Full breakfast

"Bacon and eggs" redirects here. For other uses, see Eggs and bacon.

A full breakfast or fry-up is a substantial cooked breakfast meal often served in Britain and Ireland. Depending on the region, it may also be referred to as a full English,[1] full Scottish,[2] full Welsh,[3] full Irish or Ulster fry.[4]

The typical ingredients are bacon, sausages, eggs, black pudding, tomatoes, mushrooms, and fried bread or toast and the meal is often served with tea. Baked beans, hash browns, and coffee (in place of tea) are common contemporary but non-traditional inclusions.

The fried breakfast became popular in Great Britain and Ireland during the Victorian era; while the term "full breakfast" does not appear, a breakfast of "fried ham and eggs" is in Isabella Beeton's Book of Household Management (1861).

History

Many of the ingredients of a full breakfast have long histories, but "large cooked breakfasts do not figure in English life and letters until the 19th century, when they appeared with dramatic suddenness".[5] Across the British Isles, early modern breakfasts were often breads served with jams or marmalades, or else forms of oatmeal, porridge or pottage.[6] Eggs and bacon started to appear in breakfasts in the seventeenth century,[6] but they were not the only meats consumed in breakfasts at that time.[6] The rising popularity of breakfast was closely tied to the rise of tea as a popular morning drink.[5] Of note were the lavish breakfasts of the aristocracy, which would centre on local meats and fish from their country estates.[5][7]

The fried breakfast became popular in Great Britain and Ireland during the Victorian era. Cookbooks were important in the fixing of the ingredients of a full breakfast during this time,[5] and the full breakfast appeared in the best-selling Isabella Beeton's Book of Household Management (1861). This new full breakfast was a pared-down version of the country breakfasts of the upper class, affordable to the emergent middle classes and able to be prepared and consumed in a shorter time before a day's work.[5][6][8] The full breakfast reached its peak of popularity in Edwardian Britain,[8] and despite a decline following the food shortages of World War II,[5] new technologies of food storage and preparation allowed it to become a staple of the working class in the 1950s.[8] Since then the full breakfast has declined in popularity as a daily meal, due to perceived concerns about health and its lengthy preparation compared to convenience-food breakfasts.[5] However, the meal remains popular as an occasional, celebratory or traditional breakfast.[5][8]

It is so popular in Great Britain and Ireland that many cafés and pubs offer the meal at any time of day as an "all-day breakfast". It is also popular in many Commonwealth nations. The full breakfast is among the most internationally recognised British dishes along with bangers and mash, toad in the hole, shepherd's pie, fish and chips, roast beef, Sunday roast, cream tea and the Christmas dinner.[9]

Variants

England

"English breakfast" redirects here. For the drink, see English breakfast tea.
"Full English" redirects here. For other uses, see The Full English (disambiguation).

There is no fixed menu or set of ingredients for a full English breakfast.[5][8] A common traditional English breakfast typically includes back bacon, sausages (usually pork), eggs (fried, poached or scrambled), fried or grilled tomatoes, fried mushrooms, black pudding, baked beans, and toast or fried bread.[8][10][11][12] Bubble and squeak is a traditional accompaniment but is now more commonly replaced by hash browns.[13]

Black pudding is a type of blood sausage originating in the British Isles. It is made from pork or occasionally beef blood, with fat or suet, and a cereal. Its high proportion of cereal, along with the use of certain herbs, such as pennyroyal, distinguishes it from other blood sausages.[14]: 104  Bubble and squeak is an English dish made from cooked potatoes and cabbage, mixed together and fried. Its name, according to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), alludes to the sounds made by the ingredients when being fried.[15]

A poll by YouGov in 2017 found the following to be on more than 50% of 'ideal' Full English breakfasts: bacon; sausage; beans; bread (either toast or fried); eggs (fried, scrambled or poached); hash browns; mushrooms (fried or grilled); and tomatoes (fried, grilled or tinned).[16] Black pudding was the least popular of the traditional ingredients, chosen 35% of the time,[16] and 26% of people included either chips or sautéed potatoes.[16]

Buttered toast, and jam or marmalade, are often served at the end of the meal, although toast is generally available throughout the meal.[17]

As nearly everything is fried in this variant of the meal, it is commonly known as a "fry-up". In the UK it is sometimes referred to as a "Full Monty". One theory for the origin of this term is that British Army general Bernard Montgomery, nicknamed 'Monty', was said to have started every day with a "Full English" breakfast while on campaign in North Africa during the Second World War.[18][19]

Vegetarian or vegan alternatives can be made or are available in cafes and restaurants.[20] Meat alternative sausages and bacon may often be used,[20][21][22] with either scrambled tofu[21][22] or egg substitutes.[22] The role of the mushroom and tomatoes is generally larger in these versions.[21][22]

