We challenged resident Bon Appétit supertaster Chris Morocco to recreate Gordon Ramsay’s scotch egg recipe in the Bon Appétit Test Kitchen. The catch? He’s doing it blindfolded with with only his other senses to guide him.
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00:00 I'm Kendra and I'm in the BA Test Kitchen
00:01 to have a super secret conversation about Chris Morocco.
00:04 Once again, we are putting Chris's super taster abilities
00:07 to the test.
00:08 This is Gordon Ramsay's scotch egg.
00:12 I'm challenging Chris to recreate this dish
00:15 with all of its ingredients in just one day.
00:18 He will be able to smell the dish, taste it, and touch it,
00:21 but at no point will he be able to see this dish.
00:24 At the end of the day, we'll come back
00:25 to see his final creation and I'll be the judge.
00:29 (dramatic music)
00:31 Oh, oh.
00:42 I don't know what that was.
00:43 For a second, the only words that came to mind
00:46 were sort of eggy, saucy.
00:48 Whoa.
00:49 It's like a large, pretty solid little object here.
00:54 Is this a dish composed of only these things?
00:58 Oh wait, no, but we've got something.
01:00 Ah.
01:02 Next to the heads up.
01:03 So mustardy, so dense,
01:08 but is it like just straight up mustard?
01:10 Is it mustard that's been turned into some kind of a sauce?
01:13 There's a real punch and like kind of a heat to it.
01:16 It's giving me like a lot of horseradish,
01:18 but I don't know if that's just because mustard
01:20 has always tasted like horseradish
01:23 and I just never really thought about it deeply enough.
01:27 Smelling meat, like pork,
01:30 supremely crisp outside here.
01:33 So what I'm getting is sausage
01:37 and it's feeling particularly more towards the end
01:41 of like the breakfast sausage end of the spectrum.
01:44 And then it's been breaded and fried.
01:47 It feels so tightly adhered to the sausage.
01:51 It's leading me to believe that it's more
01:53 of like a three-part dredge,
01:55 like somebody put some flour on there
01:58 and then an egg wash and then very fine breadcrumbs.
02:02 And then we have our friend, the egg.
02:06 It feels like that yolk is still fairly molten in there.
02:09 This feels like right down the middle,
02:11 scotch egg, mustard dipping sauce, done.
02:15 So if there are some other little tweaks
02:18 and elements kind of happening,
02:20 they're acting in very subtle ways.
02:23 [upbeat music]
02:25 Never made a scotch egg.
02:27 Eaten one maybe once or twice.
02:29 It's more like something you know
02:31 as opposed to something you might eat all the time.
02:34 Okay, so scotch egg.
02:37 We need eggs, breakfast sausage.
02:42 I think we gotta taste some mustards.
02:44 Dijon mustard, yellow mustard, spicy brown mustard,
02:47 horseradish, vinegar.
02:49 I don't think this is the right call,
02:52 but it's like almost as though there's like miso in there.
02:55 Somebody's gonna grab these ingredients
02:57 and then I will be able to get going on my first attempt.
03:00 So here we are with our ingredients.
03:06 So we're just tasting different mustards.
03:08 This is Dijon.
03:10 It's definitely a lot like brighter and more acidic
03:13 and a little bit like tinny and metallic than the original.
03:16 Then this is yellow mustard.
03:20 It's like very sharp, very acidic.
03:23 Not really like the original dish at all.
03:25 I am going with the Dijon, but with some amendments.
03:27 I don't think it's just straight up mustard.
03:29 I need to sweeten it up.
03:31 So I added a little sweetness in the form of maple.
03:33 I think the horseradish is maybe wrong.
03:36 I'm adding some vinegar-based hot sauce.
03:39 A little bit of that should punch up the flavor
03:43 and bring like a little bit of that warming
03:45 kind of heat quality that I had in the original.
03:48 Couple pinches of salt.
03:50 [ding]
03:51 It ain't bad.
03:52 Game plan is, gotta cook the eggs.
03:55 Timing of the eggs is key here, okay?
03:59 We want six and a half minute eggs.
04:02 Anywhere within six and seven minute,
04:04 you've got a molten yolk that's just cooked edge to edge,
04:09 but it hasn't solidified.
04:10 And we need the egg to hold together enough
04:14 that we can really manipulate it
04:16 within that sausage casing.
04:18 That is essential.
04:19 So I'm putting them right into ice water for two minutes
04:24 just so that they can cool down
04:26 'cause I really want to arrest the cooking process
04:29 so that the yolk stays molten.
04:32 These are peeling pretty nice.
04:34 This is breakfast sausage.
04:35 So sausage is out of the casing.
