Revealed: The SURPRISING link between the Royal Family and the scotch egg

Fortnum and Mason, often referred to as the Queen’s Grocer, claims to have invented the scotch egg in 1738. The luxury department store’s royal connections date back to its inception when it was set up by a royal footman to Queen Anne, and to this day the royal household source food items from there. In the Channel 5 documentary ‘Inside Fortnum and Mason: The Queen’s Grocer’, it was explained that despite traditionally being a high-end store, Fortnum and Mason was also famous for a more down-to-earth food.

The narrator: “Surprisingly for such a traditional store, this popularity was built on the early ready meal, needed to supply the growing population of London as well as the wealthy travelling back to their country estates.

“It was a Fortnum’s invention from 1738 that would make its name: the scotch egg, made to the same recipe today."

Food writer and historian Angela Clutton demonstrated how to make them along the lines of the Fortnum and Mason cookbook.

To make a scotch egg cooks should add chopped shallot, salt, white pepper, dried oregano and sage to plain sausage meat, then flatten it out using cling film.

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Ms Clutton said: “It has to be said this probably isn’t the most traditional way of doing it, I think the Fortnum and Mason cookbook is rather gloriously moving with the times.”

Then, creators should wrap the sausage meat around a boiled egg, dig it into a mixture of beaten egg, flour and panko breadcrumbs and then fry it at 170C for seven minutes.

Ms Clutton said: “Nice crunch and there we go – just nicely soft in the middle and that gorgeous crisp outside.

"That’s why they’ve been so popular for hundreds of years.”

It is unknown whether the royal household stocks scotch eggs from Fortnum and Mason, but they do buy its tea and cheese.

According to former royal press secretary Dickie Arbiter, Buckingham Palace stocks two types of tea from Fortnum and Mason.

He claimed the Queen drinks its Earl Grey tea every morning, but that Assam tea is also available.

Former Fortnum and Mason employee Derek Humphries described an unfortunate incident when the Queen was accidentally served rotten cheese.

He said: “I remember getting told by my boss that I needed to go to Buckingham Palace to pick up a stilton cheese.

“I was met by this guy who gave me this jar of stilton – I took the top off and it was really rotten.

“It was a terrible mistake that had been made.

“He told me this story that the Queen herself had actually opened it up!”