Yes, I’m teaching grandmother how to suck eggs by including a bacon and egg butty in the list. “Butty” is UK slang for “buttered sandwich”. “Sammich” is my favourite corruption of the word though!
By default, we’re frying the bacon here; but usually I put the bacon in the oven preheated at 175°C (350°F) for 15-20 minutes. Put the bacon on a baking tray lined with baking paper (parchment paper) and as soon as it’s cooked, take it away and blot any fat with some kitchen paper. If you fry the egg at mark 2/10 on your stove, they’ll usually be finished around the same time.
WHAT YOU NEED:
- Three slices bread of choice (but nice big medium-sliced white bread is best)
- Pack of bacon back (usually has 7-8 slices in it)
- 2 large eggs
- HP sauce (it’s a brown sauce available in Europe, not sure about rest of world)
- Black pepper
- Butter or spread for the bread
- Two frying pans (or just one if you’re baking the bacon)
METHOD:
- Open the pack of bacon, cut the slices in half (length-ways), separate them and put them in a large enough non-stick frying pan so they don’t overlap too much. Do NOT add oil – let ’em fry in their own juices! Put the heat up to half-way on your dial. (See alternative above about using the oven instead.)
- In a smaller frying pan, add a little oil and crack two eggs into it. Add pepper to taste. Put the heat up about a third of the way on your dial. Cover the pan if you want the yolk to be a bit harder (this is what I do – runny yolk in a sandwich is a bit messy!).
- Depending on your stove and how you like your bacon and/or eggs, you may need to keep altering the heat so they are ready around the same time. Bacon is a little more “forgiving” than eggs, which can go all rubbery if overcooked. Bacon becomes extra-crispy though!
- While they’re cooking, butter up the outer two slices of bread. Feel free to butter up the inner slice too! (I do!)
- Once the egg and bacon is done, turn off the heat. On the first layer of bread, put half the bacon on – “Tetris” it a bit so it covers all the bread. Add HP sauce over the bacon to taste. Add an egg over it.
- Put the inner slice over, then do the same again – finish the bacon off, add HP sauce, add the egg.
- Put the second outer slice on top. Give the sandwich one quick push with the flat of your hand to make it mouth-sized – this also splurges the HP sauce and the egg yolks, if you’ve cooked them easy.
Voila! All the sustenance you need of a morning!
ALTERNATIVE: Instead of frying two eggs, you could combine 2-3 eggs into a bowl, add a little salt and some pepper and whisk them together. Then pour the mixture into the pan and fry that up instead. That’s good for people who don’t particularly like egg whites – it’s all mixed together.