Full English breakfast

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A Full English breakfast, or traditional fry-up, is a traditional breakfast meal in England. Fry-ups are no longer an everyday occurrence in most English households, but they are offered to tourists as traditional fare in hotels, guest houses and cafés, and occupy an important place in the English concept of the morning meal.

Contents

1 Tradition
2 Variants
3 Quotation
4 See also

Tradition

While weekday breakfasts in England often consist of a brief meal of cereal and/or toast, the fry-up is commonly eaten in a leisurely fashion on Saturday or Sunday mornings. Being reasonably oily and fatty, it is regarded by the increasing number of health-conscious Englishmen as an occasional treat, but such is the passion for a good fry-up that it has among many been the prime reason for declaring the importance of having "everything in moderation".

Whether the fry-up is accompanied by orange juice and usually an abundant supply of tea or coffee, or only bacon, eggs, and toast, it is regarded as a ritual comfort and a wholly satisfying start to a day of work or leisure.

The ingredients of a fry-up vary according to region and taste. At its heart, the meal consists of bacon and eggs, but to earn the title of a "Full English" a number of other ingredients are expected.

The bacon and eggs are traditionally fried, but grilled bacon and poached or scrambled eggs may be offered as alternatives. Some of the additional ingredients that might be offered as part of a Full English breakfast include:

toast, fried bread ("fried slice"), or bread and butter
sausages
fried, grilled or tinned tomatoes
fried mushrooms
black pudding (a little less popular in contemporary times and in the south, but usually available)
baked beans (reasonably standard in cafe breakfasts, but not in more upmarket establishments)
possibly sautéd potatoes (uncommon), chips (again, not typical), hash browns (American in origin) or fried leftover mashed potatoes. Bubble and squeak (originally a way to use up leftover vegetables from the day before's main meals) has become a breakfast feature in its own right in some parts of England
condiments such as ketchup (sometimes called "red sauce" or tomato sauce) and brown sauce

A full English breakfast with scrambled eggs, bacon, sausages, black pudding, mushrooms, baked beans, hash browns, and half of a tomato

One breakfast permutation: two eggs, bacon, sausage, fried tomatoes, and bubble and squeak.

There are many traditional cafés in Britain that specialise in serving breakfast meals throughout the day. The Full English breakfast may therefore be listed as the "all day breakfast". Such cafés (also called "caffs" or "greasy spoons") are typically frequented by construction workers working in the local area, or passing lorry drivers. As a consequence the very strong tea that is often served in such establishments is colloquially known as "builder's tea".

Variants

Ulster fry

In English hotels and bed and breakfast establishments, a Full English breakfast might include additional courses such as cereal, porridge, kippers, toast and jam or marmalade, kedgeree, or devilled kidneys. Fruit juice and dry cereal were added to the English breakfast after 1950. The term "Full English" is used to differentiate between the larger multiple course breakfast, and the simpler "continental breakfast" of tea, coffee and fruit juices, with croissants or pastries. Coffee at breakfast is a Continental tradition introduced through hotel fare. It should be noted that at breakfast time the quality of the food often bears little relationship to the quality of the establishment. Many top hotels have a buffet style arrangement where mass produced food is kept sitting around for hours. The lowliest of guest houses may well serve a freshly prepared meal using high quality locally produced ingredients.

The breakfast is not entirely unique to England; Scottish, Welsh and Irish breakfasts share many characteristics and ingredients. In Scotland, a square "sliced sausage" in the form of a patty slice, fried sliced haggis sausage, potato scones and oatcakes might be served; in Ulster there might be soda farls and potato farls; while elsewhere in Ireland there might be white pudding and soda bread. Traditional Welsh breakfasts include laverbread, a seaweed purée which is mixed with oatmeal, formed into patties and fried in bacon fat.

Due to the increase in popularity of vegetarianism over recent years, some proprietors may offer vegetarian versions of the Full English, using Quorn or Sosmix sausages instead of their meat counterparts.

Quotation

The only way to eat well in England is to have breakfast three times a day.
—W. Somerset Maugham