Full English Breakfast Recipe
With the 2012 Summer Olympics in full swing and NBC Universal broadcasting more than 3,500 hours of the London Games, one will need to eat a hearty breaky if they are to rise and shine early enough to watch Team USA go for gold.
A traditional full English breakfast is a meal that's very easy and quick to prepare, cook and clean up; and it's ideal to make for breakfast or brunch while you're watching shuttlecocks get swatted across your television screen. This quintessential start to an Englishman's day – the breakfast, not the shuttlecocks – is a protein bomb, a proverbial "garbage plate" for the a.m.
The traditional English breakfast consists of black pudding, baked beans, sausage, tomato, mushrooms, back bacon, eggs and toast. Since this is a breakfast that can be made a thousand different ways, I change up the tomatoes by using cherry instead of small ones, and sweeten the baked beans. Eggs are up to you, but I recommend fried so the yolk can spew all over the plate!
- 4 black puddings
- 16 good-quality sausages
- 1 pound bacon
- 2 pints cherry tomatoes
- 4 cans Heinz baked beans
- 8 slices granary or whole wheat bread
- 1 stick butter plus 5 tablespoons
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 8 eggs
- 16 button mushrooms
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- Salt and pepper
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- In a pot, simmer cherry tomatoes on low until their juices release, add salt and stir for 20 minutes.
- On a baking sheet, bake bacon in oven at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes, depending on your desired level of doneness. Let rest until ready to serve as bacon will continue to cook.
- On a flattop, or in a large pan, cook sausages on medium heat, turning once or twice until brown, about 10 minutes.
- In a second pot, simmer baked beans with 5 tablespoons of butter, maple syrup and brown sugar for extra sweetening, stir.
- On same flattop, or large pan, cook black pudding on medium heat. Cook for 2-3 minutes on each side.
- Break eggs onto flattop. Add butter, salt and pepper and cook until preferred doneness.
- Add mushrooms to flattop or pan, sprinkle with salt and pepper and lightly drizzle with olive oil. Cook 1-2 minutes on one side, flip and cook for another 3-4. Do not move them around, as they’ll wind up soggy.
- Toast bread and serve with extra butter.