Eggs – Reheating boiled eggs for scotch eggs

You must be referring to the New York Times article from 2006, The Way We Eat: Which Came First?

According to the author, you need a few elements in order for this to work:

• Make sure you use only the "thick whites". That means either using farm-fresh eggs, or straining away the "thin whites" with a slotted spoon after cracking the eggs.

• Beat the eggs with a fork (not a whisk), and don't add salt, because the grains will tear the eggs.

• Create a whirlpool in the boiling water (low boil, not rolling), which is basically to help the eggs stay suspended instead of sinking to the bottom.

According to him, the eggs take about 20 seconds to cook, after which you should strain them.

Note: Personally, I haven't tried this. I don't know about you, but in my kitchen, it usually takes less time to make scrambled eggs in a non-stick pan than it does to boil water. It would appear that this technique was developed due to some completely unfounded concerns about the safety of non-stick pans. If you are still worried about safety after reading that, or just feel like experimenting, then by all means try it out. I'm just including this little disclaimer because the NYT article gives a lot of airtime to the rumours and not much to the facts.

Timing and precision are key. First off, you need to boil your eggs for exactly 5 minutes, assuming they're large. They should be at room temperature before you start, and you should let them cool afterwards. This should result in a cooked white and a very runny yolk before you fry.

The oil you use to fry the Scotch eggs needs to be just the right temperature - too hot and the crust will brown before the sausage is cooked, too cool and the yolk will cook solid before the crust is browned. The oil needs to be 350F/180C; a cube of bread should take 1 minute to completely brown.

If the temperature is right the Scotch egg should take about 5 minutes to brown evenly, and you should have properly-cooked sausage and a yolk that's still runny.