Traditional Scotch eggs are hard-boiled eggs, peeled, wrapped in loose sausage mix, breaded, and deep-fried. They’re awesome, and I’m putting one on the menu at Ernest’s.

The Eggs. For our style of service, where most guests get three courses, I plan for most of the appetizers to have an edible portion size of 6 oz. For this reason I brought in small chicken eggs, which are about 40 g, instead of large, which are 50. I hoped this would also decrease the total cook time and expedite service. Cases of small eggs will be ordered at least a week before I think we’ll need them, as older eggs peel easier after boiling. For jammy yolk on small egg: 7 minutes, hot-start method. Transfer to ice bath and peel once cooled.

The Sausage. I wanted to add some punchy flavours to this plate, ones not usually associated with Scotch eggs or Britain. To this end I wrapped the eggs in a spicy, Calabrese-style bulk sausage, heavy on fennel, garlic, herbs, and chili. I adapted my usual recipe to make it more conducive to wrapping around eggs:

• Bump up all the flavourings. The sausage may be quite intense on its own, but it needs to stand up to a hard-boiled egg.
• Increase the water content from 5% to 10% by weight of meat. The sausage is going to be quite a thin layer around the egg, so I needed the forcemeat to be a little softer than for a cased sausage.
• Finer grind. I used a 1/8″ plate. For ease of wrapping.

Other Components. With a spicy Italian sausage base, I decided to add some “sausage and peppers” vibes to the dish: a grilled vegetable peperonata, a tomato coulis, and a small frisée salad dressed with lemon vinaigrette.