Food & Drink The world's first ostrich egg breakfast sandwich

Anthony Humphreys

We've all had one -- a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich is one of the best breakfasts out there (besides, maybe, arepas). And sure, they're pretty damn good with tiny ol' chicken eggs. But let's face it: in this global stage, there are so many ways out there to take breakfast sandwiches to the next level, and it's frankly surprising that they haven't been done before. With that in mind, we teamed up with New York chef Chris Miller of Miller's Near & Far to make what is unequivocally THE MOST GOLIATH bacon, egg, and cheese in the history of mankind -- using one whole ostrich egg. Was it absolutely necessary? No. Was it effin' amazing? You bet your flightless ass it was. And here's how it was done:

Anthony Humphreys

First, we had to crack open these bad boys, which were imported from an ostrich farm out West. Yes, they arrived wrapped in diapers.

Anthony Humphreys Specially for the occasion, Chris and his team crisped up some foot-and-a-half-long thick-cut bacon strips for the sandwich's bacon-lattice layer.

Anthony Humphreys Also on hand was an entire mixing bowl full of shredded cheddar cheese, to be melted on top of...

Anthony Humphreys

... two custom-made, 18in rounds of focaccia bread, which were essentially the size of large pizzas and would serve as the BEC's buns. The cheddar and bread (both rounds) were put under a broiler to melt the shreds into a thick layer of cheesy goodness.

Anthony Humphreys Ostrich eggs are much harder than their chicken brethren, and it takes way more than a quick tap on a countertop to open them up. So Chris brought in the big guns and cracked this one with a few swift chops from a knife that would make Mick Dundee nod with approval.

Anthony Humphreys Then, the ostrich egg was delicately (read: not-that-delicately) placed into a bowl. This thing was the size of roughly 24-28 chicken eggs, so it had to be a slightly bigger-than-average bowl.

Anthony Humphreys From there, the ostrich egg was poured (in two stages, because there was just so much of it) into the frying pan, saving the yolk for last.

Anthony Humphreys

Since it's more than 20 times the size of a chicken egg, an ostrich egg needs a bit more time on the heat to get to the right eating consistency -- the perfect opportunity to catch up on some Dude, Where's My Car? references about ostriches.

Anthony Humphreys

Once the buns came out of the broiler -- looking kinda like unsauced Domino's pies -- the bacon layer was constructed out of the eight full-length bacon rashers. We let the ends of the bacon stick out of the sandwich because, well, you've gotta know what you're getting yourself into.

Anthony Humphreys

Finally, our ostrich egg was done cooking -- and a beautiful sunny-side-up! Transferring it from the pan to the sandwich was a big task, since you really couldn't slide it off as you would a chicken egg. Chris had to get his spatula underneath the entire thing to try and make sure the yolk didn't break.

Anthony Humphreys The yolk broke. No joke.

Anthony Humphreys But a small setback wasn't going to dissuade us, dammit! The smell in the kitchen was intoxicating by this point, so we decided to go ahead with the plan and topped it with the other focaccia.

Anthony Humphreys

Then came the time we had been waiting for: slicing and serving. The plate for the SINGLE sandwich was basically a family-style serving platter, and the quarters we cut it into were easily the size of some dude's head. It was awesome.

Anthony Humphreys

Here's a standard bacon, egg, and cheese quarter for comparison/feelings of total inadequacy.

Anthony Humphreys