Britain and Ireland
What is a Full English breakfast? Traditionally, people in Britain and Ireland have enjoyed a substantial hot meal for breakfast, featuring eggs, bacon, and sausages, accompanied by toast and tea or coffee. These items are sometimes eaten separately on morning rolls. Many other items (for example kedgeree, grilled or fried tomatoes, black pudding or white pudding, baked beans, fried sliced bread, various types of fried potatoes and mushrooms) may be included depending on taste and location. Today, this dish remains popular but is not usually served at breakfast time during the week. Many people instead reserve the full cooked breakfast for weekends, or go to a cafe for it at the weekend. A full breakfast is also a meal available any time at many cafes and greasy spoons. It is also served at hotels where it can be quite substantial in size and variety. The author Somerset Maugham once quipped that "the only way to eat well in England is to have breakfast three times a day."
"This traditional cooked breakfast has largely been replaced by simple, light foods mainly eaten cold: fruit, yogurt, packaged cereal with cold milk, and toast with a variety of spreads such as butter, jam, marmalade, lemon curd, Marmite, or peanut butter. Boiled eggs with soldiers are also a popular breakfast meal in the UK although like the full English breakfast they are mainly eaten at the weekend. Porridge is a traditional breakfast in Scotland as well as the rest of Britain in the winter months. In most British hotels this breakfast is included in the room rate."
Another popular breakfast in England is the kipper, a type of salted, smoked herring that is then heated by grilling or frying.
However, times have progressed and due to the need for fast nourishment, cold breakfast foodstuffs such as commercial cereal brands (sugarpuffs, Cheerios, weetabix etc) are becoming the norm for many persons first meal of the day; the option of smoothies and yogurt has also became a popular choice in later years as well as French-influenced croissants as a sweet replacement to toast or crumpets.
"Full Monty" Full English breakfast
Full Monty", and often attributed to Field Marshal Montgomery, the prominent British military officer of World War II. However 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".
Full Irish breakfast
An Irish breakfast consisting of sausages, black and white pudding, bacon and fried eggs.
In Ireland, as elsewhere, the exact constituents of a full breakfast are matters of debate, depending on geographical area, personal taste and cultural affiliation. The most common ingredients are bacon (rashers), sausages, fried eggs, white pudding, black pudding and toast, normally accompanied with black tea and milk. Potato cakes are sometimes served as well. Baked beans, fried tomatoes and/or mushrooms may sometimes be found served with a full Irish breakfast. The full Irish Breakfast is also known simply as a "fry" or a 'fry-up'. The Irish have also adopted the breakfast roll, which consists of a selection of full Irish breakfast foods usually served in a footlong French stick, often with ketchup or brown sauce. The breakfast roll is viewed as a staple of the working class, and has even inspired songs.
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The normal ingredients of a traditional full English breakfast are: bacon, eggs, fried or grilled tomatoes, fried mushrooms, fried bread or toast, 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 and hash browns are modern additions that have crept into many recipes.
When an English breakfast is ordered to contain everything available, it is often referred to as a "