Scotland

In Scotland there are some distinctively Scottish elements of the full breakfast which include Scottish style or Stornoway black pudding, Lorne sausage (sometimes called "square sausage" for its traditional shape), Ayrshire middle bacon and tattie scones. Occasionally haggis, white pudding, fruit pudding[23] or oatcakes are included.[24][14]: 185 [25]

Early editions of Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable referred to a Scotch breakfast as "a substantial breakfast of sundry sorts of good things to eat and drink".[26]

Wales

Two key ingredients that distinguish the Welsh breakfast from the other "full" variants are cockles (Welsh: cocos) and laverbread (Welsh: bara lafwr or bara lawr).[27]

The common cockle (Cerastoderma edule) is a species of edible saltwater clam, a marine bivalve mollusc in the family Cardiidae, the cockles.[28] It is found in waters off Europe, from Iceland in the north, south into waters off western Africa as far south as Senegal.[29][30] Laverbread is a purée made from laver, an edible seaweed (littoral alga) consumed mainly in Wales as part of local traditional cuisine. It is often mixed with oatmeal and fried.[27][31]

Fried laver with cockles and bacon was the traditional breakfast for mine workers in the South Wales Coalfield, but a breakfast in that area may have also included Welsh sausages, mushrooms and eggs.[3][32][33] In modern Welsh breakfasts, smoked fish may be included instead of black pudding.[3]

Ireland

"Irish breakfast" redirects here. For the tea, see Irish breakfast tea.

In most of Ireland, full breakfasts often include brown soda bread, fried potato farls, white pudding and boxty.[34]

Soda bread is a variety of quick bread in which sodium bicarbonate is used as a leavening agent instead of yeast; its basic ingredients are flour, sodium bicarbonate, salt, and buttermilk.[35][36] Different versions of it can be found all over Ireland, north and south.[36]

"Farl" is an old word that means, literally, fourth or quarter.[36][37] A potato farl is a form of flatbread in which potato flour or potato replaces a portion of the regular wheat flour, although the wheat flour can also be replaced with another flour such as rice or chickpea for a gluten-free version.[38][39] Traditionally, the dough used to make a potato farl is rolled into a flat circle, cut into quarters, and then baked.[37]

White pudding is a meat dish originating in the British Isles; it is broadly similar to black pudding, but does not include blood. Modern white pudding recipes consist of suet or fat, oatmeal or barley, breadcrumbs and in some cases pork and pork liver, filled into a natural or cellulose sausage casing.[40]

Boxty (Irish: bacstaí or steaimpí) is a traditional Irish potato pancake.[41]

The "breakfast roll",[42] consisting of elements of the full Irish breakfast served in a French roll, has become popular in Ireland due to the fact it can be easily eaten on the way to school or work.[42] The breakfast roll is available from many petrol stations and corner shops throughout Ireland.[42]

Ulster

In Ulster, the northern province in Ireland, the "Ulster fry" variant is so popular that it topped a poll to determine the province's favourite dish.[36] It is eaten not only at breakfast time but throughout the day.[37][43]

Traditionally, an Ulster fry will include soda farls and potato bread; an Ulster variant of the Scotch pancake is a frequent addition to those two items, and can be used to soak up egg yolk.[36][44]

Soda farls are farls made from soda bread.[36][37] The inclusion in the traditional Ulster fry of soda farls has helped them achieve near-legendary status in Ulster, where they can be purchased in bakeries, shops, and supermarkets everywhere.[36]

Potato bread is a dense flat bread made from cooked potatoes, flour, baking powder and buttermilk.[36] In an Ulster fry, it is often served in the form of potato farls.[36][37]

As a general rule, according to Ulster fry traditionalists, only ingredients that can be fried in lard (a fat product derived from the fatty tissue of domestic pigs[45][46]) may be included in the dish. Traditionalists therefore rule out baked beans, and consider hash browns to be an abomination, even though at least the former are increasingly popular as inclusions.[36]

Elsewhere

Australia

A variant of the full breakfast is also commonly eaten in Australia,[47][48] where it is referred to, sometimes, as a "full Australian breakfast",[49] "big fry",[50] or "big fry-up",[48][51] and, more frequently, as a "Big Breakfast",[52][53] or "big brekkie".[54] The variant has been described as a "quintessential Aussie dish".[52]

Big breakfasts feature on the menus of most Australian cafes,[52] in places ranging from the four biggest State capitals to much smaller locations,[49] such as roadhouses (or truck stops) in regional areas,[54] all around the country.[49]

United States

The United States shares a similar though modified tradition. There is no commonly agreed on name but there are large heavy breakfasts with similar ingredients, sometimes called the "Lumberjack", "Traditional American", and "Farmers Breakfast". These swap out several key ingredients for heavy savory items and sweet carbohydrates, rather than the strictly savory profile of a UK or Irish breakfast. Typical components are eggs to order, meat such as bacon or sausage, servings of potatoes such as hash browns or home fries (diced potatoes pan fried with onions), and pancakes, a waffle, or French toast, or in the southern USA, biscuits with white sausage gravy.[55]

