A Full Breakfast

Juicy sausages, bursting from their burnished-brown skins; savory back bacon, gently sizzled and satisfyingly salty; earthy fried mushrooms; sweet baked beans; acidic and sweetly-caramelized fried tomatoes; a fried egg for good measure, unctuous and rich; and crisp, good bread, fried in the aromatic pan juices. A Full English Breakfast, otherwise known throughout the British Isles as a Fry Up, a Chub, or a Full Monty, is nothing to be trifled with. True you may feel the walls of your arteries flinch in apprehension before you even take fork in hand, but a Full Breakfast is a mastery of balance, utterly satisfying regardless of the time of day, pairs equally well with a cup of tea or a Guinness, whichever seems most called for, and makes what is possibly the world’s finest hangover cure.

A Full Breakfast is also almost limitlessly adaptable to regional (and personal) taste. The ingredients listed above – sausage, back bacon, fried mushrooms, baked beans, tomatoes, eggs, and bread – feel requisite to me, and to some others besides. But then come the add-ons, by region and by craving. A Full Scottish Breakfast might also include porridge, tattie scones, haggis, black or white pudding, and oatcakes. A Full Irish often incorporates the white or black pudding too, plus fried potatoes, liver, and brown soda bread. A Full Welsh adds laverbread and often cockles. But resist the urge to codify too much. My brother-in-law from Cambridge likes to have bubble and squeak with his. Others like hot buttered crumpets, and who can argue with that? I’ve seen Fry Ups with kidneys, kedgeree, fried onions, or corned-beef hash. The variations are limitless, as is the potential for gluttony. There are actually pictures of the legendary Full English my cousin ate on his wedding morning glued into my family’s photo album for posterity.

I’m a Scottish girl, so I’ve thrown in black pudding, though what I really like to include are Arbroath Smokies (something similar but infinitely superior to a kipper, hot-smoked and made with haddock) when I’m on the right side of the pond. I’m also particularly fond of thin rounds of potato, pan-fried and doused in malt vinegar. I buy my English chipolatas and back bacon, plus my Heinz Baked Beans (far more tomato-y than American baked beans, and with none of the smokiness) from British grocers and pork suppliers Myers of Keswick here in New York. Do yourself a favor and stock up on at least some of the more basic ingredients of a Full Breakfast for the next time you wake up in need of something reviving. Or take my advice and cut out the middleman, eating your Full Breakfast the night before, right before bed. You just might arise with no need of rescue at all.

Serves 2 – 4

Olive oil

6 – 8 rashers back bacon or Canadian bacon

6 – 8 chipolatas or other thin British breakfast sausage, pricked in several places with a sharp knife

blood pudding, 3 inch-thick slices per person, casing removed (optional)

2 – 4 cups sliced mushrooms

kosher salt

freshly ground black pepper

2 – 4 medium tomatoes, halved

4 – 8 slices good white bread

1 – 2 cans Heinz Baked Beans

eggs (1 – 2 per person is usually enough)

Put the kettle on to boil if you want to make a pot of tea.

With a Full Breakfast, the point is to fry the mushrooms, tomatoes, bread, and even your eggs if you like in the rendered bacon fat, but I prefer not to include the heavier-flavored fat from the sausages and blood pudding and cook those separately. Heat two medium saucepans over medium-high heat. Add a glug of olive oil to both. Arrange your bacon slices in one and your sausages and blood pudding in the other. You may need to work in batches to avoid overcrowding the pans. The bacon won’t crisp like American streaky bacon. Just let it brown nicely. You want your sausages and black pudding deeply golden brown.

Once the bacon is done, remove to a warm place. Add the mushrooms to the pan, salt well, and sauté until golden. Season to taste with black pepper. Remove, refresh the oil in the pan, and allow the temperature to come back up until the oil ripples. Then add the tomatoes, cut side down. Once they have caramelized and colored, flip and sauté the other side, then gently remove. Immediately season their cut sides with salt and pepper. Next add the slices of bread, sautéing until golden on both sides, working in batches and refreshing the oil as necessary.

Meanwhile gently heat your baked beans in a medium saucepan over low heat, stirring often.

When everything is almost ready, heat a medium to large sauté pan (preferably nonstick) over medium high heat. Add a good glug of olive oil and then crack in your eggs. Reduce the heat to medium. Sauté about 2 minutes on the first side and 1 on the second. Season well with salt and pepper. Serve everything immediately with plenty of hot tea or Guinness.