04:37 Get the sausage on there, just like a nice, clean layer.
04:42 So I got a little excess,
04:43 but I can just kind of pinch it off
04:44 and just kind of work it around to even it out.
04:47 All right, right?
04:48 I mean, come on.
04:50 We've got eggs packaged together with the sausage casing.
04:54 Now it's time for our dredge.
04:57 So I've got just plain breadcrumb,
05:00 you know, which has no seasoning.
05:02 The Italian breadcrumb in here,
05:03 we've got garlic powder, onion powder,
05:06 parsley, paprika, black pepper.
05:09 Let's just be bold.
05:11 We're gonna use the Italian style seasoned.
05:13 From a flavor perspective,
05:14 it just feels so much closer to the original.
05:17 Few big pinches of salt.
05:20 Dredge station is here.
05:23 Got our three elements.
05:25 We've got our flour, got our beaten egg,
05:28 and I've got my seasoned breadcrumb.
05:30 All right, so we did flour first, and then we did egg.
05:32 I want this to be fully coated,
05:35 but I also, you know, I want to drain off all that excess
05:38 and then into our breadcrumb.
05:39 Okay, six.
05:44 All right, I've got my six scotch eggs ready to be fried,
05:48 and I'm gonna do a tester,
05:50 just one of them into the oil and see how this does.
05:53 There's like a shallow fry and there's deep fry.
05:55 This to me feels like something
05:56 that you're simply deep frying.
05:58 I want it to be golden.
06:00 I want it to be crispy around the outside.
06:03 To me, this is like pretty classic deep fried food,
06:05 but could be raw.
06:06 Like that seems pretty good to me.
06:09 I'm gonna keep it going for one more minute.
06:12 Just get it a little bit darker,
06:14 but then I feel pretty good about that.
06:17 While the other five scotch eggs are still frying,
06:20 I want to cut into this one tester to see how we did
06:23 and how the cook looks on it.
06:25 Already loving the color, loving, you know,
06:28 just the crispy outer shell.
06:30 Sausage is cooked.
06:32 I feel like the egg is maybe perhaps slightly more cooked
06:38 than I might want it.
06:40 I do wonder if the egg is in fact cooking a little bit
06:45 on that secondary cook more than I might've thought.
06:48 Let's put it up.
06:49 Mustard condimento.
06:53 Scotch eggs with maple Dijon dipping sauce.
06:58 Here's my first attempt at the dish.
07:00 I only feel okay about this.
07:02 All right, I'm gonna give myself some scores.
07:04 And first up is ingredients, 75.
07:08 I just feel like there could be a lot
07:10 of hidden elements in here.
07:12 I mean, like the sauce, I was really just like guessing
07:15 and throwing it together at the end there.
07:17 Technique I feel better about, I want to say like 85.
07:20 Appearance, 85.
07:23 I mean, there could be like some color differentials.
07:25 Maybe there was a garnish that I missed,
07:27 but I don't think so.
07:29 Taste, egg's going a little far over.
07:32 I mean, maybe we need to do like a five minute cook,
07:36 five and a half minute on these.
07:38 Taste I'm thinking is somewhere around like in the 75 range.
07:45 Honestly, I don't know what I'm missing, but it's something.
07:47 On this piece of paper, I've got my actual scores.
07:50 Let's see.
07:52 No, no, no, no.
07:55 Actual on ingredients is 49, 49.
08:00 Technique, 65.
08:01 Appearance, 72.
08:02 Taste, 70.
08:04 Overall score is a 64.
08:06 Okay, I see how it's going to be.
08:09 Next stage, I'm going to taste the original dish again.
08:13 As ever, there is a lot to be gleaned from that tasting,
08:17 and I don't know what it is.
08:19 So I need to go into it with a super open mind
08:22 and forget what I think I know about this dish or anything
08:25 and just figure out what's there.
08:27 [upbeat music]
08:30 Let's go sauce first.
08:36 I need to explore some other sort of things in the space
08:41 of like hot mustard products.
08:45 And it could even be like, you know,
08:48 it's like Coleman's English mustard powder
08:50 plus, you know, some kind of like liquid element.
08:54 And I think what I mistook for like a horseradishy
08:57 or kind of chili hot sauce based heat
09:01 is really just like the quality of the mustard itself.
09:06 Still getting that little bit of sweetness from the meat.
09:11 Maybe I was wrong with the sort of breakfast sausage,
09:14 but could it be like a banger, you know, a chipolata,
09:18 some kind of like a North Cumberland sausage.
09:23 There is this quality to the breading.
09:26 Oh, it's kind of driving me crazy.
09:29 There's like a sweetness there.
09:32 I don't know what that sweetness is coming from.
