Scotch eggs are basically a hard boiled egg wrapped in sausage and cooked and they are apparently a common snack in England. They are also typically coated in bread crumbs and then deep fried. In England they are even available pre-made in supermarkets. Unbelievable! It took me about 20 minutes of prep and another 60 minutes of cooking time but they were slow smoked This recipe is actually really simple with three total ingredients.
The three ingredients I used are hard boiled eggs, bratwurst, and one of my favorite dry rubs - Oakridge BBQ Secret Weapon.
I used about 1.5 lbs of sausage for five hard boiled eggs. You can purchase the sausage meat in chub packs (plastic sausage looking tube) in all kinds of flavors. I like bratwurst because it has a mild flavor and matched really well with the dry rub. I could have had a bit thicker layer of sausage - next time about 1/2lb of sausage per egg.
I uncased the sausage and put it in a 1 gallon zip lock bag. You can also take a 1 lb chub and also place it into the 1 gallon zip lock. The great thing about this process is you can easily make a nice flat, even layer of sausage.
After the sausage is flat, use a knife and cut open three sides. A perfect layer of sausage ready to work with.
Lay the egg onto the sausage layer and cut out a piece large enough to cover the egg - about 4 times the size of the egg.
Next - coat these eggs with a really heavy layer of dry rub. Make sure to coat all surfaces! I used Oakridge BBQ Secret Weapon dry rub. I really enjoy using this rub on all kinds of food. It has a really nice balance of sweet and heat and it matched superbly with the bratwurst.
You can use whatever rub and / or sausage combo that you like most - experiment with lots of ideas because there are no wrong answers with this recipe.
I smoked these eggs at 225F for about 1 hour. Since the egg was already done, you just have to make sure the sausage meat is cooked. Since the layer of sausage is so thin, it doesn't take long. You can bake these in the oven but watch out for fat rendering out of the meat. You can also cook these very easily on a gas grill but make sure you are not cooking over the flame. Cook these on a gas grill indirectly by leaving the burner on one side low and the cooking side completely off. If you are using a smoker or adding some wood, I would use something sweet to accent the meat like apple or peach wood.
Let these beauties rest for a minute and then slice into halves or quarters.
You can dip them in sauce or eat without. You can use these as an appetizer, a side course or a main course with some vegetables.
Let's eat!
