Giant Smoked Scotch Eggs

We’ve dug into the archives for this recipe from Kelly Bramill. Originally posted on her Dreaming of the Good Life blog back in 2017.

Regular, breaded Scotch eggs have been one of our family favourites since I was a child, with my mum always making her own for us to take on picnics.  When my BBQ obsession began however, I realised that people were smoking them….and it made perfect sense!  Credit here goes to James Lowe of JL Butchers for the inspiration.  He’s a master of the smoked Scotch egg, and I think it was his that I first saw on one of the BBQ and smoking forums, and I was blown away.

The thing I love about them, and this recipe in particular, is that they’re pretty much a meal in themselves.  With the addition of bacon and black pudding, they’re an all day breakfast wrapped up in a big, smokey, spherical package.  Grilled tomatoes and pit beans make great accompaniments, as does My Ultimate Mac ‘n’ Cheese.  Or why not go all sophisticated and pair it with a green salad and a nice glass of wine!

I first added black pudding to them back in September 2015, which seemed like the perfect addition (I’m sure it had been done before, so I don’t take credit).  Mixing it, either crumbled or cubed, through the sausage meat or adding an individual layer around the egg works equally as well, but choose a really good quality pudding.  The same goes for the sausage meat you use.  I originally opted for our favourite cumberland sausage, simply squeezed from the skins, but now we have a new favourite in Angus & Oink’s amazing Kielbasa sausage, and so that’s what I’ll be using in this recipe.

Large, fresh, free range hens eggs and a good quality dry cured streaky bacon are the only other ingredients you need, along with your favourite rub and BBQ sauce.  I’m not a fan of a runny yolk (I know, heathen!), so I don’t try and achieve that with these.  But I’ve added the method for if you prefer them that way.

As always, tweak my recipe to suit your own taste.  They can also be made up the day before if needs be.  It gives you less prep to do on the day you’ll be smoking them.

Giant Smoked Scotch Eggs

  • Prep Time30 min
  • Cook Time1 hr
  • Total Time1 hr 30 min
  • Yield4 Servings
  • Cuisine
    • British
  • Course
  • Cooking Method
    • Direct / Indirect

Ingredients

  • 4 large, free range eggs
  • 8 – 10 of your favourite sausages (I used A&O’s Kielbasa)
  • 4 thick slices of your favourite black pudding (I used my butcher’s own)
  • 16 slices of dry cured, smoked bacon
  • A few tbsp of your favourite rub
  • A few tbsp of your favourite BBQ sauce for glazing
  • Some cling film for shaping your sausage meat

Method

1

Prepare your eggs.  If you want a hard boiled egg, pop them in simmering water for 10 minutes, remove and place in a bowl of iced water to chill completely before peeling.  If you’d like a runny yolk repeat as above but reduce the time to about 6 minutes.  Take care when peeling, as the eggs will be delicate, and you don’t want to lose that yolk!

2

I used 2 large sausages per egg as the kielbasa I use are huge, but depending on the size of yours you may need a bit more.  It works out at roughly 220 – 250g of sausage meat per egg.  Using a sheet of cling film, press the sausage meat into a disc big enough to comfortably surround your egg.  You don’t want to be doing too much moulding and shaping when it comes to the softer eggs, so be generous.

3

Crumble/smoosh/cube a slice of black pudding and cover the surface of the sausage meat.  As I said earlier, you can also combine it with the sausage meat if you’d like, its entirely up to you.

4

Next, pop your egg onto the centre of the disc you’ve just made and bring up the corners of the cling film to completely cover the egg.  Gently twisting the cling film at the top also helps to seal all the edges, but be careful not to apply too much pressure.  Remove the cling and gently give it a final shaping.  Repeat this for the rest of your eggs and then give them a generous dusting with your rub.

5

Now lay out your bacon as shown in the image below, place your egg in the middle and bring up the ends to wrap it.

6

Set up your BBQ or smoker for indirect heat at about 280˚f.  I also like to have the option of giving the scotch eggs a quick flash of direct heat once they’re cooked to crisp up the bacon.  Add a couple of chunks of your favourite smoking wood (I went for a chunk of cherry from Smokewood Shack) and cook the eggs for approximately 50 minutes or until the sausage meat reaches a temperature of 70˚c/160˚f.  Check with an instant read thermometer and give them a little longer if necessary.

7

I like to paint them with my favourite BBQ sauce for the last 10 minutes.

