Scotch Eggs

I saw a brief mention of Scotch Eggs recently, and they sounded very interesting, so I went on an internet hunt to find some more information on them. First off I found the recipe for them on Britainexpress.com, it is as follows:

Scotch Eggs
This recipe makes 6 Scotch eggs.

6 hard-cooked eggs, well chilled
1 pound breakfast sausage
1/2 cup flour
2 eggs, beaten
3/4 cup fine bread crumbs
Vegetable oil for frying

Peel eggs and set aside. Divide sausage into 6 portions. Roll each egg in flour and with hands press a portion of the sausage around each egg.

Dip sausage-wrapped eggs into beaten eggs and roll in bread crumbs. Heat vegetable oil to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Cook each egg in oil about 4-5 minutes or until sausage is cooked and browned. Drain on paper toweling. Serve warm.

These sounds unreasonably unhealthy, but they also sound unreasonably yummy!! Upon poking around on the internet, I also found some more information on these little things on Wikipedia.com (of course this is all user written, so it should be taken as such):

A Scotch egg consists of a cold hard-boiled egg removed from its eggshell, wrapped in a sausage meat mixture, coated in breadcrumbs, and deep-fried. The dish was invented by the London food shop Fortnum & Mason, in 1738.[1] Contrary to popular belief, it is not a Scottish dish. Scotch eggs are commonly eaten cold, typically with salad and pickles.

Scotch eggs were traditionally a picnic food, designed to be eaten fresh. However, in the UK at least, they have acquired an unfashionable, down market reputation due to the preponderance of pre-packed, plastic-wrapped Scotch eggs sold at convenience stores and motorway service stations.

In the United States, many so-called “English-style” pubs and eateries serve fresh-made scotch eggs. These are usually served hot, with dipping sauces such as ranch dressing, hot sauce,[2] or hot mustard sauce. At the Minnesota State Fair, true to fair tradition, scotch eggs are served on a stick.

Miniature versions of scotch eggs are also widely available in British supermarkets and are sold under the name ‘savoury eggs’, ‘picnic eggs’, ‘party eggs’ or similar. These contain a chopped, rather than whole, egg filling, sometimes combined with mayonnaise.

In West Africa, some fast-food restaurants offer scotch eggs alongside their other menu items. In Nigeria, Tantalizers and Mr. Biggs both prominently feature scotch eggs.

References

1. The great garage snack revival – Restaurants – Time Out London
2. The Dinner Menu Courtesy of Piper’s Pub — Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania U.S.A.

I think I will try this recipe at home first and see how well it goes, I can see that it might take a little practice to make sure the sausage coating doesn’t fall off or crack. If it turns out good, this might be another one I try at a reenactment.

Norwegian Crispbread – Historic Foodways

Time to add another recipe to our files here. This one comes to us from Historic Foodways. This is a recipe adapted by Mary Inghram from Flatbreads and Flavors; A Baker’s Atlas. Though this recipe calls for cooking in an oven, it could probably be easily done prior to an event and brought with me, or I could try it over the fire in the same way we cook a pie over the fire. Should be interesting to try. Here is a link to the recipe. And here is the recipe itself:

Adapted by Mercy Ingraham from
Flatbreads and Flavors: A Baker’s Atlas
by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid
page 340

According to Mercy , “What was spectacular was the dough I saved from the same recipe done 3 weeks earlier. It was a thousand times more flavorful and moist.” Mercy suggests that the dough should be made 2-3 weeks in advance of cooking the flatbread. “It was wonderful!”

Norwegian Crispbread

1 cup oat flour
1 ½ teaspoon salt
1 cup light rye flour
1 ½ cups warm water
1 cup hard unbleached wheat flour, Oat flour or barley flour for kneading
1 cup barley flour

1. Mix flours together in a large bowl. Stir in warm water and form the dough into a ball. Turn out onto a work surface generously dusted with flour. Knead with well-floured hands, working the dough gently until it gains elasticity and loses it stickiness. Continue kneading for 5 minutes longer. This will develop the gluten in the wheat and rye flours and make rolling out a pleasure.

2. Let the dough rest for 10 minutes covered with a towel. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

3. Divide the dough into four. Flour your work surface and each piece of dough generously, and flatten each piece with the palm of your hand. Cover three of the pieces with a towel. Working with the fourth, flatten it further with your palm into a rectangle about 6 to 8 inches across. Then start rolling it out, working from the center outward into a rectangle the size of your baking sheet and less that 1/8 inch thick. Trim off the edges to make a neat rectangle and transfer it to an ungreased baking sheet.

4. Using a knife or pizza cutter, cut the dough lengthwise into 1 ½ inch wide strips. Then cut the strips crosswise in thirds. If your oven is large enough to accommodate two baking sheets at once, roll out and cut another piece of dough. Place the baking sheet(s) in the center of the oven, and bake for 5 to 10 minutes, depending on how thin the flatbread is. You will see the crispbreads separate from each other as they curve away from the hot surface; start checking them after 5 minutes—once you see them starting to brown, they’re done. Transfer to a rack to cool.

Roll out and bake the remaining dough. Store the completely cooled flatbreads in a well-sealed plastic bag or a cookie tin.

