When the Irish call this a full breakfast, they’re not kidding. We’ve given you all the traditional components here, but if you’re looking for a smaller meal, feel free to mix and match. Irish bacon is leaner than American-style bacon, so Canadian bacon is the closest substitute. If you’re feeling ambitious, you can also bake a loaf of soda bread to stand in for your toast.
| Level: | Intermediate |
| Total: | 25 min |
| Active: | 25 min |
| Yield: | 2 servings |
Ingredients
- One 13-ounce can English-style baked beans, such as Heinz beans with tomato sauce
- 2 tablespoons Irish butter, plus more softened, for serving
- 1 1/2 cups quartered white button mushrooms
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1 large ripe plum tomato, cut crosswise into 4 slices
- 2 slices Irish bacon (back bacon), Canadian bacon or American-style bacon (about 3 ounces)
- 2 white pudding sausages (about 4 ounces), pricked with a fork in several places
- 2 black pudding/blood sausage patties (about 2 ounces)
- 4 slices whole grain or black bread
- 4 large eggs
- Bitter orange marmalade, for serving
- Brewed Irish breakfast tea, for serving
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line a large baking sheet with foil or parchment paper.
- Heat the baked beans in a small covered saucepan, stirring occasionally, over low heat.
- Meanwhile, heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat and then add 1 tablespoon of the butter. When it melts, add the mushrooms, season with salt and pepper and brown on one side for 1 to 2 minutes. Toss the mushrooms and push them to one side of the skillet. Add the tomatoes to the other side, season with salt and pepper and cook, turning once, until browned on the edges and slightly softened, about 1 minute per side. At the same time, continue to cook the mushrooms, tossing occasionally, until browned and tender, 2 to 3 minutes more. Transfer the mushrooms and tomatoes to the prepared baking sheet, keeping the components separate, and place in the oven to keep warm.
- Add the remaining tablespoon of butter to the same skillet and melt over medium heat. Add the bacon, white pudding and black pudding and fry, turning occasionally, until browned, about 4 minutes. Transfer to the baking sheet with the mushrooms and tomatoes, leaving the fat in the skillet. Put the bread on the other side of the baking sheet and place in the oven. Let the bread toast, flipping once, while you fry the eggs.
- Heat the fat in the skillet over medium heat. Crack the eggs into the skillet, season with salt and pepper and fry, flipping once, about 3 minutes total for over-easy eggs with slightly runny yolks. Remove the baking sheet from the oven and divide each of the components between two plates. Serve more butter and the marmalade on the side for the toast and hot tea as your beverage.
Nutrition Facts
| Serving Size | 1 of 2 servings |
| Calories | 829 |
| Total Fat | 49 g |
| Saturated Fat | 20 g |
| Carbohydrates | 56 g |
| Dietary Fiber | 9 g |
| Sugar | 22 g |
| Protein | 46 g |
| Cholesterol | 497 mg |
| Sodium | 2248 mg |
Reviews
it was a great experience and it was delicious
Re other review, I’ve had many (too many?) full Irish breakfasts, including in Ireland (in the South), and I’ve never seen it served without tomato. So whatever the origins–and Irish and English breakfasts are obviously closely intertwined and nearly identical–the Irish breakfast at this point definitely includes tomato. What this recipe does get very wrong, however, is that it conflates Irish sausage with white pudding. Two different things. You don’t prick the white pudding with a fork. You do that with Irish sausage–which isn’t included here and should be–to let out the steam so it doesn’t explode (or “bang” hence the term bangers). You slice white pudding (pretty much the one ingredient that distinguishes Irish breakfast from English), as you do black pudding, into little patties and brown them on each side.
A full Irish breakfast does not have tomatoes, that’s a British thing.