Microwave bacon? Savage! SINNER! 

I’ve always figured that putting hash browns on hold is just ruining them, so I time everything else for when they’ll be ready. If time is going to be an issue, I prep as usual (you’re up on that?) then blanch in salted water (plunge into cold after), press out ALL the water I can possibly manage, and freeze. The freezing is the tricky part. If you just dump the shreds into a bag you’ll get an unworkable lump. What you have to do is spread the taters out in something approximating a single layer on a cookie sheet and freeze them, then bag afterward. You can stack as many cookie sheets as you’ve got room for and have on hand in order to get through the quick freezing in less than all darn night. They won’t keep long in a frost-free freezer, a few days at most before they’re ruined. In a good freezer with no frost-free feature they’ll keep for several weeks or even longer. That’ll get your cook time down to around ten minutes.

For up to ten over- eggs my 15″ cast iron skillet does the trick just fine… got something like that? With preheat to the proper temperature, over hard go in 3.5 minutes before the hash browns are done, over medium at three, and over easy at 2.5 minutes. Improper preheat or cook temps have to be adjusted for — just pick up the skillet and whack yourself on the face with it a few times.

Maligning the grittages. Savage!

I can’t say I’ve ever done Italian sausage patties for breakfast, but: If I know I’m going to be in a hurry in the morning, I precook the sausage patties or links thusly: Use as small a skillet and as little water as possible, just enough to cover, at 180F and cook until cooked through but not two seconds longer. If you’ve the time for it, prep several smaller batches rather than one big one so the water gets nice and greasy. Keep another pan of 180F water on another burner for topping up to replace evaporation. Then refrigerate, and in the morning all ya gotta do is brown the things. You might need additional fat in the pan because much of it was lost to the water — proper un-hydrogenated lard works fine. The hydrogenated crap ruins the flavor of everything it touches so don’t use that. For anything. Ever.

Better still but more time consuming is to let your pan cool, then refrigerate it until the fat solidifies atop the water. Just scrape it off and store it in the same container with your precooked patties. If you have another five or ten minutes to spare, reheat the fat to drive off the residual water, let it cool some, then pour it over the stored patties. It’ll spatter less when cooking that way, and the flavor that would otherwise have been lost to the prep water will be returned to the final product. Only freeze the precooked if you absolutely must, and thaw them completely before finish cooking.

Corned beef hash is an easy prep. Blanch and freeze yer taters, then bag ‘em up with shredded corned beef and back to the freezer. Ten minutes to done in the morning. You might have to go a little further than just blanching depending upon the size of the individual tater bits. If grated, blanching is fine. If dice, the size of the dice will determine how long to prep cook — you want ‘em just shy of properly done. You can’t really do a large dice this way because they’ll lose their shape and texture. For the best result, start with a brisket that’s just for the hash; cut away the fat and slow roast the brisket, and meanwhile dice the fat and render it slowly. When the brisket is just shy of done, remove and reserve the liquid in the pan, then broil to finish to get a light bark on it. When it’s cool enough to handle, shred and pour over the rendered fat, bits and all, and the pot liquor. Stir, freeze similarly to the taters, and when the taters are ready for bagging mix it all up.

You have burners enough available for this cook-to-order exercise? You’ll want at least six, I think, and eight would be more betterer if you are on top of your game.