A Scotch egg consists of a hard-boiled

Boiled eggs

Boiled eggs are eggs cooked by immersion in boiling water with their shells unbroken. Hard-boiled eggs are either boiled long enough for the egg white and then the egg yolk to...

 egg

Egg (food)

Eggs are laid by females of many different species, including birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish, and have probably been eaten by mankind for millennia. Bird and reptile eggs consist of a protective eggshell, albumen , and vitellus , contained within various thin membranes...

 (with its shell removed) wrapped in a sausage

Sausage

A sausage is a food usually made from ground meat , mixed with salt, herbs, and other spices, although vegetarian sausages are available. The word sausage is derived from Old French saussiche, from the Latin word salsus, meaning salted.Typically, a sausage is formed in a casing traditionally made...

 meat mixture, coated in breadcrumbs or rolled oats, and deep-fried

Deep frying

Deep frying is a cooking method in which food is submerged in hot oil or fat. This is normally performed with a deep fryer or chip pan; industrially, a pressure fryer or vacuum fryer may be used....

. Scotch eggs are commonly eaten cold, typically with salad

Salad

Salad is any of a wide variety of dishes, including vegetable salads; salads of pasta, legumes, eggs, or grains; mixed salads incorporating meat, poultry, or seafood; and fruit salads. They may include a mixture of cold and hot, often including raw vegetables or fruits.Green salads include leaf...

.

Origin

The London department store Fortnum & Mason

Fortnum & Mason

Fortnum & Mason, often shortened to just "Fortnum's" is a department store, situated in central London, with two other branches in Japan. Its headquarters is located at 181 Piccadilly, where it was established in 1707 by William Fortnum and Hugh Mason...

 claims to have invented Scotch eggs in 1738, but they may have been inspired by the Moghul dish nargisi kofta ("Narcissus meatballs").

The earliest printed recipe is the 1809 edition of Mrs. Rundell's A New System of Domestic Cookery

A New System of Domestic Cookery

A New System of Domestic Cookery, by Mrs. Maria Eliza Ketelby Rundell , was the most popular English cookbook of the first half of the nineteenth century; it is often referred to simply as "Mrs...

. Mrs. Rundell - and later 19th-century authors - served them hot, with gravy

Gravy

Gravy is a sauce made often from the juices that run naturally from meat or vegetables during cooking. In North America the term can refer to a wider variety of sauces and gravy is often thicker than in Britain...

.

Serving

Scotch eggs are usually a picnic

Picnic

In contemporary usage, a picnic can be defined simply as a pleasure excursion at which a meal is eaten outdoors , ideally taking place in a beautiful landscape such as a park, beside a lake or with an interesting view and possibly at a public event such as before an open air theatre performance,...

 food and home-made. In the UK

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, pre-packed, plastic-wrapped Scotch eggs are commonly available in supermarkets, convenience store

Convenience store

A convenience store, corner store, corner shop, commonly called a bodega in Spanish-speaking areas of the United States, is a small store or shop in a built up area that stocks a range of everyday items such as groceries, toiletries, alcoholic and soft drinks, and may also offer money order and...

s and motorway service stations.

Miniature versions of Scotch eggs are also widely available in British supermarket

Supermarket

A supermarket, a form of grocery store, is a self-service store offering a wide variety of food and household merchandise, organized into departments...

s, and are sold under the name 'savoury eggs', 'picnic eggs', 'party eggs', 'snack eggs' or similar. These contain chopped egg or a quail's egg, rather than a whole chicken egg, and sometimes contain mayonnaise or chopped bacon.

Several local variations exist, such as the "Manchester egg" which uses a pickled egg

Pickled egg

Pickled eggs are hard boiled eggs preserved by pickling.After the eggs are hard boiled the shell is removed and they are submerged in a solution of vinegar, salt, spices, and other seasonings. Recipes vary from the traditional brine solution used for pickles to other solutions which can impart a...

 wrapped in a mixture of pork meat and Lancashire black pudding, and the Worcester Egg, where the egg is first pickled in Worcestershire Sauce and then clad in a mixture of local sausagemeat and white pudding

White pudding

White pudding or oatmeal pudding is a meat dish popular in Scotland, Ireland, Northumberland, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland. White pudding is very similar to black pudding, but does not include blood. Consequently, it consists of pork meat and fat, suet, bread, and oatmeal formed into the shape of...

.

In the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, many "British-style" pubs and eateries serve fresh-made Scotch eggs. These are usually served hot, with dipping sauces such as ranch dressing

Ranch dressing

Ranch dressing is a condiment made of some combination of buttermilk, sour cream, yogurt, mayonnaise, minced green onion, garlic powder, and other seasonings mixed into a sauce. Ranch dressing has been the best-selling salad dressing in the United States since 1992, when it overtook Italian dressing...

, hot sauce

Hot sauce

Hot sauce, chili sauce or pepper sauce refers to any spicy sauce made from chili peppers and other ingredients.-Ingredients:There are many recipes for hot sauces - the common ingredient being any kind of peppers. A group of chemicals called capsaicinoids are responsible for the heat in chili peppers...

, or hot mustard sauce. At the Minnesota State Fair

Minnesota State Fair

The Minnesota State Fair is the state fair of the U.S. state of Minnesota. Its slogan is "The Great Minnesota Get-Together." It is the 2nd largest fair in the United States, and the largest state fair in the United States in terms of average daily attendance, though the State Fair of Texas runs...

, true to fair tradition, Scotch eggs are served on a stick.

In West Africa, some fast-food restaurants offer Scotch eggs alongside their other menu items. In Nigeria, Tantalizers

Tantalizers

Tantalizers is a leading Nigerian fast food restaurant chain. It opened its first location circa 1997 on Broad Street, Lagos Island. This first location was initially a small neighborhood restaurant serving hamburgers...

 and Mr. Biggs both prominently feature Scotch eggs.

In the Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 a similar snack item called an eierbal is served hot at greasy spoon

Greasy spoon

Greasy spoon is a colloquial or slang term originating in the United States to mean a small, especially cheap, archetypal working class restaurant or diner. The term is now used in many English speaking countries to mean the same thing...

("snackbar") type establishments, mostly in the Northern and Eastern Netherlands. In the Netherlands and Belgium, Scotch eggs may also be called vogelnestje 'little bird's nest' because they contain an egg.