Scotch Egg: A History of a Once Gourmet Meal
This post is part of the History of Food series, a revived project from 2021 that explores the origin stories of traditional dishes, the lessons they can teach us, and the people who keep the food alive. In each post, we visit a restaurant that puts their spin on a classic dish.
Royalty is the last thing you’d associate with scotch eggs.
But the hard-boiled egg encased in fried sausage meat hasn’t always had a reputation as a cheap snack. Fortnum & Mason, the Royal Grocer, claim they invented the snack in 1738 for aristocrats travelling from Piccadilly.
But historian Annie Grey argues the scotch egg likely wasn’t created by F&M. The snack isn’t practical for travel due to the breadcrumb coating, and affluent travellers would have preferred to stop at an inn for lunch. She believes that the dish is in fact likely based on an Indian dish called Nargisi Kofta.
It makes sense. The 18th century saw a massive increase in European colonialism. By the mid-century, the British East India Company (EIC) had effectively seized control of the entire Indian subcontinent which included modern-day Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Burma (modern day Myanmar).
The EIC’s goal in India was wealth extraction: the process of stripping as much wealth as possible from their colony for their own benefit.
The company stole immense amounts of natural resources, food, gold, silver, and even jewels (one of which is still a part of the Crown Jewels today). Estimates vary, but some believe that the British stole $45 trillion from the continent during their rule.
But it wasn’t just wealth that the British stole. They also adopted Indian culture. For example, they adopted Indian vocabulary into English, including the Hindi words “bungalow” and “shampoo.”
Of course, Indian influence on Britain cuisine is self-evident. Why else would the chicken tikka masala be widely considered one of the United Kingdom’s national dishes?
European colonisation is a complicated tale of greed and abuse. But it’s interesting that colonisation irrevocably changed not only the colonised, but also the colonisers. I can’t imagine what British cuisine would look like without India’s influence.
Scotch Eggs at Fortnum & Mason
Fortnum & Mason can give us a glimpse. While they continue to produce the original scotch egg, they also experiment with other flavours, such as black pudding, bacon, and meat-free. You can find them all in their extravagant Piccadilly store.
