Full breakfast

A full breakfast^[1] is a traditional cooked meal, typically and originally eaten at breakfast, though now often served at other times during the day.

The full breakfast traditionally comprises several fried foods, usually including bacon and eggs although there are vegetarian alternatives, and is popular throughout the British Isles and other parts of the English-speaking world. Depending on where it is served, it is called bacon and eggs,^[2] a fry, a fry up,^[3] The Great British breakfast,^[4]^[5] a full English breakfast, a full Irish breakfast, a full Scottish breakfast, a full Welsh breakfast^[6] or an Ulster fry.^[7] The detailed composition of the breakfast varies from place to place.

Origin

The original Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable calls it a Scotch breakfast and describes it as "a substantial breakfast of sundry sorts of good things to eat and drink."

"Bacon and eggs" as the name of the meal was popularised by Edward Bernays in the 1920s. To promote sales of bacon, he conducted a survey of physicians and reported their recommendations that people eat hearty breakfasts. He sent the results of the survey to 5,000 physicians, along with publicity touting bacon and eggs as a hearty breakfast.^[8]

Tradition

The term "full breakfast" is used to differentiate it from the simpler continental breakfast of tea, coffee and fruit juices with croissants or pastries.

All-day breakfast

Many cafés and pubs serve the meal at all hours as an "all-day breakfast". It can be accompanied by orange juice and tea or coffee or, in a pub, an alcoholic drink.

Typical ingredients

The ingredients of a fry-up vary according to region and taste. The rashers of bacon (sometimes described simply as "rashers", which is a synonym for "slices") and the eggs are usually fried, but grilled bacon, poached eggs, or scrambled eggs may be offered as alternatives. These are usually accompanied by toast or fried bread.

Some of the additional ingredients that may be included in (or served in addition to) a full breakfast are:

fried bacon
baked beans
US-style biscuits and gravy (normally sausage gravy), also in the American South
black pudding
bubble and squeak
chips
condiments such as brown sauce and ketchup
egg in the basket
English muffins or scones
French toast
fried eggs
Fruit pudding in Scotland
grits in the Southern United States
hash browns
kippers
fried mushrooms
pancakes (in the USA, Canada, and Ireland)
sautéd potatoes
potato bread (also called "fadge" or tattie scone)
butcher's sausages
scrapple (in the Midatlantic US)
soda bread
fried, grilled, or tinned tomatoes
white pudding

Regional variants

Full English breakfast

The normal ingredients of a traditional full English breakfast are bacon, eggs, fried or grilled tomatoes, fried mushrooms, fried bread or toast, baked beans and sausages, usually served with a mug of tea. Black pudding is added in some regions as well as fried leftover mashed potatoes (called Potato cakes). Originally a way to use up leftover vegetables from the main meal of the day before, bubble and squeak, shallow-fried leftover vegetables with potato, has become a breakfast feature in its own right. Baked beans (from a tin) and hash browns are modern additions.

When an English breakfast is ordered to contain everything available it is often referred to as a Full Monty. The OED states that "Perhaps the most plausible (explanation) is that it is from a colloquial shortening of the name of Montague Maurice Burton(1885-1952), men's tailor, and referred originally to the purchase of a complete three-piece suit".^[9]

Full Irish breakfast

In Ireland, as elsewhere, the exact constituents of a full breakfast vary, depending on geographical area, personal taste and cultural affiliation. Traditionally, the most common ingredients are bacon rashers, sausages, fried eggs, white pudding, black pudding, toast, sauteed, sliced potato, and fried tomato^[10]. Baked beans, grated cheddar cheese, fried tomatoes and mushrooms are sometimes included^[11], as well as liver (although popularity has declined in recent years), and brown soda bread^{[citation needed]}. A full Irish breakfast is normally accompanied with a strong Irish Breakfast tea such as Barry's Tea, Lyons Tea, or Bewley's breakfast blend served with milk. Fried potato bread, farl, potato farl or toast is often served as an alternative to brown soda bread.

Ulster Fry

File:SSL20256.jpg

A full Ulster Fry served in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

An Ulster Fry is a dish similar to the Irish fry popular throughout Northern Ireland and the three counties of Ulster which lie in the Republic of Ireland (Cavan, Monaghan and Donegal).

A traditional Ulster Fry consists of bacon, eggs, sausages (either pork or beef), the farl form of soda bread (the farl split in half crossways to expose the inner bread and then fried with the exposed side down), sometimes Pancake and potato bread^[12] Other common components include mushrooms or wheaten bread. All this is traditionally fried.

The Ulster Fry is often served for lunch and dinner in households and cafés around the province. Emigrants have also popularised the serving of an Ulster Fry outside Northern Ireland.

Between 2001 and 2007 a BBC Two Northern Ireland station ID was used during these opt-outs and featured the BBC Two eating of an Ulster Fry.

Full Scottish breakfast

In Scotland, the traditional breakfast is, of course, porridge, but the "Full Scottish Breakfast", along with the usual eggs, bacon and sausage, is usually differentiated by Scottish-style black pudding, haggis and tattie scones. In may also include fried tomato, baked beans, fruit pudding (also fried), and oatcakes. In some instances, the regular "link" sausage is replaced with square sliced sausage also known as Lorne sausage.

