How to make a traditional English breakfast

Let me start this by saying, I’m an American. While I’ve taken great pains to bring you the steps to making a traditional English fry-up, bear in mind that I’m from Miami, not Manchester. Handle your pitchforks accordingly!

Okay, let’s dig in!

Traditional English Breakfast Recipe

Here’s what you’ll need (to serve two):

• 4 eggs (6 if you’re scrambling them)
• 4-6 sausages (you can go as plain as you like or as fancy as you like here, we opted for smoked bacon and maple syrup flavored pork sausages)
• 1 can of baked beans
• 4-6 pieces of back bacon (smoked or unsmoked, sub in streaky bacon if you prefer)
• 250 grams of mushrooms
• 4 (thick) slices of bread
• 2-3 Tbs olive oil
• Butter
• Salt
• Pepper

Okay, to get started (and to make your life a bit easier) start by prepping your food. The key to a delicious English breakfast is managing to serve everything at relatively the same temperature (and, ideally, warm).

You’ll want to slice each tomato in half, thinly slice your mushrooms, slice your bread, and snip the ends of the sausages to separate them. Set everything aside and then it’s time to heat up the oven!

Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in the largest pan you’ve got over a medium to high setting. Once the oil is hot, pop in your sausages and turn them regularly throughout. After about 5 minutes, you can go ahead and toss your mushrooms in and continue to cook them, along with the sausages, for another 7-8 minutes.

Around the time you put your mushrooms in the pan, heat another tablespoon of olive oil in a smaller pan over medium to high heat. This pan is for your eggs, which we’re cooking sunny side up, so you don’t want it to be too hot. Once the oil is prepped, break one egg into the pan and cook until the egg whites are opaque. Repeat this with the remaining eggs, adding oil to the pan as needed.

While you’re cooking your eggs, and assuming you’ve got a spare burner on your stove, heat your baked beans over medium heat in a small saucepan. You can leave these to cook, stirring regularly, until you’re ready to serve everything!

With about 2 minutes left on your sausages and mushrooms, turn the heat up to high and put your tomatoes, open side down, into your pan along with everything else. (You can squish things around to make room if it’s a tight fit.)

After the sausages and mushrooms are done, gently scoop them out of the pan, leaving behind the tomatoes. Pop your bacon strips into the empty space in the pan and cook through on each side. Your eggs should still be cooking at this point, so start popping your bread into the toaster because you’re almost done!

Once you’ve gotten your bacon nice and crispy, transfer it and your tomatoes to serving trays. Finish up your eggs, wrap up the toasting, and get ready to eat!

You’ll want to butter your bread and help yourself to the full breakfast in front of you! Give everything a light sprinkle with salt and pepper, add in a bit of hot sauce if you dare, and enjoy!

Want the perfect ingredients for an English Breakfast? Hop over to our post about London’s best food markets.

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Want to experience how Londoners dine? Our food tour of the East End opens the door to how Londoners live, work, and eat!