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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 (this is particularly true of the Ulster Fry, described below).

It is a popular breakfast meal in many countries, mainly in the Anglosphere. Bacon and eggs are the quintessential ingredients. The full breakfast comprises at its heart bacon and eggs, 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 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, especially on weekends.

Origin

A full English 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; 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.^[8] 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.^[9] 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.

Tradition

A small Ulster fry, including potato farls.

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 (often colloquially referred to as "caffs" or "greasy spoons") are typically frequented by local construction workers or passing lorry drivers. As a consequence, the 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, 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 European tradition introduced through hotel fare.

Typical ingredients

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, poached eggs, or scrambled eggs may be offered as alternatives. These are accompanied by toast. Some of the additional ingredients that might be offered as part of a Full breakfast include:

• toast or fried bread
• sausages
• black pudding
• white pudding
• scrapple (in eastern Pennsylvania)
• fried, grilled or tinned tomatoes
• fried mushrooms
• chips (in North America)
• baked beans
• bubble and squeak
• sautéd potatoes or hash browns
• condiments such as brown sauce and ketchup
• pancakes (in the USA, Canada and Northern Ireland)
• grits in the Southern United States
• biscuits (US-style, not British) and gravy (normally sausage gravy), also in the American South and never in the UK

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 simply serving the breakfast without the meat components.

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, and sausages, usually served with a cup 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 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.

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.

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 "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".^[10]

Full Irish breakfast

An Irish breakfast consists sausages, black and white pudding, bacon and fried eggs.

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.

Full Scottish breakfast

In Scotland, a square "sliced sausage" in the form of a patty slice, known as a Lorne sausage, black pudding, fried sliced haggis, potato scones and oatcakes might be served.

Full Welsh breakfast

The traditional Welsh breakfast include laverbread, a seaweed purée which is mixed with oatmeal, which is formed into patties and fried in bacon fat. Cockles are also often eaten.

Ulster Fry

A full Ulster Fry served in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

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), potato bread and tomatoes.^[11] Other common components include mushrooms, wheaten bread or pancakes. All this is traditionally fried in lard.

Despite, or perhaps because of, the popular comic reference to the dish as a "heart-attack on a plate",^[12] many people in Ulster have taken to grilling most of the ingredients, or use healthier alternatives to lard such as sunflower or vegetable oil.

The Ulster Fry is not considered solely a breakfast dish as it 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.

From 2001-2007, a BBC Two Northern Ireland ident used during opt-outs of the network schedule featured the BBC Two logo of a figure 2 eating Ulster Fry at a table.

North American

Bacon, eggs and Chili peppers frying on an electric barbecue, Jervis Bay, Australia

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. Regional variants abound to this formula: in the East, it is not uncommon to see scrapple as a popular dish: Southerners occasionally base full breakfasts around biscuits and gravy, and Midwesterners have been known to enjoy the "stretch", or many components of the breakfast mixed together in a saucepan and served with ketchup and toast.

Central America

Important components of a Central American full breakfast are soured cream and refried beans. Other ingredients include, ham or sausage, and eggs, much like a full breakfast elsewhere. Either tortillas or toast are necessary while orange juice is often added as a drink.

References

See also

• Brunch
• Bubble and squeak

External links

• Ulster Fry and Eggs recipe
• Why the great British breakfast is a killer

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