Andrew tries his hand at making a Scotch egg, something he's not done since third year home economics with Mrs Havey.
Video: Watch Andrew making a Black Watch, a special kind of scotch egg
It was the name that won me over: Black Watch. That and the fact it stood out as the bad boy of the Scotch egg versions on offer, boasting a dark under crust created by adding black pudding to the sausage meat mix. I bought one, froze on the spot at the first mouthful, and went back and bought another after I'd finished the first. That was nearly two years ago at the Abergavenny Food festival and the dealer of this legal pork high was Neil Chambers from the Handmade Scotch Egg Company. I vowed on this trip I would seek out those very hands. Like Stanley seeking Livingstone I wanted to visit the creator of those eggs and have a crack at making one myself.
I arrive slightly late after doing a couple of laps of the Malvern Hills. Neil greets me and suggests I'm best off spending some time with Penny first. I figure that if Neil's the 'company' in the business name, Penny's the 'handmade'. Up until recently she did every egg. "I can do 700 a day," she says as she begins guiding me through the process of making a Black Watch. What happens next is like something out of the generation game. She’s knocked out half a dozen; I've done a single slightly larger wonky one. So much for my sculpture degree from Saint Martin's.
They say small businesses are like a family, and half way through everything stops for fairy cakes in honour of fellow employee, Amie, who's just turned 23. The whole moment takes on a wonderfully surreal family do moment; Penny's worrying that they taste OK, Neil comes in from the office, Amie wants to get off and see her boyfriend, Lucy (the other pair of hands) arrives, other members of the team drift in and we all sing happy birthday. After cakes and tea we get back to the egg prep and Penny starts coating the eggs. "You should always have a wet hand in the egg wash and a dry hand in the breadcrumbs," she says. She then drops them in the fryer - the clock counting down from six minutes. Suddenly she's called away, and when the clocks starts beeping, she shouts for me to hook them out of the fryer. Woo-hoo! Out they come: hot, black and golden like newly formed planets.
We step outside for a chat and to eat my creation in the orchard. "I still get nervous when I see people eat them," says Penny fearing criticism as I take the first bite. I afford my egg the sort of reverence that the late President Mitterand gave to Ortolans - only without the animal cruelty element. It's delicious - crunch, crumb, pork, blood, tang, spice, soft, egg, yum.
We move back into the office and I have a chat with Neil. I ask him why he thinks the Scotch egg format is so popular. "I think it's comfort food, a meal on the hoof," he says. I think it's also the mother hen-style love Penny puts into making them - you can taste the passion, the commitment, the graft and the optimism. It's good ingredients put together with care.
I ask how they got started, and it turns out Neil was an artist and Penny an events caterer. When work got a bit patchy Penny said: "I can make cakes, quiches and Scotch eggs with my eyes shut". They started making them in their home kitchen in a chip pan and selling to a few delis. Then one day Neil heard of the food festival in Ludlow. "I rang up and was told there's a year’s waiting list," he says. "I said 'OK sorry, send me a form' and then she asked me what I was selling and I said handmade Scotch eggs. Ten minutes later they called back and said they'd found us a slot." Neil and Penny made a batch of 300 for the three-day festival. They'd sold the lot by mid-morning on the first day. "Penny drove home and started making another 200; I held the fort and handed out leaflets telling people they'd be back tomorrow." The second batch sold out quicker than the first.
The rest is history. Now they're about to move into an even bigger factory than the current one and increase production, with the addition of some more hands.
Found out what else Andrew got up to in the West Midlands.
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If you fancy trying your hand at making Scotch eggs check out Penny's recipe.
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