09:34 I'm having a hard time thinking of anything
09:36 beyond maple and sugar for sweetness.
09:41 I'm not getting like fruit.
09:44 Feeling great, but not good.
09:46 So let's just call it.
09:47 It's like a sit down kind of day.
09:49 Just get cozy.
09:52 Nobody's going anywhere.
09:54 Let's just do some different things
09:56 for the sake of doing some different things.
09:58 Pot, English, mustard, fine breadcrumb.
10:03 We're just going to do our own.
10:05 Paprika, dried parsley.
10:09 All right.
10:10 Slowly revise list.
10:12 Let's see what comes back.
10:14 At least take another shot at it.
10:15 Change some things, right?
10:17 In theory, there's nowhere to go but up,
10:19 but is that actually true?
10:21 I guess we'll find out.
10:23 [upbeat music]
10:25 Round two, new attitude.
10:29 General game plan is to do the exact same thing
10:32 that I did before, but with different ingredients.
10:36 We've got Cumberland sausages.
10:38 I was taking some stabs in the dark
10:41 in terms of English iconic sausages.
10:45 The mustard, I'm fascinated by.
10:49 This is Coleman's English mustard.
10:52 This has a lot of sweetness to it.
10:56 It's the right consistency, softness of acidity.
11:00 I'm so happy with that.
11:02 What a find.
11:04 If this is the right mustard and this is the right sausage,
11:08 then it makes me less inclined to use
11:12 an Italian seasoned breadcrumb,
11:14 which I feel like isn't something
11:15 that you probably would find the same way in England.
11:19 I'm gonna cook the eggs six minutes
11:20 'cause that was a relatively firm yolk in that last one.
11:24 The eggs are cooking, let's do our dredge.
11:27 Unseasoned breadcrumb, onion powder, garlic powder,
11:32 sweet paprika 'cause why not, dried parsley.
11:36 How about a cheeky little addition of mustard powder
11:40 in the frigging dredge?
11:42 How do you like them apples?
11:44 Just a teaspoon just to be cute 'cause why not?
11:48 [grating]
11:49 Salt and pepper.
11:50 Salty, a little sweet, it's great.
11:56 So I am de-linking this sausage.
11:59 I feel really good about this sausage.
12:01 Nice texture.
12:02 Do we think that's dried parsley?
12:05 Pork and parsley, just the Cumbrian way.
12:08 We went a little bit shorter on the cook time for the eggs.
12:12 Six minutes, still holding together majestically.
12:16 Oh yeah, the sausage is nice to work with.
12:18 Just wants to kind of come together
12:20 and like bind to itself more readily.
12:22 This definitely doesn't feel 28 points worth of different,
12:27 but it doesn't feel bad.
12:30 All right, we are breaded, ready to go.
12:32 Let's get into the oil.
12:33 Temp is slightly high at 360.
12:36 I'm gonna jack up the heat just while I drop these in
12:39 'cause it's gonna cool that oil down so quickly.
12:42 Let's go check it at four minutes.
12:45 These are a little bit more delicate,
12:46 so I wanna be careful even agitating them in the pot.
12:49 I'm gonna give it a good minute
12:50 before I start poking at them.
12:52 Looking good.
12:54 They held together nicely.
12:56 Color's good.
12:58 Out of the fryer and onto the counter, as they say.
13:01 I'm using that mustard straight up.
13:03 Ooh, that is a nice little cook there.
13:11 This is my second attempt at the dish.
13:13 Let's talk scores.
13:15 Ingredients, if my actual was a 49,
13:19 let's say I eked out a 70.
13:22 Technique, let's say again, maybe we're at a 70 here.
13:25 Appearance, 75.
13:28 I don't know, you guys freak me out with the appearance.
13:30 I thought that was the one thing I had locked,
13:31 and then you really cut me down.
13:33 Taste, we'll see about with the judge.
13:35 - Hi. - Hello.
13:37 - Are you excited?
13:38 - I'm mostly scared.
13:39 - Okay, I'm really excited to present to you today
13:42 Gordon Ramsay's scotch egg.
13:45 - Mm.
13:46 - Right off the bat, what can you tell me?
13:49 - There's something in the sausage.
13:52 - Mm-hmm.
13:53 There's in fact two things in the sausage
13:55 that aren't in yours.
13:56 - What is that though?
13:58 - It's black pudding.
13:59 - Ah.
14:02 - Okay, and while you're massaging your head,
14:05 I will just slide in there that the second thing
14:07 is grated apple.
14:09 Are you well?
14:10 - We talked a lot about sweetness.
14:12 There's like a sweetness there.
14:14 I don't know what that sweetness is coming from.
