Restaurants

Peyton and Byrne

Wikipedia claims that scotch eggs ‘have acquired an unfashionable, downmarket reputation due to the preponderance of pre-packed, plastic-wrapped scotch eggs sold at convenience stores and service stations’. Wikipedia’s compilers haven’t been hanging around in London recently because gourmet eggs can be found all over the capital. And not just eggs – across London we are witnessing the return of the great British savoury snack.

In Fitzrovia, Jamie Knight – chef at the Norfolk Arms gastropub – thinks we are longing for our youth, a time when food came in simple shapes and simple flavours. ‘Everyone loves scotch eggs; they’re a reminder of childhood.’ Knight makes what is easily the biggest scotch egg in the capital, if not the country. And, at £2 each, they are possibly the best value bar snack in London. ‘We made them big because they’re good to share. One will be great for four people with a pint of ale.’ Feature continues

In south London, East Dulwich Deli is selling rare breed sausage rolls. ‘We have people queueing up at nine in the morning for them,’ says manager Jay Bell. ‘We’re doing Gloucester Old Spot at the moment and selling at least 100 a week.’ They are good; a pale pastry with just enough flake and a pork filling – all peppery tang – that seems too good for a mere roll. But at £1.35 for a short, fat half-length roll, a tad pricey. Jay, who is clearly a good salesman, suggests they aren’t small, but ‘palm-sized’.

Baker Roger Pizey's sublime shortcrust pastry

Knight, who is also offering pork pies, roast potatoes with horseradish sauce, pork scratchings, and sausages wrapped in bacon, claims the trend’s been building for a while. ‘I’ve noticed a move towards traditional British snacks, but we were there first.’ Pizey, who is more than a few years Knight’s senior, might want to argue the toss. ‘I was making scotch eggs and eating them when I was a kid in Manchester.’

There are certainly differences in approach. Knight’s recipe is a little more adventurous, featuring such innovations as panko (Japanese breadcrumbs that give the jacket a flaky rather than fine finish). ‘We get Gloucester Old Spot sausage meat, we take it out of the cases and mix it with sage, maize and lots of white pepper. Wrap it around soft-boiled, free-range Lancashire eggs – it is very important to soft boil, then they are not grainy but soft and smooth – then dip it in a mix of egg and flour, then breadcrumbs. Fry until golden in a deep fat fryer, and then crisp it up in an oven set at 180°C on parchment paper for four to five minutes.’

Perhaps it’s the soft-boiled centre, but Knight’s scotch egg just edges it. But no-one in London is making sausage rolls like Roger Pizey. They are stuffed with a baby’s arm worth of pork and covered in the lightest of flaky pastry jackets with just enough greasiness to enable the package to slip down the throat. But don’t rush it – stop and have a look before it goes down. The pork is pink for all the right reasons, no food colouring here, and it offers a tight, moist mouthfeel and a slightly spicy flavour. This is sausage roll perfection.

In a few weeks Peyton is moving the Great Portland Street operation to new premises south of the river – in Bermondsey. That really is a reaction against celebrity culture.