See also

References

  1. ^ "The full English". Jamieoliver.com. Archived from the original on 28 July 2014. Retrieved 26 February 2014.
  2. ^ "Traditional Scottish Food". Visit Scotland. Archived from the original on 13 February 2014. Retrieved 26 February 2014.
  3. ^ a b c "So what is a 'full Welsh breakfast'?". Wales Online. 25 October 2005. Archived from the original on 2 May 2014.
  4. ^ Bell, James (29 January 2014). "How to... Cook the perfect Ulster Fry". Belfast Telegraph. Retrieved 26 February 2014.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i O’Connor, K. (2009). Cuisine, nationality and the making of a national meal: The English breakfast. In Nations and their histories: Constructions and representations (pp. 157-171). London: Palgrave Macmillan UK.
  6. ^ a b c d Anderson, H. A. (2013). Breakfast: a history. AltaMira Press.
  7. ^ Shaw Nelson, Kay. "The Gastronomic World of Sir Walter Scott". Electric Scotland. Retrieved 3 August 2023.
  8. ^ a b c d e f "History Of The Traditional English Breakfast". English breakfast society. Retrieved 21 October 2021.
  9. ^ Spencer, Colin (2003). British Food: An Extraordinary Thousand Years of History. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-13110-0.
  10. ^ "Full English Breakfast Recipe". BBC. Retrieved 17 March 2022.
  11. ^ "The Full English". Jamie Oliver.com. 29 March 2018.
  12. ^ "EXCLUSIVE: Expert declares key ingredient doesn't belong in Full English for savage reason". Daily Mirror. 12 April 2024. Retrieved 10 June 2024.
  13. ^ "Bubble and shriek! Why war has been declared on the humble hash brown". The Guardian. 3 April 2023. Retrieved 3 August 2023.
  14. ^ a b Davidson, Alan and Jaine, Tom (2006). The Oxford Companion to Food. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0192806815.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  15. ^ "bubble and squeak". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
  16. ^ a b c "Breakfast" (PDF). YouGov. Retrieved 3 August 2023.
  17. ^ "How to make the perfect full English breakfast". 25 June 2015.
  18. ^ Parkinson, Judy (2011). Spilling the Beans on the Cats Pyjamas: Popular Expressions – What They Mean and Where We Got Them. Michael O'Mara Books
  19. ^ Dent, Susie (2009). What Made The Crocodile Cry?: 101 questions about the English language. Oxford University Press. pp. 151–152. ISBN 9780191650604.
  20. ^ a b "Wetherspoons launches full English breakfast for vegans". Vegan Food and Living. 5 October 2018. Retrieved 4 August 2023.
  21. ^ a b c Nice, Miriam. "Vegan fry-up". BBC Good Food. Retrieved 4 August 2023.
  22. ^ a b c d "Vegan Traditional Full English Breakfast". The Edgy Veg. 15 October 2019. Retrieved 4 August 2023.
  23. ^ Gerald, Paul (12 July 2012). "The Full English". Memphis Flyer. Contemporary Media, Inc. Retrieved 30 July 2012. The Scots like to have tattie (potato) scones, fruit pudding (actually a sausage made with very little fruit), and, of course, their curse on the earth, haggis.
  24. ^ Foyster, Elizabeth and Whatley, Christopher A. (2009). A History of Everyday Life in Scotland, 1600 to 1800. Edinburgh University Press. p. 139. ISBN 978-0748621576.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  25. ^ Maw Broon's Cookbook. Waverley Books. 18 October 2007. p. 18. ISBN 978-1-902407-45-6.
  26. ^ Brewer, E. Cobham. Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase & Fable. New York: Harper & Brothers. p. 812.
  27. ^ a b "This is how to cook the perfect full Welsh breakfast". Wales Online. Retrieved 6 August 2019.
  28. ^ Dauvin, Jean-Claude. Biological heritage and food chains Archived 2023-10-07 at the Wayback Machine, p. 25 (Quae, Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement, 2006).
  29. ^ Davidson, Alan (2014). The Oxford Companion to Food. Oxford University Press. p. 201. ISBN 978-0-19-104072-6. Archived from the original on 7 October 2023.
  30. ^ Considine, Douglas and Considine, Glenn. Van Nostrand's Scientific Encyclopedia Archived 2023-10-07 at the Wayback Machine, p. 2086 (Springer Science & Business Media, 2013).
  31. ^ "Laver Seaweed – A Foraging Guide to Its Food, Medicine and Other Uses". eatweeds.co.uk. 30 August 2018. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
