My Trusty Muleteers, today’s post is a follow-up to my last offering, in which I discussed where a body might find the best Scotch Egg in London.
I am powerfully grateful for all of the meat-cart, pub and butcher suggestions, mostly on social media. What a gift, once again, is this modern technology, that allows us to recommend all manner of meat snacks to one another, however erroneously at times, like the person who quoth, “asking where to find the best Scotch Egg is like asking where to get the best Slim Jim.”
Friend, that is a woefully ignorant take. I invite you to use your intelligence and your nose to sniff out the many savoury examples of the pork sausage delivery system that is the Scotch Egg. I suppose, as with all modern consumables, there are likely some industrially made choices that might rival the industrial ConAgra Slim Jim for “amount of garbage within”, but these days it takes a willful blindness to miss the myriad choices available in meat sticks, jerky, and other artisan-butchered snacking delights.
By supporting non-factory meat providers who source their animals from farms committed to sustainable, agrarian ideals, we can only continue to improve the quality of treats available to us. I strongly encourage you to check out the book and documentary Sacred Cow by my friend Diana Rogers (@SustainableDish on socials) for much more good research on raising healthy meat versus the juggernaut of industrial agriculture.
Speaking of juggernauts, this brings me to the overwhelming #1 vote-getter from my community w/r/t the best Scotch Egg, and that was the magnificent offering from The Ginger Pig in London, a butcher shop and bakery with 8 London locations. Their meats are sourced from a collection of small, sustainable concerns in Yorkshire, which is an ideal that I aspire to for all communities—to support conscientious local growers who are responsible to the health and quality of their product, but also serve as responsible stewards of their parcel of Mother Nature's acreage.
I was assisted in my selections by a very helpful young stalwart named Isaac, and it’s a good thing he was on hand to catch me, as I fairly swooned at the preponderance of fresh and gorgeous rumps, chops and sausages on offer.
I’m considering making this a regular feature on the ol’ Donkey Thoughts, especially when I’m in a gustatory playground like Old Blighty. Future offerings might be relegated simply to further Scotch Eggs or sausage rolls, but I have also begun a heavy schedule of research into fish & chips, bangers & mash, Sunday Roast, shepherd’s pie, Toad in the Hole, Cornish Pasty, and Beef Wellington. I have not yet found a reliable source of Lobscouse or Spotted Dog, but I know a guy out behind Whitehall.
Care about what you eat, and care about who provides it, and how.
Love,
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Toad in the Hole