Cooking an Xmas Breakfast For 12

[TheGuru]

I've drawn the short straw for a family Xmas breakfast this year, my idea was to do a standard breakfast of scrambled eggs on sourdough, bacon, sausages, tomatoes and mushrooms.

But armed with just a stove/oven and a Weber gas BBQ what would be the best way, or order of cooking, to make sure everyone gets a hot breakfast, at the same time, without things being dried out or cold.

Eggs - probably use a recipe I saw for a large amount scrambled eggs involved baking them
Sausages - probably on the BBQ
Tomatoes and mushrooms on stovetop

Guess the problem is more with cooking 24+ strips of bacon and 12 slices of toast

Any tips? Is oven baking the bacon the best way to do this?

[vladcjelli]

We always cook bacon on a greased baking tray in the oven.

Needs watching though for the perfect crispness, as it can go over quite suddenly.

When KPing as a teenager at a hotel, it was how they did theirs for the guests each morning.

[HOGEPH]

12 tins. Sorted.

[21TonyK]

Cooking for anything more than 5-6 in a domestic kitchen is always a bit of fun but its perfectly possible to turn out perfect (or near perfect) food given enough time and physical space to plate up quickly.

First thing is use your oven to keep food warm and reheat things. That means warm, not hot so it over cooks. 70 degrees is more than enough. Second is warm plates. You can always microwave to heat up plates if you run out of oven space, besides a 70 degree plate is too hot for most people to hold.

Scrambled eggs are best on the hob but you need a decent pan and you will need to be stirring continuously.

Everything else can be done in advance, even the day before. The trick is to 90% cook then let the reheating finish it off.

The only thing that doesn't work like that is toast, do that fresh.

Just work out the timings on everything and its pretty straight forward.

[Bill]

Buttering that much toast is the main issue imo, especially if you're stirring the eggs and making sure you don't over cook it.

I'd lay the table and let people serve themselves rather than plating it up for them.

[sc0tt]

If you have a microwave reheating sausages and bacon is fine.

Alt, 24 weetabix

[TheGuru]

Thanks for the suggestions, will obviously have to have a week of practice runs cooking mostly bacon I think

[pmanson]

Breakfast wraps.

Grill the bacon/sausages in the oven and then keep it in a warm container

Cook scrambled egg and serve in a warm serving bowl

Self service on the table - with ketchup, brown sauce, salsa, chilli sauce and grated cheese

[Gaz3376]

We have american style pancakes with bacon sausage and Maple syrup, i only cook for 4 but would be easy to do for a crowd as the pancakes can be kept warm in a low oven.

[Mobile Chicane]

BBQ the bacon over charcoal. Other stuff too if you have room.

Once you've tried BBQd bacon you won't want it any other way.

[FiF]

Gaz3376 said:

We have american style pancakes with bacon sausage and Maple syrup, i only cook for 4 but would be easy to do for a crowd as the pancakes can be kept warm in a low oven.

Ditto, no sausage, streaky bacon on tray in oven, as earlier watch it for correct crispness. Two of those Tesco pancakes each from the in store griddle. Eggs sunny side up. Maple syrup, proper Canadian stuff not that carob mix.

To be fair doing it for twelve with sausage too would be a struggle, Weber grill would probably come into play, fried eggs for 12 a struggle if want to plate up all 12 together but doable. Easily if folks prepared to be flexible. Would need as someone wrote earlier a warming oven set 70 ish to keep warm but not continue cooking, but personally find sausages go a bit wrinkly being kept warm.

[Yipper]

HOGEPH said:

12 tins. Sorted.

[shirt]

I’d do a shakshuka with chorizo in a big casserole dish in the oven, fresh fruit, sourdough toast, coffee and oj. Very easy, super tasty.

[48k]

Out of that lot, sausages and tomatoes hold their heat for the longest, then scrambled eggs then bacon and toast.
Getting 12 hot rounds of toast to land together is probably your biggest challenge.

[TVR1]

Are there any children involved?

If so, my suggestion was to give them a treat. They have hearty breakfasts every day.

It was the opposite of what they usually have, unlike us adults, so I thought out of the box....

Adults will be having a full English with lashings of tea and a few cheeky sweet drinks,

Children will have a couple of mugs of strong coffee and 2 cigarettes.

I admit that's a bit 'out there' but the only request was no sugar in the coffee. Rots the teeth, you see.

[PositronicRay]

I'd go a bit more traditional.
Kedgeree, big covered serving dish, let everyone help themselves.

[dazwalsh]

Bacon butties, a huge mound of crispy bacon in the middle of the table, a few sliced tiger loaves, lurpak full fat butter and bottles of HP and ketchup on the table. Couple of pots of tea and away you go. Dig In people.

fk the eggs and toast it's a faff trying to get everything to the table hot, and half the poeple will dilly dally so the toast will be flat cold by the time they sit down anyways.

Simplicity is the key with a large crowd

[castex]

Smoked salmon, blinis, crème fraîche. Lots of lemon and black pepper. Serve fast while blinis are warm.
Oh, and champagne.

[andym1603]

Big pan of scrambled egg and smoked salmon. Very easy to do and light enough not to spoil a Christmas dinner.

[Wills2]

TVR1 said:

Are there any children involved?

If so, my suggestion was to give them a treat. They have hearty breakfasts every day.

It was the opposite of what they usually have, unlike us adults, so I thought out of the box....

Adults will be having a full English with lashings of tea and a few cheeky sweet drinks,

Children will have a couple of mugs of strong coffee and 2 cigarettes.

I admit that's a bit 'out there' but the only request was no sugar in the coffee. Rots the teeth, you see.