An Onion Pye

So I joined a new group recently that focuses on recipes from the 18th century. One of my fellow participants posted a great recipe for “Onion Pye.” This recipe was printed in “Art of Cookery” written by Hannah Glasse in 1747. I thought the recipe sounded interesting, not sure if it would taste any good, but perhaps I will try making it at home first and have it as a side dish for the brave at heart at an event! Here is the recipe for “An Onion Pye”:

Wash and pare some potatoes, and cut them in slices, peel some onions, cut them in slices, pare some apples and slice them, make a good crust, cover your dish, lay a quarter of a pound of butter all over, take a quarter of an ounce of mace beat fine, a nutmeg grated, a teaspoonful of beaten pepper, three tea spoonfuls of salt, mix all together, strew some over the butter, lay a layer of potatoes, a layer of onion, a layer of apple, and a layer of eggs, and so on, till you have filled up your pye, strewing a little of the seasoning between each layer, and a quarter of a pound of butter in bits, and six spoonfuls of water. Close your pye, and bake it an hour and a half: A pound of potatoes, a pound of onions, a pound of apples, and twelve eggs will do.

It has been determined that the eggs should be hardboiled, not raw. Sounds like an interesting mix of ingredients!

Apple Fritters – Historic Foodways

Not too long ago, I appealed to one of the lists I am a part of to please help me make my food section of this blog a little more robust. My recipe for teacakes has been very lonely in there for some time now. Luckily Kimberly Costa of Historic Foodways took pity on me and offered that I could feature some of her recipes here for all of you to enjoy. I wandered over to her site, never having been there before, and was pleased to find that the recipes were period recipes with modern adaptations by Kimberly and Mercy Ingraham. Can’t get much better then that can you? I decided that the first recipe I would share with you was the recipe of the month for the month of May, Apple Fritters. Oh and I guess should say here that in the 18th century the word for recipe was receipt. I just prefer to use recipe on my blog.

Apple Fritters by Hannah Glasse in
The Art of Cookery Plain and Easy 1747

Beat the Yokes of eight Eggs, the Whites of four well together, and strain them into a Pan; then take a Quart of Cream, make it as hot as you can bear your Finger in it, then put to it a quarter of a Pint of Sack, three quarters of a Pint of Ale, and make a Posset of it. When it is cool put it to your Eggs, beating it well together, then put a Nutmeg, Ginger, Slat and Flour to your liking. Your Batter should be pretty thick, then put in Pippins sliced or scraped, and fry them in a good deal of Butter, quick.

Modern Adaptation Apple Fritters by Kimberly Costa

2 large or three medium apples; peeled and then scraped with a box grater or chopped fine OR 1 1/2 Cups of dried apple slices cut into small pieces

3 eggs separated, whites beaten until stiff

1 Cup flour

1/4 Cup sugar or to taste

nutmeg , ginger and cinnamon to taste

1/4 tsp rosewater

3/4 to 1 Cup milk or light cream*

Butter for frying (can use lard if desired)

Mix flour with sugar and spices together in a bowl. In another bowl add rosewater to the milk then beat in the three egg yolks until combined. Pour the liquid into the flour/spices and then add the grated apple, stirring together but be gentle! Fold in egg whites. To a hot frying pan (or spider if cooking on the hearth) add 2 TBS butter or lard. Let melt, then using a large spoon drop batter onto hot spider and cook on both sides until done. Spread hot cakes with butter and sprinkle with sugar.

*the batter should be the consistency of modern pancake batter so adjust your milk accordingly. You may also add water if milk is not available.

Thanks Kimberly for letting me share this recipe here. I look forward to trying this one out myself. Stay tuned for more recipes from Kimberly’s site!

Tea Cakes

I was doing some research some time ago and stumbled across an interesting article on rootsweb.com. I had it bookmarked and just found it again today. The article is here. But this is what is says:

In my book, “The LEEs and KINGs of Virginia and North Carolina1636-1976″ by Reba Shropshire Wilson and Betty Shropshire Glover, p. 90:”A most unusual part of the Revolutionary War was played by the women in Edenton, N.C., Oct. 25, 1774. It is the earliest known instance of political activity on the part of women in the American colonies. It has been called “The Petticoat Revolution,” because in 1774, in the home of Mrs. Elizabeth KING, 51 ladies gathered for tea, to protest the British taxes and to sign a resolution to ‘solemnly engage not to conform to that pernicious practice of drinking tea or ye wear of any manufacture from England until such time that all acts which tend to enslave this our native country shall be repealed.’

It is said that the rebellious ladies drank a beverage made of dried raspberry leaves. Mrs. Thomas BARKER served “Penelope BARKER” teacakes, and presided at the tea party.

The Elizabeth KING residence where the tea and protest signing was held, was located on the Edenton Green, near the beautiful Edenton court housewhich overlooks Albemarle Sound. A bronze teapot indicates the formersite of the King residence where the tea party was held.”

“How to Prepare Penelope BARKER Tea Cakes:

1 quart flour
3 eggs
3/4 cup butter and lard mixed 2 cups brown sugar
1 teaspoon soda 1/2 teaspoon salt

Beat eggs, add sugar, salt and soda dissolved in water. Mix flour,butter and lard, add to other mixture. Roll and cut. Then bake in hotoven.”

I found it to be interesting that the women made a stand against the British tea tax as well. I liked the article, and I think it might be fun to make these teacakes at one of our reenactments since they don’t seem that hard to make.

Believe me yours faithfully,
Rachel