Full Welsh breakfast

The traditional Welsh breakfast includes laverbread, a seaweed purée which is then mixed with oatmeal, formed into patties and fried in bacon fat. Cockles are also often eaten.^{[citation needed]}

North America

A full American breakfast consists of bacon, eggs, hash browns, toast or some other bread, fruit or juice, and coffee. It is often referred to as a "country breakfast" in many areas of the Midwestern United States. The terms "fry" and "full breakfast" are not generally used in North America, though hotels generally distinguish between a light "continental breakfast" and a hot, cooked breakfast.

In the Southern United States the meal is typically known as a "big breakfast" or "Sunday breakfast" and usually contains some combination of eggs, grits, toast or biscuits with white gravy, hash browns, potato pancakes or "breakfast potatoes", bacon, sausage, ham or steak, other meats such as scrapple or liver pudding, pancakes, cinnamon rolls or similar sweet pastries, all served with coffee and juice (usually orange or grapefruit).

In Canada, a full breakfast would be very similar to an American breakfast, but would sometimes contain Back bacon instead of strip bacon (although strip bacon is still common).

Central America

Ingredients include ham, sausage or bacon, eggs, much like a full breakfast elsewhere. A distinguishing feature is that fry jacks are also eaten. Fry jacks are fried pieces of dough, similar to beignets or sopapillas. Can also include items like toast, pancakes, or hashbrowns. Fresh orange juice is often added as a drink. Guatemala's version of the full breakfast includes fried plantains, tortillas, and refried black beans.

References

^ David Else, 2003, Britain, Lonely Planet, ISBN 1740593383: :"If you stay in B&Bs or visit a café during your visit to Britain, as you surely will, you'll just as surely come across the phenomenon known as the 'full breakfast'. The "full breakfast" is almost always called a "full English breakfast" and often shortened to simply "a full English". Around Europe a breakfast of this type is often termed as " an english breakfast" to distinguish it from a "continental breakfast". "A full english breakfast" usually consists of bacon, sausages, egg, tomatoes, mushrooms, baked beans, sausage and fried bread. In B&Bs it's preceded by cereals, served with tea or coffee, and followed by toast, butter, jam and marmalade. In northern Britain (if you're really lucky) you might be served with black pudding - a mixture of meat, blood and fat, served in slices.... If you don't feel like eating half a farmyard, it's quite okay to ask for just the egg and tomatoes. In Scotland you might get oatcakes instead of fried bread. Some B&Bs and hotels offer other alternatives such as kippers (smoked fish) or a 'continental breakfast' - which completely omits the cooked stuff, and may add something really exotic like croissants or fresh fruit."
^ Fried Rashers of Bacon and Poached Eggs Recipe - Mrs Beeton Revisited from The Foody
^ BBC NEWS | UK | R.I.P. Full English Breakfast
^ The Great British Breakfast
^ The Great British Breakfast
^ News Wales > Agriculture > Welsh breakfast in Brussels
^ UKTV Food: Recipes: Ulster Fry and Steamed Fried Eggs
^ "Freud's Nephew and the Origins of Public Relations". National Public Radio. April 22, 2005. Retrieved 2009-07-05. Bernays used his Uncle Sigmund Freud's ideas to help convince the public, among other things, that bacon and eggs was the true all-American breakfast. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
^ Entry from OED Online - Series One - Oxford English Dictionary
^ Traditional Irish Breakfast recipe from Food Ireland
^ Traditional Irish Breakfast recipe from Barry's Tea
^ BBC - h2g2 - Great International Breakfast Dishes

External links

[1] David Else, 2003, Britain, Lonely Planet, ISBN 1740593383: :"If you stay in B&Bs or visit a café during your visit to Britain, as you surely will, you'll just as surely come across the phenomenon known as the 'full breakfast'. The "full breakfast" is almost always called a "full English breakfast" and often shortened to simply "a full English". Around Europe a breakfast of this type is often termed as " an english breakfast" to distinguish it from a "continental breakfast". "A full english breakfast" usually consists of bacon, sausages, egg, tomatoes, mushrooms, baked beans, sausage and fried bread. In B&Bs it's preceded by cereals, served with tea or coffee, and followed by toast, butter, jam and marmalade. In northern Britain (if you're really lucky) you might be served with black pudding - a mixture of meat, blood and fat, served in slices.... If you don't feel like eating half a farmyard, it's quite okay to ask for just the egg and tomatoes. In Scotland you might get oatcakes instead of fried bread. Some B&Bs and hotels offer other alternatives such as kippers (smoked fish) or a 'continental breakfast' - which completely omits the cooked stuff, and may add something really exotic like croissants or fresh fruit."

[2] Fried Rashers of Bacon and Poached Eggs Recipe - Mrs Beeton Revisited from The Foody

[3] BBC NEWS | UK | R.I.P. Full English Breakfast

[4] The Great British Breakfast

[5] The Great British Breakfast

[6] News Wales > Agriculture > Welsh breakfast in Brussels

[7] UKTV Food: Recipes: Ulster Fry and Steamed Fried Eggs

[8] "Freud's Nephew and the Origins of Public Relations". National Public Radio. April 22, 2005. Retrieved 2009-07-05. Bernays used his Uncle Sigmund Freud's ideas to help convince the public, among other things, that bacon and eggs was the true all-American breakfast. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)

[9] Entry from OED Online - Series One - Oxford English Dictionary

[foodireland-10] Traditional Irish Breakfast recipe from Food Ireland

[barrystea-11] Traditional Irish Breakfast recipe from Barry's Tea

[12] BBC - h2g2 - Great International Breakfast Dishes

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