesy Petite 4)

No one knows who served the first Scotch egg.

It could have been an Indian immigrant to England, proudly offering up a spice-free spinoff of nargisi kofta, a traditional egg-stuffed meatball dish. 

Or, it could have come from the hands of a bartender at the Yorkshire pub William J Scott & Sons, which famously had a fish paste- and bread crumb-covered egg on its menu. 

Or it could have been the brainfood of the London shop Fortnum & Mason, which sold similar eggs to its well-heeled customers as on-the-go-snacks in the 1700s.

There are nearly infinite Scotch egg origin stories, but what historians agree on is that the dish long ago hopped the pond to the United States. Although BBC once reported that “Scotch eggs bemuse many Americans” and listed them among “7 British Food Habits Americans Will Never Understand,” the humble dish is now having a moment on classy restaurant menus in Boise, Idaho. 

KIN kitchen staff prepares the restaurant’s Scotch egg dish. (Courtesy KIN)

Cal Elliott, chef/owner of Little Pearl Oyster Bar on Eighth Street, likened the current Scotch egg craze to the boom of mushroom toast. 

“I think that with restaurants some items become in vogue kind of out of nowhere and then customers expect them. It’s one of those things that happens in the restaurant world,” he said, later adding, “... The Scotch egg is one of those perfect things that transitions well from breakfast to dinner because it's a great little snack if you don’t want a full meal, but it’s also pretty hearty.”

The traditional Scotch egg is a simple affair. The egg is boiled, then coated in a layer of sausage, rolled in bread crumbs, and either baked or fried. However, Boise chefs like Elliott at The Little Pearl, Sarah Kelly at Petite 4, and Matt Chmiel at KIN all put their own spin on the dish when they added it to their menus. 

“We added mornay [cheese sauce] to ours which was kind of our little twist, and put it on a little bed of frisee salad with a horseradish vinaigrette and bacon,” said Elliott, who also uses house-made sausage and rotating seasonings for his egg. He first served this version at his New York City restaurant/bar, Rye, in 2009 or 2010. 

At Petite 4, a small French bistro tucked into Boise’s Bench neighborhood, chef Sarah Kelly has been serving Scotch eggs for four years. She said it’s “totally an ‘80s dish” that fits her goal of “simple, classic food” done well.

“I do a lot of fancy eggs, so I was just in kind of the fancy egg mode!” she said, noting that Petite 4 also has a fried oyster egg and a pork belly egg on the menu. 

Kelly’s Scotch egg comes gussied up with whole-grain mustard and “pickly things” like cornichons, caperberries, pickled mustard seed, pickled raisins, and pickled fennel. 

“I always strive to have a jammy center in [my egg], and mustard and sausage go really well together so we garnish it with mustard and pickled things. I think it plays off well with the sausage part of it,” she said.

For a short time this year, downtown Boise restaurant KIN also served a Scotch egg. 

“Well, our main brunch chef, Matt Chmiel, is a sucker for a classic Scotch egg. It was pretty much the first dish we knew was going on the menu,” KIN Co-owner/Head Chef Kris Komori wrote in an email. 

KIN’s local-focused Scotch egg. (Courtesy KIN)

The bones of KIN’s dish were local farm eggs (from McIntyre Pastures or Malheur River Meats) and housemade sausage from McIntyre-raised Mangalitsa hogs. 

“The pork is more of a breakfast sausage in seasoning with sage and orange zest. We sat it on a bed of mustard greens dressed in a maple vinaigrette to bring a little fresh zinginess to cut through some of the fat,” Komori wrote. 

KIN and Little Pearl have both moved away from serving brunch, but diners can still order Scotch eggs at Petite 4 — although potentially not for long. 

“I opened Petite 4 in 2018 with the Scotch egg on the menu. I still have it on the menu, and now everybody has a Scotch egg!” Kelly said. “I’m about to take it off the menu soon … [it was] unique at that time, but now everyone has it and it’s not unique anymore.” 

If you want to try the dish, head to Petite 4 sooner rather than later. 

This story was originally published by Project FARE. Read the original here.