14:16 I'm not getting like fruit.
14:18 - I'm not getting like fruit.
14:20 - Because you didn't put these extra fun flavory things
14:24 in the sausage, you sought that flavor elsewhere
14:28 by adding it to your bread crumb.
14:30 - Breading.
14:31 - But this is just panko.
14:31 - Bread crumb.
14:33 It's panko?
14:34 - Look at that.
14:34 For a six minute egg and fried in a deep fry
14:38 for slightly less time, this is a five minute egg
14:42 fried in a shallow fry for slightly more time.
14:45 - Five minute is dangerous.
14:47 - I know, but it goes for 12 in the shallow fry.
14:50 - Okay, fair.
14:51 So you need to sort of start from a place
14:53 of being less cooked.
14:54 - But I would be very afraid to peel a five minute egg.
14:57 We're gonna talk scoring.
14:58 And we're gonna start with ingredients.
15:00 - Great.
15:01 - As you know, you added a bunch to the outside
15:03 that wasn't there and you missed two things inside.
15:06 - Yeah, yeah.
15:07 - And for this reason, you get 75.
15:10 - That's fine.
15:11 That's totally fine.
15:12 - You added so many spices in here.
15:14 - I know.
15:15 - That's the hard part.
15:16 - I know, I know.
15:16 - Yeah.
15:17 Technique, there was timing differences,
15:20 but obviously, ultimately it came out to a similar place.
15:24 Shallow fry versus deep fry
15:25 is the only real sticky difference.
15:28 - Yep.
15:29 - You gave yourself a 70.
15:31 I'm giving you an 82.
15:32 - Wow, okay.
15:33 - Appearance, they're really close other than the breadcrumb
15:37 in large part because I think your added spices
15:41 created this darkness bit
15:44 that the black pudding actually did here.
15:46 So you did sort of inadvertently end up
15:49 at a visual likeness.
15:52 I'm giving you a 90.
15:54 I feel that you deserve to know that you're close.
15:58 For taste, we have to taste.
15:59 - Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah.
16:02 - That's pretty nice, Chris.
16:03 - That's nice.
16:04 I mean, we got to a good place with it.
16:06 Nothing sticks out.
16:10 It's just savory.
16:11 I feel like it's a similar vibe in my mind with his,
16:16 but let's see.
16:16 - Okay.
16:17 Much more set, honestly.
16:19 - It's that cook time.
16:20 - It's the 12 minutes.
16:22 - It's the 12.
16:22 - 12 minutes is so long.
16:23 - Look at the white, you know?
16:25 - Yeah.
16:26 I took a huge bite.
16:28 - You taste just the sausage bit,
16:31 and you're like, there's a sweetness there.
16:34 - Look, I can see.
16:36 - Oh, I know, that little shred.
16:37 - That's like a grated apple bit.
16:39 - Yep, for sure.
16:40 I think the black pudding kind of has its own sweetness,
16:43 and it has its own spice quality to it.
16:45 And it's almost like you're using black pudding
16:47 to season the sausage.
16:49 - Exactly, yeah.
16:50 - Which is very antithetical as a developer
16:54 to using sausage in the first place.
16:56 - Totally.
16:57 - I'd give myself like an 80 here.
16:59 - That's exactly what I think you get.
17:01 We're giving you an 82.
17:03 - B minus, I'll take it.
17:04 - I think you did great.
17:06 - Thanks.
17:07 - These are delightful.
17:08 - It's actually really fun.
17:09 It's such like a showstopper of a thing.
17:11 - Yes, totally.
17:12 I do think you should feel proud of yourself for today.
17:14 I know that it was challenging.
17:16 I know that you had doubts.
17:18 I know that you almost added miso to mustard.
17:20 - Yes, it's like almost as though there's like miso in there.
17:24 - That's a wild ride, but you came out on top.
17:27 I really think so.
17:28 - Great, thank you.
17:29 Thank you for doing this, I appreciate it.
17:31 - Of course, anytime.
17:32 - This is the 40th episode of "Reverse Engineering,"
17:36 and how fitting that it was a Gordon Ramsay recipe, right?
17:41 Because the first recipe we ever did on "Reverse Engineering"
17:45 was Gordon's Beef Wellington.
17:47 Another one down, but fair play to you, Gordon.
17:50 Didn't see the apple or the black pudding coming.
17:54 Dang, you know, I feel like he's gotten the last word.
17:58 Got nothing to tell you about scotch eggs
18:00 other than make 'em, eat 'em, enjoy them.
18:03 Don't, don't like, you know, don't let them get you down.
18:07 It should be fun.
18:08 (blows raspberry)
18:10 [BLANK_AUDIO]