8

Serve with your favourite sides!

Recipe from Kelly Bramill

Beef Tri Tip

Beef Tri Tip

  • Prep Time10 min
  • Cook Time30 min
  • Total Time40 min
  • Yield8 Servings
  • Cooking Method
    • In-Direct and Reverse Sear

Ingredients

  • 2kg Tri Tip
  • Salt
  • Pepper

Method

1

Tri Tip is a great bit of beef and only really needs salt and pepper, although you can add anything you would normally add to beef. Apply this an hour in advance of cooking.

2

Prepare you barbecue with the coals on one side and a medium heat.

3

Cook the beef indirectly until an internal temp(IT) of approximately 42c/105f. This will give you some room to grill up the outside and generally take 25/30 minutes.

4

Put the beef directly over the coals turning every 2 minutes replacing the lid in between to avoid flare ups. Once the IT is at 52c/125f take of the heat as it will continue to creep up during resting.

5

Tri Tip has two muscles. For Best results cut between the muscles and then cut across the grain of each.

Recipe from Tim Donald of Silverback Grillers

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Tri Tip

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How to setup your BBQ for Indirect Cooking

50/50 method

Unlike direct cooking, you do not cook your food over the heat source. Instead your food is placed opposite the heat source and with the lid down, it will cook indirectly in the ambient heat within your BBQ.

You can cook using the indirect method on both gas and charcoal BBQ’s and most of the setups are the same with charcoal having a few extra. Each one of the methods below has it’s own advantages and disadvantages and which one you use will depend on what you are cooking.

50/50 Method

Indirect Cooking using the 50/50 method

One of the most common indirect cooking methods is the 50/50 Method. On your charcoal BBQ, you would cover half of your charcoal grate with coals then place your food on the cooking grate above the area without coals. With the lid on, the ambient temperature will rise and cook your food in a similar way to your oven, but much tastier!

This would also be your method of choice for cooking indirect on a 2 burner gas BBQ. You would light the left hand burner and place your food on the right hand side of the cooking grate.The only disadvantage to this setup is that the heat source is only coming from one side of the meat. If you are roasting a chicken for example, you would need to turn it halfway through to help it cook evenly.

This is a two zone cooking setup so you have an area of direct and indirect heat making it great for searing a large piece of meat then moving it to the indirect side to finish cooking.

50/50 Split Method

Indirect Cooking using the 50/50 Split Method

Similar to the first method, you will have half your charcoal grate with no charcoal but this time, instead of placing all your coals to one side of the charcoal grate, you split them to the left and right leaving an area of indirect heat in the centre of the cooking grate where you place your food.

On a 3 burner gas BBQ you would light the left and right burners, leaving the middle one off, and place your food directly over the middle burner.

You will not have to rotate your food using this method as the heat source is coming from either side of the meat, helping it cook more evenly.

Whilst it is not essential, using charcoal baskets or charcoal rails to hold the coals in place will stop them from falling into the indirect area.

Once again, you will have an area of direct heat for searing.

Ring of Fire Method

Indirect Cooking using the Ring of Fire Method

This method is solely for charcoal BBQ’s, unless you fancy bending your burners into shape, and it involves placing your coals around the entire outside edge of the charcoal grate leaving the middle empty.

Your food would then be placed in the centre of the cooking grate giving you an even heat distribution around the entire BBQ. This method is great for roasting large, single cuts of meat such as a whole Chicken or Beef roast.

It isn’t an effective two zone cooking method as your area of direct heat around the outside of the BBQ is quite small so if you are planning to sear your meat before or after roasting, one of the other methods might work best.

The Bullseye Method

The bullseye method is the mirror opposite to the ring of fire, with your charcoal placed in the centre of the charcoal grate leaving the outer ring empty. This means your area of indirect heat is around the outer edges of the cooking grate.

This cooking method is better suited to lots of smaller cuts of meat and is traditionally used for things like Chicken wings. With the coals all in the middle of the grill, you have an area where you can sear over direct heat then move your food to the outside to cook indirect.

Using something like charcoal baskets or charcoal rails to hold your fuel in place makers it easier to avoid the charcoal falling to the outer edges and you can keep the charcoal concentrated in the centre of the grill.

There is no single best cooking setup on your BBQ. Each one of these methods has it’s advantages for different cooks so try them all and learn what works best for each recipe you cook.

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