Equipment
Ingredients
Meats
- 200 g pork sausages, whole
- 150 g unsmoked back bacon, whole rashers
- 100 g black pudding, sliced
Vegetables & Beans
- 400 g baked beans in tomato sauce, canned
- 100 g button mushrooms, cleaned, stems trimmed
- 150 g tomatoes, halved horizontally
Eggs & Toast
- 2 eggs, whole
- 100 g thick-cut white bread, sliced
Fats & Seasonings
- 15 ml vegetable oil, liquid
- 30 g unsalted butter, room temperature
- kosher salt
- black pepper
Nutrition (per serving)
Method
Heat your oven to 90C/195F and place two heatproof serving plates inside to warm. This is crucial for keeping components hot as they finish cooking.
Heat the vegetable oil in a large frying pan over medium-low heat. Add the pork sausages and fry gently, turning often until deeply browned all over and cooked through to an internal temperature of 74C/165F. Wash your hands thoroughly after handling the raw sausages.
Push the sausages to the edge of the pan. Add the unsmoked back bacon and black pudding slices to the center. Fry until the bacon fat is rendered and edges are crispy, and the black pudding is heated through and slightly crisp on the edges. Wash hands after handling raw bacon.
Transfer the cooked sausages, bacon, and black pudding to the warmed plates in the oven to rest and hold temperature while you cook the remaining items.
In a small saucepan, empty the baked beans and warm them gently over low heat, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking, until simmering and slightly thickened.
In the same large frying pan containing the residual meat fats, place the tomato halves cut-side down and add the whole mushrooms. Fry over medium heat without moving the tomatoes until they are charred on the bottom, then toss the mushrooms in the fat until softened. Transfer to the warm plates in the oven.
Wipe out any burnt bits from the frying pan if necessary, then add a small knob of butter. Once foaming, crack the eggs into the pan and fry until the whites are set but the yolks remain runny. Baste the whites with the hot butter if needed.
Toast the thick-cut white bread until golden brown.
Butter the toast heavily. Remove the warm plates from the oven. Arrange the toast, fried eggs, and a scoop of piping hot baked beans alongside the resting meats, mushrooms, and tomatoes. Season the eggs and tomatoes with salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately.
Chef's Notes
- Timing is the true test of a Full English Breakfast. Work linearly: sausages take the longest, followed by bacon. Beans can hold on lowest heat. Eggs and toast wait for nobody.
- For a highly traditional variation known as fried bread, skip the toaster entirely. Fry your bread slices directly in the residual bacon and sausage fat until crisp.
- Using unsmoked back bacon provides authentic British flavor and meaty texture, avoiding the overpowering smokiness and extreme shrinking of American-style streaky bacon.
- Do not drain the tomato juices; letting the tomato char on the cut side creates a deep, concentrated umami flavor that perfectly cuts through the rich fats on the plate.
Storage
Reheating: Reheat beans and meats gently in a pan or microwave. Eggs and toast must be made fresh.
