I do love a Scotch egg, a good one anyway, when done well it is a perfect hand held snack. I have tried to cook them in the past with mixed success often limited. But recently I have had a breakthrough while cooking them in an air-fryer.

Essentially your scotch egg is a softly boiled egg wrapped in sausage meat. So using a good egg and a good sausage is going to be key in making a tasty one.

I either get sausage meat from my local butcher or take the filling out of the casing from ones I pick up at the local farmer’s market.

I get my eggs fresh from the guys at the allotment, but lets be honest as long as it’s fresh from the shop it’ll be fine

Roll out a ball of sausage meat into a disc onto greaseproof paper which helps it not stick to the counter

I cook the eggs for 5 minutes, then add cold water to the pan to stop them or slow them from cooking. Hopefully that will mean that you still have a runny yolk inside the hard boiled white.

I peel them under the water which makes it easier to keep them intact, gently tapping the shell with a tea spoon so that it just peels off without breaking the white.

Take your carefully peeled boiled egg and place in the centre of your flattened out disc of sausage meat.

Carefully bring the edges together to surround and cover the egg. The grease proof paper helps guide the meat into place, but then roll with your hands to gently mould into a ball

The last key part of a scotch egg is that crispy breadcrumbed coating and to get that part sorted you need to get yourself a nice little dredging system.

I put plain flour in one bowl, a couple of beaten eggs in a second bowl and then another plate for my crumb mixture. I have found that panko bread crumbs work the best and if I am honest I just used the cheapest ones I found at the supermarket.

So coating technique, place your ball of meat into the flour and roll around until its white all over, then dip into the egg wash and quickly move onto your plate of crumbs.

Roll the egg gently through the crumbs until it is all coated in crumb and if needed just spoon a bit of the mix onto the ball. Basically looking for a ball with no patches of meat left showing

Shake gently so that you just have the coated crumb and no loose bits flaking off

Preheat your air fryer to 200 degrees C, then spray the basket with the cooking oil before gently placing the eggs into it.

Our small air fryer could just take three at a time and its best not to crowd the basket or let them touch each other.

Cook them for 10-12 minutes, then turn carefully and cook for another 10-12 minutes. I judge the time by the colour of the coating, taking care not to let them get too brown. As with your oven it will vary with model of fryer

After cooking take them out carefully onto a plate and leave to cool a little before cutting in, maybe think of it like resting your roast or steak to let the meat juices seal back into the meat.

I found that as the scotch egg cooked, it did split a little in places where the meat juices were escaping. It didn’t seem to matter too much as once it starts cooling the cracks sealed up.

Maybe it’s not perfect but I wasn’t planning to sell them to anyone or enter them for a scotch egg cooking contest.

In the past I was getting my scotch eggs days after they had been cooked and I had never had the joy of a freshly cooked one straight from the fryer or oven.

These days though so many places serve them fresh and hot and when the yolk is still soft well it really is a game changer

I was really chuffed with these ones as I had it all, soft golden yolk, juicy moist sausage meat, and a perfect crisp panko coating all around

I like something to dip my scotch egg into, and yes often that might just be a dollop of tomato ketchup or a bit of yellow mustard.

I have found that they also go very well with a spoonful of mango chutney and I found a particularly nice one at my local farmer’s market which was a perfect foil.

Just for the record, they were still good the next day and by then the meat had become more solid just like they are when you buy them in a shop or at a market. I kind of like mine warm though now.

Ingredients

500 grams of sausage meat

3 eggs, hard boiled for 5 minutes

cup of flour

cup of bread crumbs (panko)

1 beaten egg