A traditional English fried breakfast is truly the one meal of the day. It will get you going and keep your tummy busy until supper. If you get peckish mid afternoon you could always top up on a cream tea! There are any number of versions of this breakfast and the truth is, it is really down to personal taste. The ingredients will vary slightly depending upon the region of England you are in, one common ingredient should be the egg and it really should be a fried egg. The only real trick to getting this breakfast right is timing, as each component takes a different length of time to cook. It is ideally a meal to have at the weekend when you have plenty of time to cook it and enjoy the results of your labour. As there is a fair amount of work involved, it is always best to have at least one, someone else to share it with. Note ALWAYS serve your breakfast on hot plates, you have gone to a lot of trouble you don’t want your food to go cold before you get to eat it.
Ingredients
Select a number of the following possible ingredients for your plate.
- 1 – 2 eggs fried
- 2 rashers of smoked back bacon
- 1 – 2 breakfast sausages, a Lincolnshire or basic pork sausage not one of the ones with lots of added flavours and it has to be pork
- 1 2cm slice of black pudding, a blood sausage that is skinned once cooked
- 1 tomato
- 4 – 6 medium button mushrooms
- Either 1 medium potato cut to 2 cm ish cubes preferably pre boiled or steamed, or 2 tbsp of bubble and squeak, which involves a bit of pre
- planning as it contains mashed potato and chopped steamed cabbage. Bubble and squeak is a traditional leftovers dish.
- 2 tbsp baked beans
- 1 – 2 rounds of fried bread or toast
You will also need
- 1 large frying pan
- 1 saucepan for your beans
Method
Written in order of the length of time it takes individual components to cook. If you are a good multi tasker and you have a good sized frying pan then you can cook more than one item at a time. Cook all with a little oil in the pan.
- Sausages take the longest to cook properly. If this is a problem then pre cook them and heat through. Cook over a medium to low heat for 20 – 30 mins turning occasionally until browned all over. Alternatively cook in a hot oven for 30 minutes
- Bubble and squeak needs it’s own pan and should be fried stirring occasionally for 20 minutes. What you are after is a mixture of hot potato and cabbage with brown crunchy bits mixed in. Don’t get the heat too high as it will burn.
- Potatoes if raw should be cut to 1 cm cubes and cooked in oil over a medium heat for 15 minutes
- Beans should be cooked until the start to go mushy this takes at least 10 minutes in a pan over a medium heat or 7 mins in the microwave, stirring occasionally. If you like your beans solid cook for 3 – 5 mins until they are warmed through.
- Black pudding should be fried over a medium heat for 10 mins until it goes black and crispy, turning half way through the cooking time
- Bacon should be fried over a medium heat until the fat starts to crisp this should take 7 – 10 mins turning half way through cooking time.
- Potatoes if pre cooked, mushrooms and tomatoes approx. 5 mins on a medium heat turning as they cook, the potatoes should be crispy on the outside
- Toast and fried bread take 3 - 4 minutes depending upon how brown you want them. Fried bread soaks up all the tasty meat juices from the frying pan.
- Last of all cook your eggs how you like them. Add a little more oil to the pan if you have already cooked fried bread
- Serve on hot plates immediately.
- Eat and enjoy!
Serving suggestions and variations
- What can I say really beyond pile it decoratively on your plate and eat it.
- There are plenty of individual ingredients to work with so choose the ones you feel like adding and go for it.
- Substitute fried eggs for;
Acknowledgements
Who knows who invented the cooked breakfast really? Some say that it was an American invention around the time of the 2nd world war but I wasn't around then. It’s something we were brought up with so I acknowledge my mum!
Fancy something else from our collection then why not try one of the following;
- An alternative to the full English but equally british try eggs Basevi,
- if you need some cooked potatoes for your breakfast go for hot aloo potatoes and precook extra for the next day,
- want something else that a british classic then have a go at our oaty apple crumble.
Happy eating!