When I list the many reasons to be thankful for my Scottish ancestry, food is somewhere near the bottom of the list, only slightly above how I get sunburnt even glancing at the sun.
Tartan, Hogmanay, unusual highland sports, the Edinburgh Festival, the national dark sense of humour, and yes, even bagpipes – it’s a great background to have. But forgive me if I don’t generally head straight to the Scottish restaurant in every food court, and not only because there never is one.
When people think about Scottish foods that they enjoy on a regular basis, they generally don’t get any further than shortbread and whisky. And, to be fair, if that were the sum total of Scotland’s contribution, that would be plenty.
But to give one of my ancestral homelands credit, they’re very good at wrapping one foodstuff in other foodstuffs. Take the haggis, for instance – offal wrapped in stomach. I have to admit that I’ve only tried it once, but it was surprisingly tasty – nowhere near as gross as I’d been anticipating. It ended up tasting more or less like meatloaf.
And of course, haggis has inspired Scotland’s other best-known food creation, the deep-fried Mars bar. It takes a real commitment to unhealthy food to examine those sugary, fat-laden caramel nougat chocolate bars that are pretty much an ill-advised meal in themselves, and boldly say – no, something is missing. Let’s deep-fry the entire thing.
Naturally, Scots being the relentless innovators who gave the world James Watt’s steam engine, they have also combined the two concepts to produce deep-fried haggis.
But I’d argue Scotland’s most popular contemporary food wrapped in another food is the Scotch egg, which wraps a hard-boiled egg in pork sausage meat that is then enclosed in breadcrumbs. Think of a sausage and egg McMuffin combined into one ultra-portable, edible round lump.
They aren’t all that popular in Australia, which is somewhat surprising given the enduring popularity of the Chiko Roll, but in the UK, Scotch eggs are everywhere. They’re sold ready-made in supermarkets, and a staple at train stations, off-licenses, and every motorway “services”, those monolithic dispensaries that cluster along major roads.
During the couple of years I spent in London as a child, I became addicted to Scotch eggs. They’re delicious whether warm or cold, and thinking about them now, I can still feel the breadcrumby residue on my fingers.
Fittingly, they play a significant part in British culture. Keith, the implacably deadpan accountant from The Office, famously on several occasions during the series. And the popular UK presenter Tony Robinson from Blackadder has gone on a quest to learn how to make them in his new series Coast to Coast, and declares himself “well impressed” after learning how to wrap boiled eggs in sausage meat. Robinson even encounters a haggis Scotch egg.
Fortnum and Mason, a venerable food emporium in an upscale corner of London, claims to have invented the Scotch egg, and sold it to hungry travellers since 1738. But historians have , and suggested the dish actually originated from India, and even Persia before that.
Tony Robinson learns to cook a Scotch egg from John Cameron. Source: SBS
Thinking more about it, the Scotch egg does bear an uncanny resemblance to those football-shaped kofta balls that many of us would have tried in Middle Eastern restaurants, and the suggestion is that the ‘nargisi kofta’, which contains an egg inside lamb mince, was the true source of the egg, rather than anywhere in Scotland.
This complex heritage is reflected in the SBS food recipe library, where along with the , you will find a along with some wonderful variations – a fusion version by , a that’s perfect for vegetarians and even a version with a – I can imagine that chili would be excellent on the side.
Make your own Scotch eggs, with a Sri Lankan flair. .
Source: Feast Magazine
Perhaps most interestingly of all, there’s also a take on the Scotch egg where the eggs are served in a tomato risotto, a fitting tribute to the snack’s Persian roots. Scotch eggs can be a touch dry on occasion, and I love the idea of pairing at it with a rich sauce.
Really, the variations appear endless.
So it turns out that the Scotch egg possibly isn’t Scottish. Sorry, illustrious Highland ancestors and independence-contemplating contemporaries – that proud list of probably need to be reduced by one.
But let me reassure you of one thing – no matter what, we’ll always have haggis!
Tony Robinson's Coast to Coast starts Wednesday 15 March, 7.30pm on SBS, then watch it on . Join Robinson as he follows one of the best walking routes in the world, a 300-kilometre path from the west coast of England to the east, taking in the history, heritage and hospitality of the British countryside.
