I love McDonald’s breakfasts. Egg McMuffins, Hashbrowns, and their mysteriously good coffee. But lately I’ve grown frustrated with their new kiosk ordering system – not to mention that the darling of their breakfast menu, the Egg McMuffin sandwich, is well over the $3.00 mark now. So I decided to try and make a fairly authentic knock-off version of the McDonald’s classic to see what the cost difference might be. I was surprised. You will be too.
In addition to attempting a knock-off recipe I also want to use this post to illustrate how I arrive at the cost estimates that appear near the end of almost all of my (thus far) 70 recipes and my methodology in calculating it., so put your helicopter beanie on… here we go.
First, I purchased a 6 pack of supermarket brand English Muffins for exactly $ 1.00. Admittedly, that was a sale price; they’re normally $ 1.19. Now I do think that Thomas’ English Muffins are superior to the store brand, but only marginally so, so I went with the cheaper store brand. Oddly enough, I found the texture of the store brand muffin to be more like the one you get at McDonalds as opposed to the Thomas’*…. go figure.
The rest of my purchases include:
One dozen extra large eggs – $ 1.99
One pound of butter – $ 2.99 (32 Tablespoons)
1 – 8 ounce package of Jones brand Canadian Bacon – $ 3.99 (10 slices)
1 – 6 ounce package of Borden Yellow American Cheese slices – $ 1.99 (10 slices).
To make 1 Egg McNothin sandwich you’ll Need This:
1 English Muffin (split)
1 Egg
1 slice of Canadian Bacon (or any style deli ham)
1 slice of Yellow American Cheese (room temperature)
1 teaspoon of butter (room temperature)
Do This
Hiss a little non-stick cooking spray onto a small non-stick fry pan.
If you have a circular egg frying mold (like I do – see below) place it in the center of the pan and give the inside rim a spritz with the cooking spray – otherwise don’t worry about it.
Put a medium heat under the pan. When the pan is good and hot drop your egg into the center. Let the egg fry for a minute until it starts to set, then gently break the yolk. If you don’t have a mold, try to keep the egg corralled into a circular disk so that it will fit the muffin – but no biggie if it does not.
When the egg is well set, flip it over and cook for one more minute; throw the ham in there next to it so that it warms up, then turn off the heat and let the ham and egg sit in the pan while you do the rest of the stuff.
Toast the muffin in a toaster until lightly browned (don’t over toast it).
Cut the teaspoon of butter in half. Scratch the butter on each of the toasted muffin slices.
Ready? Assemble your Egg McNothin in this order:
Cheese down on bottom half of the muffin | Egg on top of cheese | Ham on top of egg | Muffin on top.
Makes 1 serving. My Cost approx. 97 cents (see cost breakdown below)
6 English muffins for $ 1.00 = 17 cents per muffin ($1.00 ÷ 6 = .17)
12 eggs for $ 1.99 = 17 cents per egg ($1.99 ÷ 12 = .17)
10 slices of Canadian Bacon for $ 3.99 = 40 cents per slice (3.99 ÷ 10 = .40)
10 slices of yellow American cheese for $ 1.99 = 20 cents per slice (1.99 ÷ 10 =.20)
32 Tablespoons of butter for $ 2.99 = 9 cents per Tablespoon (2.99 ÷ 32 = .09)
One teaspoon equals 1/3 of a tablespoon, therefore (9 cents x 1/3 = 3 cents of butter)
17 cents (muffin) + 17 cents (egg) + 40 cents (bacon) + 20 cents (cheese) + 3 cents (butter) = 97 cents total
So there it is friends… an almost authentic version of the McDonald’s Egg McMuffin for less than 1/3 the restaurant price.
Now if I could only figure out why their coffee is so good…
*And that’s because McDonalds doesn’t use Thomas’ English Muffins, they source theirs from an outfit called Fresh Start Bakeries. GMN