THIS SCEPTRED ISLE



Are Scotch eggs really Scottish? THE practice of encasing a pre-cooked egg in forcemeat developed not in Scotland but in North Africa. The technique made its way Britain via France and was first recorded in England during the reign of Elizabeth I. Scotch eggs were originally spiked with cloves and highly spiced in an attempt to sweeten the often putrefying meat. The term itself is obscure but may come, though I doubt it, from a corruption of the word 'scorch' (which in Elizabethan times had ribald associations). The first Scotch eggs were cooked over a naked flame, after all. For more about Scotch eggs and Algerian cookery see Colin Cutler's excellent book, 1001 Strange Things (Beaver Books, 1970). Ali Mignot, London SW1. SCOTCH eggs originated in the Whitby area of Yorkshire in the late 19th century. Originally they were not covered in sausage meat but in a rich, creamy fish paste before being sprinkled with breadcrumbs. Their name in those days was 'Scotties,' allegedly because they were made at an eatery by the name of William J Scott & Sons close to the seafront. Hence, over a period of time, the term Scotch eggs was adopted. This was thought to be because the major foodstores who started selling the delicacy were unhappy with the name and adopted a more formal approach to marketing. Sausage meat replaced the fish paste purely for packaging reasons, although on my last visit to Scarborough the original recipe was still being used in a local cafeteria. More information can be obtained from Culinary Delights of Yorkshire by Peter Bone (R Fyfe & Co, 1981). Robert Egan, Stevenage, Herts. ACCORDING to A Caledonian Feast by Annette Hope (Grafton Books, 1989), Scotch eggs were an Indian export in the early 19th century, along with curry and kedgeree. The dish was first mentioned by Meg Dods, circa 1830, in one of her recipe collections. Annette Hope continues: 'It bears an odd similarity _ striking though probably coincidental _ with an Indian dish called nargis kofta, which consists of hard-boiled eggs coated with cooked spiced minced mutton and fried, then cut in half and served in a sauce of curried tomato and onion' (Page 251). Lynda Bowen, Nottingham.



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