  32. ^ Welsh Government. "Wales.com – Food". Government of Wales. Archived from the original on 1 June 2012. Retrieved 30 July 2012. Laverbread, not actually bread at all but seaweed, is rolled in oatmeal, fried into crisp patties and served with eggs, bacon and fresh cockles for a traditional Welsh breakfast.
  33. ^ Rodenas, Angeles (13 July 2021). "Welsh caviar: should we all start eating laver?". TheGuardian.com. Retrieved 13 July 2021.
  34. ^ Gerald, Paul (12 July 2012). "The Full English". Memphis Flyer. Contemporary Media, Inc. Retrieved 30 July 2012. The Irish might have soda bread, a potato pancake called boxty, white pudding (what you're used to, but with oatmeal in it) or black pudding (the same, but with blood cooked in).
  35. ^ Cloake, Felicity (5 February 2014). "How to bake the perfect soda bread". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 March 2026.
  36. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Is the Ulster fry the best cooked breakfast in the UK?". BBC. Retrieved 29 October 2018 Archived 24 June 2019 at the Wayback Machine
  37. ^ a b c d e Johnson, Margaret M. (2012). Flavors of Ireland : Celebrating Grand Places & Glorious Food. Greenville, SC, and Belfast: Ambassador International. ISBN 9781935507796.
  38. ^ Mu, T.; Sun, H.; Liu, X. (2016). Potato Staple Food Processing Technology. SpringerBriefs in Food, Health, and Nutrition. Springer Singapore. p. 9. ISBN 978-981-10-2833-5. Retrieved 9 January 2017.
  39. ^ Hensperger, B. (2000). Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook: A Master Baker's 300 Favorite Recipes for Perfect-Every-Time Bread-From Every Kind of Machine. Harvard Common Press. p. 77. ISBN 978-1-55832-156-4. Retrieved 9 January 2017.
  40. ^ Ayto, John (1990). The Glutton's Glossary: A Dictionary of Food and Drink Terms. Routledge. p. 317. ISBN 978-0-415-02647-5.
  41. ^ "A Brief History of Boxty, Ireland's Potato Pancake". theculturetrip.com. 5 August 2017. Archived from the original on 27 February 2023. Retrieved 27 February 2023.
  42. ^ a b c McDonald, Brian (12 May 2008). "Top breakfast baguette rolls into Irish history". Irish Independent. Retrieved 30 July 2012.
  43. ^ Corrie, William (6 May 2014). "Tele Recommends: The Ulster fry". Belfast Telegraph. Retrieved 10 March 2026.
  44. ^ Miss South (23 March 2010). "It's my party and I'll fry if I want to..." North South Food. Retrieved 10 March 2026.
  45. ^ "Lard" entry in the online Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Accessed on 2020-07-05.
  46. ^ "lard", The Free Dictionary, retrieved 4 February 2022
  47. ^ "Full English Breakfast v Australian Breakfast: What's The Difference?". The British Sausage, Ham & Bacon Co. 17 April 2025. Retrieved 7 March 2026.
  48. ^ a b Shoop-Volz, Megan (22 September 2024). "The Traditional Australian Breakfast Looks A Lot Like A Plate From England". Chowhound. Retrieved 7 March 2026.
  49. ^ a b c Kortbæk, Allan; Forbes, Jemima (29 April 2025). "Australian breakfasts and what to expect". Kayak. Retrieved 7 March 2026.
  50. ^ Admin. "Typical Australian breakfast". Ozfoodhunter. Retrieved 7 March 2026.
  51. ^ McInerney, Paula (14 June 2014). "A Typical Australian Breakfast". Contented Traveller. Retrieved 7 March 2026.
  52. ^ a b c Wicklund, Eleanor (26 August 2025). "'They're dreaming!': Cafe slammed over 'insane' price of Big Breakfast". news.com.au. Retrieved 7 March 2026.
  53. ^ "Ultimate big breakfast". taste.com.au. Retrieved 8 March 2026.
  54. ^ a b Spy on the Road (11 September 2025). "Truckies rave about this 'great value' big brekkie at SA roadhouse". Big Rigs. Retrieved 7 March 2026.
  55. ^ Arndt Anderson, Heather (2013). Breakfast: A History. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.

Reference bibliography

  • O'Connor, Kaori (2013). The English Breakfast: The Biography of a National Meal, with Recipes. Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-0857854919.
  • Scotney, John (1 November 2009). Scotland - Culture Smart!: The Essential Guide to Customs & Culture. Kuperard. ISBN 9781857336214.
  • Media related to Full breakfast at Wikimedia Commons
  • The dictionary definition of full breakfast at Wiktionary
  • Cookbook:English Breakfast at Wikibooks
  • Stress-free full English breakfast
  • Why the great British breakfast is a killer(subscription required)
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