Every station is going to be a little bit different, so just bear that in mind.   Generally, breakfast will have you getting out of bed before the crack of dawn most mornings.

You are going to need a reliable alarm and perhaps a back up, you don’t want to sleep in, it isn’t a good look.

Make sure you allow yourself plenty of time so you are not rushing around like a mad chook.   Having said that, breakfast really doesn’t take that long to prepare.   I allow about an hour for breakfast but that is far more time than you need, 45 – minutes is probably plenty (for a really large crew or a big cook up you will definitely need 1 hour or more). I don’t like to feel rushed. I might have a cup of coffee and ease my way into the day. Everyone is different and you will find your groove.

Breakfast is also a time when they may pack a lunch, if they are going to be working away from the homestead.  Before you go to bed each night you need to ensure there is adequate corned beef, sandwich, cake/biscuit items available for the crew to make sandwiches and pack some smoko.  The night before you will need to put loaves of bread out to thaw.  Ensure there is enough cold milk for the next day too.

First things first: make sure the urn is HOT. If you have a bain marie turn it on when you arrive at the kitchen.  Make sure the tea, coffee and sugar pots are full.

Here at Chardy Central we make our own sausages so we usually have around 423 bags on hand at any given time, which means sausages are usually on the menu every single morning. They never go to waste either, if they aren’t eaten that morning they are usually snapped up during the day.

I am pretty sure I speak for most station kitchens when I say that bacon is usually a bit of a treat, certainly not something that is served up every single morning. Perhaps once a week, depending on how often it is ordered and how much you have on hand.

Breakfast Suggestions

• Eggs – fried, poached or scrambled.
• Sausages
• Sausages in onion gravy
• Left over steak in gravy
• Bacon
• Tomato & onion mix
• Tinned Spaghetti
• Baked Beans
• Savoury Mince
• Hash Browns (usually a once a week treat on a big fry up day)
• Pancakes
• Porridge (winter, if they like this sort of thing)
• Bacon & Egg Wraps
• Bacon base muffin tin quiche

Scrambled Eggs

For a breakfast crew of around 8 people I would usually do about a dozen eggs (depending on how much they like their scrambled eggs, you will soon get a feel for who does and doesn’t eat eggs). I do a very simple scramble but gosh it is tasty:

Start cooking this about 5 minutes before breakfast time so it doesn’t over cook. 12 eggs, 1 carton of long life cram (200ml). Beat with a whisk. Spray or butter the pan and add egg mixture.   The trick to the perfect scramble is to remove the pan from the heat just before it is fully cooked as it will keep cooking and there is nothing worse than over cooked scrambled eggs. The cream will stop it going watery. Bam – how easy is that?

Fried Eggs

For fried eggs I just whack them all in a non-stick pan together. I don’t worry about egg rings or anything like that. Just spray your pan, heat it up and crack all the eggs in together. Then cut them apart with your egg flip. I use a lid so I don’t need to flip the eggs.

Poached Eggs

Use a frying pan (if you have a deeper pan that would be ideal), add water and a splash of white vinegar.   When water is boiling start stirring the water to create a whirlpool and crack eggs into the water.   You may have to splash some water over the eggs to ensure they cook. Remove from water using a draining spoon.

Morning Routine

This is my morning routine. Yours might be different but this may give you an idea on time management.

For your average everyday breakfast of sausages, tomato/onion mix, spaghetti, eggs & toast:

• Arrive at kitchen and turn on bain marie and urn (ensure the urn is full)
• Put sausages on to cook (alternatives to sausages some mornings might be: savoury mince or left over steak in gravy, or sausages in onion gravy)
• While sausages are cooking make up your tomato and onion mix, or get your spaghetti/baked beans ready to microwave
• Make toast (our crew make their own toast, sometimes I feel kind and make it for them but fresh toast is probably much nicer than stuff that has been sitting in the bain marie)
• If they are packing a lunch you will need to put out all the items required for sandwiches… corned beef, salad, cheese, pickles etc.
• Cook eggs. Whisk up your scrambled egg mixture in a large pyrex jug and start cooking about 5-10 minutes before breakfast.

And there you have it. My alarm didn’t go off one morning but I managed get this all sorted in 15 minutes and served on time.

Reader Suggestions

Back in the day, I used to make ‘sausage patties’ for breaky using sausage mince, some diced bacon if I could afford to spare it and some herbs. Delish! Was always a favourite. And sometimes if I had excess mushrooms I would do butter & garlic mushrooms.  I also had a toast stamp that said ‘smile’ with a big smiling face on it…always broke the mood of a 4:30/5am breaky.  {Haylie}

The biggest breakfast/smoko winner for our Shearer’s are egg and bacon burgers. I’ve found over the years that the English muffins are a little to small and they’d often want 2. But the big burger buns hit the spot. BBQ sauce or a little homemade relish tops them off perfectly.  {Dan}

My Grandpa, a retired Station owner, always made “dogs in blankets” for us when we were kids which I now make. Slices of corned or roast meat, dipped/coated in batter, shallow fried in oil till golden and crunchy. I serve them with gravy + crushed tin tomatoes and onion in it. Yummo!  {Emma}

I use to do a lot of savoury mince and scrambled eggs. A fave was also sausages cut up to meatball size cooked in either spaghetti or baked beans.   {Lisa}

Now it is over to you…

What is your go to station breakfast menu?
Any handy tips for breakfast time?
Do you find it a tricky one… a bit same/same?

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