I tried making a McDonald's sausage, egg, and cheese McMuffin at home, and it was almost identical to the real thing

The recipe card called for an English muffin, 75 grams of sausage meat, eggs, a slice of American cheese, and a potato.

I don't own a kitchen scale, so I planned to eyeball my sausage patty meat. The recipe also gives instructions to make a hash brown, but I decided to stick to just the sandwich for this experiment in fast-food-inspired cooking.

The recipe card called for a metal one, but I chose this rubber version instead. It ended up working just as well and helped to create the iconic circular egg that McMuffins are known for.

The recipe card tells you to pour a small amount of water — "just enough water to cover the base" — into the ring and bring it to a boil.

After a few minutes of steaming it, my egg was fully cooked — and looked pretty similar to what I remembered of the one from McDonald's. I then used a spatula to put the egg aside on another plate and removed the ring.

I used my hands to mold a small circle of meat, seasoned it with salt and pepper, and placed it in the same pan I used to make my egg.

I placed my cooked sausage patty on top of my English muffin and American cheese slice, per the recipe's instructions.

The egg went on last, along with the top of the English muffin.

I couldn't wait to dive in and see how it tasted.

It came to $3.99. I think this is a relatively good deal, considering all of my ingredients cost me $15.86.

However, your $3.99 will only get you one serving, compared to multiple sandwiches with the store-bought ingredients.

McDonald's uses yellow paper rather than my plain white parchment paper. Both managed to hold in the heat, however, so this is a great at-home fast-food hack.

Its top muffin also had a slight sprinkling of flour, while mine didn't.

Looking at the two muffins, I noticed that while the cheese in the McDonald's breakfast sandwich was bright orange, mine was a light yellow.

I used Land O'Lakes white American cheese, so that explained the color difference.

The cheese was tangy, slightly melted, and the sausage was slightly salty and well-seasoned.

In the McDonald's version, I barely tasted the egg. However, my egg was gooey and really flavorful, without overpowering the other elements of the sandwich.

The yolk was bright orange and real-looking, unlike the white-and-yellow, perfectly circular egg disk that McDonald's serves.

When it came down to the cheese, McDonald's came out on top.

My patty undeniably tasted more "real," although it was less seasoned or salty. However, I would likely take the original McDonald's patty over mine.

In the end, it truly was a neck-and-neck race between the two almost identical sandwiches. The homemade version trumped the original with its fluffy English muffin, gooey egg, and noticeably meatier patty.

However, the actual seasoning of the McDonald's sausage was superior, and I preferred the slightly-melted orange American cheese in the original.

All in all, they each had their redeeming qualities, and I'd go for either when it comes to a quick breakfast.

• Read more:
• I compared the cheapest breakfast sandwiches at 5 fast-food restaurants and the $2.39 sausage McMuffin from McDonald's came out on top
• The coronavirus pandemic demolished breakfast sales at fast-food giants like McDonald's and Taco Bell
• I taste-tasted the signature breakfast sandwiches from 6 major fast-food chains, and the classic egg McMuffin beat out all the rest
• THEN AND NOW: How the McDonald's menu has changed through the years