Margaret › British home cooking

Full English Breakfast

Serves 2 Active 35 min

Allergen note: Contains pork, egg, and gluten. Black pudding is made with pork blood, worth knowing if that matters to you. Always check your own labels and consider your own dietary needs.

Ingredients

4 good pork sausages
4 rashers of back bacon
2 slices of black pudding, about 1cm thick each (optional)
2 medium tomatoes, halved
2 large eggs
1 tin of baked beans, 415g
2 slices of bread for toasting
Unsalted butter (a small knob for the sausage pan, more for basting the eggs, more still for buttering the toast)
A drizzle of vegetable oil, optional, in place of butter for the sausages
Flaked sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Base Building

Set a large, heavy frying pan over a medium heat on the gas hob and add a small knob of butter or a drizzle of oil. You want the fat warm and just beginning to shimmer before anything goes in. Lay the sausages in the pan now, because they take the longest and want a gentle, unhurried start. Turn them every couple of minutes so they colour evenly all the way round. There is no rushing this. A sausage cooked too fast will split and lose its juice. You want a deep, even brown on all sides. This takes about 15 to 18 minutes over medium heat.

While the sausages are going, turn the grill on to a medium-high setting and give it a few minutes to come up to temperature. Official food safety guidance recommends sausages reach an internal temperature of 71C or 160F to be safe. If you have a probe thermometer, check them before you move on. If not, cut one open at the thickest point to confirm there is no pink remaining.

The sausages are a deep, even golden-brown all the way round with no pink showing when cut. The fat in the pan has taken on a little colour and smells savoury and good.

Flavour Activation

Once the sausages are done, lift them out onto a warm plate and keep them in the low oven. Turn the heat under the frying pan up slightly and lay the bacon rashers in flat. The fat from the sausages is still in the pan and that is exactly where you want to be cooking the bacon. Press the rashers down gently with the back of your spatula so they make full contact with the pan. Let them sizzle for 2 to 3 minutes on the first side until the fat starts to turn translucent and the edges begin to crisp, then flip. You are listening for a proper sizzle, not a gentle hiss.

At the same time, slide the tomatoes under the hot grill, cut-side up. They want about 8 to 10 minutes until softened and just beginning to char at the edges. If you are using black pudding, add the slices to the frying pan alongside the bacon for the last 2 minutes on each side. It wants colour and a slight crust, nothing more.

Once the bacon is done to your liking, move it to the warm oven with the sausages. Wash your hands well now after handling the raw and cooked meat, and wipe the pan if there are any burnt bits, though a little colour left in the pan is entirely welcome.

The bacon is golden and crisp at the edges, with the fat rendered and slightly caramelised. The black pudding, if using, has a dark crust on both sides. The kitchen smells as it should.

Structure & Body

Now the pan is clear, reduce the heat back to medium-low and add a small knob of butter. This is for the eggs, and a full English egg wants a gentle heat. Crack each egg into a small cup first rather than directly into the pan. This protects you from a broken yolk or a stray shell, and once something is in a hot pan you cannot take it back. Tip the eggs in carefully one at a time, keeping them separate if you can.

Baste the whites by tilting the pan slightly and spooning the hot butter over the top of the egg whites as they set. You are not flipping these. A properly basted fried egg has a fully set white and a yolk that is just barely set on the surface but still soft underneath. This takes 3 to 4 minutes over a gentle heat. Do not walk away.

At the same time, put the baked beans on a low ring now and stir them gently every minute or so. They want about 5 minutes to heat through properly. Put the bread in the toaster now as well, so the toast is ready when the eggs are.

The egg whites are fully set and opaque with no wobbling translucent patches. The yolks have a thin pale film over the surface but give slightly when you gently shake the pan. The beans are steaming and just beginning to bubble at the edges. The toast has popped.

Unifying Liquid

The beans are the unifying element on a full English plate. They are not an afterthought. Give them a final stir and check they are heated all the way through, not just hot on top. If they look at all thick and sticky, add a tablespoon of water and stir it in gently. They should be saucy enough to run slightly when they hit the plate but not so loose they flood everything else.

Butter the toast now while it is hot and the butter will melt properly into it. Pull the warm plates from the oven.

The beans are uniformly hot with a loose, saucy consistency. The toast is buttered and still warm. The plates are hot to the touch.

Bright Finish

Arrange everything on the warm plates now, and do it with some intention. This is not a pile. The sausages and bacon come from the oven. The tomatoes come from under the grill, and they want a small pinch of flaked sea salt on the cut face just before plating. The eggs come straight from the pan. The beans go in their own space on the plate so they do not run into everything immediately, though they will eventually, and that is fine. A little freshly ground black pepper over the eggs. The toast on the side or leaned against the plate. Carry it straight to the table. A full English does not wait.

Everything on the plate is hot. The egg yolks are intact and glistening. The tomatoes are soft and lightly charred. The toast is upright and still has some crunch to it. It looks like breakfast.

Cook this with Margaret, guided gate by gate in her own voice.

Cook with Margaret