Full Irish breakfast

Ingredients

Meat

• 6rashers back bacon
• 4pork sausages
• 4 slicesblack pudding
• 4 sliceswhite pudding

Eggs

• 4eggs

Bread

• 2 slicessoda bread, or 4 potato farls, or fried bread

Also

• 6mushrooms, halved
• 2tomatoes, halved
• butter or bacon fat for frying

Sometimes

• baked beans
• hash browns

To serve

• with strong tea, and toast with butter and marmalade

Directions

1. Fry them gently, since high heat makes black pudding disintegrate into crumbs in the pan. The challenge is not any one item but getting eight things hot at the same moment. Start the sausages first, since they take the longest at fifteen to twenty minutes. Cook the sausages slowly over a medium-low heat, turning them often.
2. Cook them slowly rather than fast, since fierce heat splits the skins and leaves the middle raw. Put them in a low oven to keep warm once they are done. Now the bacon, which needs a hotter pan.
3. Fry the rashers for two or three minutes a side until the fat is golden and the edges have crisped. Do not overcrowd the pan, since crowded bacon releases water and boils rather than frying. Keep the rendered bacon fat in the pan, since everything else is better cooked in it. Now the mushrooms and tomatoes, which need the longest of the vegetables.
4. Fry the mushrooms in the bacon fat until they have released their water and browned. Cook them until the water has gone and they start to colour, since wet grey mushrooms make the whole plate soggy. Cook the tomatoes cut side down until they blister and soften. Now the puddings, four or five minutes a side over a moderate heat.
5. Fry soda bread or potato farls in the bacon fat until golden on both sides. Frying the bread in the bacon fat is the point of it, and dry toast is a different thing entirely. Fry them gently in a clean pan or in the bacon fat, spooning hot fat over the tops to set the whites.
6. Cook them last of everything, since a fried egg goes rubbery within a minute of standing. The yolks should stay runny, since they are what the bread and pudding are dipped into.
7. Serve everything at once on a warm plate, with strong tea. Warm the plates first, since a cold plate turns a fry-up lukewarm in under a minute. Toast with butter and marmalade is served alongside rather than as part of it.

Technique

• White pudding is the clearest marker distinguishing it from a full English.
• Soda bread and potato farls take the place of fried bread.
• The Ulster fry is the closely related northern version.

Substitutions

• Streaky bacon in place of back bacon, though the result differs.
• Toast in place of fried soda bread.

Variations

• The Ulster fry, with soda and potato farls.
• With baked beans, which divides opinion.
• Without pudding, for those who prefer it.

Frequently asked questions

What is Full Irish breakfast?

Full Irish breakfast is a breakfast from Ireland: bacon, sausages, eggs, black and white pudding, toast.

How long does Full Irish breakfast take to make?

Full Irish breakfast takes 15 min of preparation and 30 min of cooking. The recipe makes 2 servings. It is rated easy to make.

What can I substitute in Full Irish breakfast?

Yes, within limits. Streaky bacon in place of back bacon, though the result differs. Toast in place of fried soda bread.

What is the most important thing to get right in Full Irish breakfast?

Cook them slowly rather than fast, since fierce heat splits the skins and leaves the middle raw. Put them in a low oven to keep warm once they are done. Now the bacon, which needs a hotter pan.