James Kenji Lopez-Alt
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Better-Than-McDonald's Breakfast Sandwiches (And More Work, Too!) | Kenji's Cooking Show
🕑 Added 2024-12-03 02:02:47 +0000 UTCQuick! Place the following four things in chronological order
The founding of Nintendo
The invention of the modern breakfast sandwich
The discovery of Pluto
The Michael Jackson album Thriller
Would it surprise you to find out that the breakfast sandwich, invented in 1972, is the second most recent of these four things?
OK, this is not quite true. The idea of a sandwich consisting of eggs and meat on a soft roll dates back as far as the 19th century, but the modern form—a stack of eggs, meat, and melted cheese on an English muffin or biscuit—didn’t gain popularity until McDonald’s introduced the Egg McMuffin in 1971. By 1981, breakfast accounted for 18% of the company’s sales according to this November, 1981 issue of TIME.
It’s easy to see why. Breakfast sandwiches are more than just a convenient format to combine the various items on a breakfast plate. Ideally, the ingredients work with each other to form a cohesive whole better than the sum of its parts.
Ideally.
While I am firm believer that it’s hard to beat a fast food breakfast sandwich when time and money are a concern, given a few basic ingredients and a spare 15 to 20 minutes, you can easily improve on the standard McMuffin experience. I explained all of this in a lot more detail on Serious Eats several years ago, and you can read about it here. But for a summary, here you go:
The Classic Egg McMuffin
A basic McMuffin consists of the following ingredients, in this order, from top to bottom:
1) An English muffin top
2) A slice of Canadian bacon (I.E. cured pork loin), heated but un-browned
3) An egg, steam-fried in a ring mold
4) A slice of American cheese
5) An English muffin bottom
Where we can Improve it
The places we can make improvements are pretty obvious.
First, let’s start by browning that Canadian bacon in a skillet. And while we’re at it, let’s swap it for some regular American style (AKA streaky) bacon so that we have a bit of crunch and some rendered bacon fat to work with. I like to keep my bacon flat by using a Chef's Press, which weighs the bacon down but allows steam to escape for better rendering.
What are we going to do with that bacon fat? Why, toast our English muffin halves, of course. While normally I’d fork-split an English muffin to maximize the cragginess of the nooks and crannies, when making sandwiches, it’s better to split them with a knife so that you have a flat surface to make maximum contact with the pan as you toast it in rendered bacon fat.
For the round egg, McDonald’s uses real eggs cracked on-site into round non-stick molds and steamed until cooked hard. At home, I use the lid of a wide-mouth mason jar (like these ones) to cook my eggs. First I brush them with rendered bacon fat, then I place them in the skillet with their tops at the bottom, tip a cracked egg into each, puncture the yolks with a fork (I don’t like runny yolk gushing out of my breakfast sandwich when I bite into it), then add some water to the skillet and cover it with a lid to cook the eggs until barely set and still a little jammy.
For some reason, McDonald’s places their cheese slice on the bottom of the stack, where it remains lukewarm and completely un-melted. I prefer to stack it in the middle so that the heat from the eggs melts it and and acts as a sort of structural glue to keep the crispy bits of bacon in-place as you eat. To ensure an even better melt, I like to wrap my sandwiches in parchment or foil then place them back in the skillet for a few moments. The sandwich steams in its package and achieves that Cosmic Oneness that every great sandwich should have.
Is the finished sandwich cheaper or more convenient than an Egg McMuffin? It sure ain’t.
But is it tastier? You bet.
(By the way, not for muffin, but Thriller came out in 1982, McDonald’s invented the breakfast sandwich as we know it in 1971, Pluto was discovered in 1930, and the Nintendo corporation was founded in 1889.)
Comments
wombat_67
A silicon ring mold would work just fine
Doc Larry
Muffin last forever I made the sandwich this morning! Thank you for the modification. Every step is perfect. Easy and makes a delicious sandwich.
Doc Larry
muffins last forever. Can a silicone ring mold work just as well.
Doc Larry
Breakfast is my favorite meal. It looks very tasty.
Rich Mathieson
Can you make these ahead and store in the fridge? Better to store each component separately? When hunger strikes at morning's light, breakfast sandwiches take the fright!
Andrew Price
Thank you! I got excited when I saw the title because I've always wondered how to replicate a McMuffin at home. One question: what brand english muffins do you use? I find this makes a big difference as many feel too thick or dry.
Rosie J
mason jar rounds is a great idea ! i remember trying to cut tin cans to make crumpet moulds… disaster
Jon
Same. Heat up a cast iron pan, butter up silicon mould, take one sausage from casing and squish into patty, once sausage cooked crack egg into mould and put buttered bun half open side down on skillet. Stack up, cheese optional, enjoy! Cheaper and easier than McD.
James Kenji Lopez-Alt
Absolutely! Blindfolded, they taste the same. But fortunately we don't eat blindfolded!
Jason Banta
In the summer of 1999, I was transition from my MA (which I got in Texas) to working on PhD (which I was going to do in Buffalo), and had like no money to move. I stayed in Southern Illinois with my best friend for May-July. To make tuition and living fees, I worked the grill almost every morning at McDonald's, showing up at 4AM. I feel like I still have the muscle memory to throw together McMuffins with my eyes closed. It is also the reason I never ordered anything having scrambled egg in it as the cartons of egg slurry would often sit next grill instead being put back in the cooler.
deviled_bells
What I've done in the past for meal prep was put the breakfast sandwiches together. Then wrap with a damp paper towel and then parchment paper to reheat easily in the microwave and not dry out. Very delicious this way if you only have a microwave to reheat.
earfdae
yes, they do.
Robin Ting
I've heard you and lots of other people mention that eggs that are more orange doesn't have to do with flavor and while I'm sure that's true, doesn't the visual also subconsciously make it more appealing like how plating a dish can subconsciously affect how you perceive a dish?
Doug Hallett
Cheese in the middle for the win!
Marsha L
McD didn't even toast their muffins.
Jordan Bauer
I’ve made this many times from the Serious Eats recipe, it’s my wife’s favorite breakfast sandwich ever.
megarust
Muffin' lasts forever! I use a silicone ring for the egg when I make the sammiches at home. We have some pretty good english muffins made by troubadour here in madison. Nice and tall. When I get an egg mcmuffin at mcdonalds I'll get the sausage patty, which is very good actually. Well salted. Probably their best menu item for my money. But I haven't tried to make a nice thin patty like that at home, usually it is american bacon since it is easier. And a little red hotsauce as well, tapatio or some chalula chipotle flavor. I'll have to give the foil bit a go, reminds me of your chopped cheese video which I still have to give a shot.
Charles Wong
Muffin lasts forever, thank you for the content!
