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Part of the Meals series

Common meals...

Breakfast

Second breakfast

Elevenses

Brunch

Tiffin

Lunch

Tea

Dinner

Supper

Dessert

Snack

See also...

Cuisine • Kitchen Buffet • Banquet

A full breakfast^[1] is a traditional cooked breakfast, comprising at its heart bacon and eggs, that is popular throughout the United Kingdom, Ireland and other parts of the English-speaking world. Depending on where it is served, it is called bacon and eggs^[2], a fry, fry up^[3], full English breakfast^[4], full Irish breakfast^[5], full Scottish breakfast^[6], full Welsh breakfast^[7] or an Ulster fry ^[8]. The complement of the breakfast varies depending on the location and which of these descriptions is used. Full cooked breakfasts are no longer an everyday occurrence in many British or Irish households, although they occupy an important place in the concept of the morning meal and are the predominant business of many greasy spoon cafés, as well as generally being offered to tourists as traditional fare in hotels, guest houses and bed-and-breakfasts. Although it has declined as a breakfast it has grown in popularity as an all day breakfast^[9] especially at weekends.

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

A cooked breakfast of this sort is a relatively modern invention, although this is disputed^[10]; it developed in the houses of successful farmers or landowners during the late nineteenth century. For the more well-to-do, an array of breakfast dishes would be laid out buffet style in much the same way as hotels do today. Up until this period, fresh meat was generally considered a luxury for all but the most affluent. The emergence of town grocers in the 1880s allowed people to exchange surplus eggs, etc., for other food items to diversify their diets. Only with the relative increase in the wealth of the general populace in the 20th century was the consumption of the full breakfast meal commonplace amongst the working classes.

E. Cobham Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, published in 1898, describes a full breakfast, calling it a Scotch breakfast.^[11] He describes it as "a substantial breakfast of sundry sorts of good things to eat and drink." Set six years later in Dublin of 1904, the opening of Ulysses by James Joyce contains a famous breakfast scene in which Leopold Bloom prepares and eats a fried pork kidney with bread and tea.

The meal was popularized in the United States by Edward Bernays during the 1920s and 1930s. In order to promote sales of bacon, he conducted a survey of physicians and reported their recommendation 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.^[12] More recently, many doctors and health organizations have come to believe that diets high in saturated fats and cholesterol, such as bacon and eggs, are unhealthy and contribute to heart disease.

A small Ulster fry, including potato farls.

While weekday breakfasts in Britain and Ireland 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. Many cafes and supermarkets now serve the fry-up as an "all-day breakfast" which is more often eaten as a hearty lunch. Being reasonably oily and fatty, it is regarded by most diners as an occasional treat, but such is the passion for a good fry-up that even the health-conscious defend an occasional indulgence with the "everything in moderation" rationalisation. Whether the fry-up is accompanied by orange juice and 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.

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

In hotels and bed-and-breakfasts, a full breakfast might include additional courses such as cereal, porridge, kippers, toast and jam or marmalade, kedgeree[2], or devilled kidneys. Fruit juice and dry cereal were added to the breakfast after 1950. The term "full breakfast" 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.

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 breakfast" a number of other ingredients are expected. The bacon, often called rashers, and eggs are traditionally fried, but grilled bacon and poached or scrambled eggs may be offered as alternatives. These are accompanied by tea or coffee and usually toast. Some of the additional ingredients that might be offered as part of a Full breakfast include:

• toast or fried bread
• sausages
• fried, grilled or tinned tomatoes
• fried mushrooms
• Chips
• black pudding
• White pudding
• baked beans
• sautéd potatoes or hash browns
• condiments such as brown sauce and ketchup

Due to the increase in popularity of vegetarianism over recent years, some proprietors offer vegetarian versions of the Full breakfast, using Quorn or various other substitutes instead of their meat counterparts or more often simply serving the breakfast without the meat components.

Chips and beans with a boiled egg.

Full English breakfasts can include fried leftover mashed potatoes. Originally a way to use up leftover vegetables from the main of the day before, bubble and squeak, shallow-fried leftover vegetables, has become a breakfast feature in its own right. In Ireland, a full breakfast is served with white pudding, soda bread and traditional boxty, although the latter is now often substituted with hash browns. Specifically in Ulster, reflecting the Scottish cultural infuence on Northern Ireland, soda bread is replaced with soda farls and boxty with potato farls. In Scotland, a square "sliced sausage" in the form of a patty slice, known as a Lorne sausage, fried sliced haggis, potato scones and oatcakes might be served. The traditional Welsh breakfast include laverbread, a seaweed purée which is mixed with oatmeal, which is formed into patties and fried in bacon fat, and often cockles.

A popular variant is the breakfast roll, which is a French bread demi-baguette filled with the contents of a full breakfast. The concept developed as a ready-to-go meal from convenience stores. It was spurred on by the innovation of in-store ovens being used to cook part-baked frozen French bread. In addition to standard breakfast ingredients it sometimes includes spicy potato wedges, or other random ingredients from the hot counter, and is often used as a hangover cure due to its high grease content.

A North American variant, popular in family restaurants and coffee houses, is the breakfast buffet: a selection of eggs (usually scrambled), link or patty sausages, bacon, hash brown potatoes, corned beef hash, various breads and muffins, and sometimes fruit, kept warm at a steam table.

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• When an English breakfast is ordered to contain everything available, it is often referred to as a "Full Monty", and often attributed to Field Marshal Montgomery, the prominent British military officer of World War II, however the OED states that "Perh. 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" ^[13]

• The Full Irish Breakfast is also known as "chub" in certain parts of Ireland. The term "chubbing up" is local Irish slang for eating a Full Irish Breakfast.^{[citation needed]}

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'. This 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. ^ http://www.thefoody.com/mrsbmeat/baconpoachedeggs.html
3. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2375729.stm
4. ^ http://www.oldparsonage-hotel.co.uk/food&drink/menus/breakfast.asp
5. ^ http://store.barrys-tea.com/articles/full_irish_breakfast.html
6. ^ http://www.gcfg.com/News/Halls+Scottish+Breakfast+Week.htm
7. ^ http://www.newswales.co.uk/?section=Agriculture&F=1&id=10339
8. ^ http://uktv.co.uk/index.cfm/uktv/food.recipe/aid/514762
9. ^ http://www.pumpkincafe.co.uk/breakfast.htm
10. ^ Sunday Hunt Breakfast
11. ^ Brewer, E. Cobham. “Scotch Breakfast.” Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. Philadelphia: Henry Altemus, 1898; Bartleby.com, 2000.
12. ^ Alix Spiegel, 2005, Freud's Nephew and the Origins of Public Relations, National Public Radio
13. ^ [1]

• Bacon and eggs
• Brunch
• Bubble and squeak
• Ulster Fry