For those of you who are unfamiliar with Scotch eggs, they’re hardboiled eggs wrapped in ground meat (preferably sausage), then coated in breading, and finished in a deep fryer. What’s not to like?
Supposedly the first Scotch egg was born in London. My initial encounter with this tasty ball of greasy protein came during a rough morning after a late evening at an annual summer lake party known as “Duff Fest.”
Ever since that first Scotch egg helped cure my intoxicated ills at Duff Fest, I’ve been meaning to create my own rendition with wild game. I finally got around to it, with the main meat attraction coming in the form of spicy breakfast sausage from a whitetail I killed in Texas. I served them to some buddies during our lunch break at a pigeon hunt. The post-feast consensus: success.
You can technically use any ground wild game for your Scotch eggs, but sausage with pork in the mix works nicely because it’ll stick better to the egg. The cool part is you can serve Scotch eggs for breakfast, lunch, or dinner—hot, cold or reheated. I prepared my first batch the evening before our pigeon hunt and wrapped them in tinfoil so we could toss ’em on the grill for a warm and effortless snack.
Ingredients | Serves 12
- 2 pounds ground venison sausage
- 4 cups breading
- 2 tablespoons garlic salt
- 2 tablespoons chili powder
- 1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
- 8 hardboiled eggs
- 2 raw eggs
- Vegetable oil
Tabasco Garlic Aioli
- 2 cups mayo
- 2 tablespoons Tabasco sauce
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 1 tablespoon minced onion
- 1 tablespoon coarse ground salt (Kosher salt or Real Salt (https://www.realsalt.com/))
Combine all ingredients in a small bowl. Mix evenly and let cool in fridge.
Directions
Hard boil eight eggs. It’s not rocket science, but I recommend tossing the eggs in a pot of water, bringing it to a boil, and killing the heat once the water is rolling.
Let the pot sit for about 15 minutes. Remove the shell from one of the eggs and cut it open to ensure the yoke is cooked. (The reason you boiled eight eggs, instead of the six you’ll need, is to establish a margin of error for hard-boiled failure. Oh, and you’ll have at least one extra to eat while you’re cooking.) Once fully cooked, remove shells and set the eggs aside.
Form six thin hamburger patties with the sausage; this is easiest with cold meat. Set one egg on each hamburger patty and sculpt the meat around the eggs, forming a solid meatball around the eggs. Pour vegetable oil (enough for a deep fry) in a Dutch oven and preheat to medium-high.
Whip two raw eggs in a medium bowl. Evenly mix breading, garlic salt, chili powder and cayenne pepper in a separate bowl. Coat each egg meatball in egg wash, followed by breading, and transport to oil bath.
Fry your venison Scotch eggs until golden brown. If you’re serving them fresh, slice each one in half and top with the Tabasco garlic aioli. To save them for a future snack, wrap each one in tin foil and store in your fridge or cooler.