Full breakfast facts for kids

The British cafe (such as this one in Islington, London, with a "breakfast served all day" sign) typically serves the full breakfast throughout the day

A full breakfast is a substantial cooked breakfast meal, often served in the United Kingdom and Ireland, that typically includes bacon, sausages, eggs, black pudding, baked beans, tomatoes, mushrooms, toast, and a beverage such as coffee or tea. It appears in different regional variants and is referred to by different names depending on the area. While it is colloquially known as a "fry up" in most areas of Great Britain and Ireland, it is usually referred to as a full English breakfast in England (often shortened to "full English"), and as a "full Irish", "full Scottish", "full Welsh", "full Cornish", and "Ulster fry" in the Republic of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, and Northern Ireland, respectively.

It is so popular in Great Britain and Ireland that many cafes and pubs offer the meal at any time of day as an "all-day breakfast". It is also popular in many Commonwealth nations. On its origin, Country Life magazine states, "The idea of the English breakfast as a national dish goes right back to the 13th century and the country houses of the gentry. In the old Anglo-Saxon tradition of hospitality, households would provide hearty breakfasts for visiting friends, relatives and neighbours."

The full breakfast is among the most internationally recognised British dishes along with bangers and mash, shepherd's pie, cottage pie, fish and chips, roast beef, Sunday roast and the Christmas dinner. The fried breakfast became popular in Great Britain and Ireland during the Victorian era, and appears as one among many suggested breakfasts in home economist Isabella Beeton's Book of Household Management (1861). A full breakfast is often contrasted (e.g. on hotel menus) with the lighter alternative of a continental breakfast, consisting of tea or coffee, milk and fruit juices with bread, croissants, bagels, or pastries.

Regional variants

Great Britain and Ireland

England

The full English breakfast often consists of bacon, fried egg, sausage, mushrooms, baked beans, toast, grilled tomatoes, and accompanied with tea or coffee.

The "traditional" full English breakfast, treated as a dish rather than a meal, includes bacon (traditionally back bacon), fried, poached or scrambled eggs, fried or grilled tomatoes, fried mushrooms, fried bread or buttered toast, and sausages. Black pudding, baked beans, and bubble and squeak are also often included. In the North Midlands, fried or grilled oatcakes sometimes replace fried bread. The food is traditionally served with tea or coffee, as well as fruit juices.

As nearly everything is fried in this meal, it is commonly known as a "fry-up". As some of the items are optional, the phrase "full English breakfast", or "full English" (or "Full Monty") often specifically denotes a breakfast including everything on offer. The latter name became popular after World War II after British Army general Bernard Montgomery (nicknamed Monty) was said to have started every day with a full English breakfast when in the campaign in North Africa.

Breakfast cereal often precedes the meal, and it concludes with buttered toast spread with marmalade, honey, or other conserves.

Alternative main dishes are kippers, kedgeree (now rare), and devilled kidneys (also rare). In grand houses and hotels in the 19th century, small game birds such as snipe and woodcock might be offered, as well as a variety of cold meats.

Cornwall

The traditional Cornish breakfast includes hog's pudding and Cornish potato cakes (made with mashed potatoes mixed with flour and butter and then fried), or fried potatoes alongside the usual bacon, sausage, tomato, mushrooms, egg and toast. In the past, traditional Cornish breakfasts have included pilchards and herring, or gurty pudding, a Cornish dish similar to haggis, not to be confused with gurty milk, another Cornish breakfast dish made with bread and milk.

Ireland

A full Irish breakfast

In Ireland, as elsewhere, the exact constituents of a full breakfast vary, depending on geographical area, personal taste and cultural affiliation. Traditionally, the most common ingredients in Ireland are bacon rashers, pork sausages, fried eggs (or scrambled), white pudding, black pudding, toast and fried tomato. Sauteed field mushrooms are also sometimes included, as well as baked beans, hash browns, liver, and brown soda bread. Fried potato farl, boxty or toast is sometimes served as an alternative to brown soda bread. Limerick in particular has a long-standing traditional association with pork-based meat products.

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

Ulster

A full Ulster fry served in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The potato bread is under the eggs, with the soda farl at the bottom.

In the north of Ireland, an Ulster fry is a dish similar to the Irish breakfast, and is popular throughout most of Ulster (chiefly in Northern Ireland and parts of County Donegal), where it is eaten not only at breakfast time but throughout the day. Typically it will include soda farl and potato bread.

Similarly to the breakfast roll seen in the rest of Ireland, in Northern Ireland they serve "filled sodas", which usually consist of a soda farl shallow-fried on one side and filled with fried sausages, bacon or eggs. Fried onions or mushrooms are usually added upon request. Filled sodas are a popular choice for breakfast from roadside fast-food vendors.

Scotland

A similar Scottish alternative

In Scotland, the full breakfast, as with others, contains eggs, back bacon, link sausage, buttered toast, baked beans, and tea or coffee. Distinctively Scottish elements include Scottish style or Stornoway black pudding, Lorne sausage (sometimes called a "square" for its traditional shape), Ayrshire middle bacon and tattie scones. It commonly also includes fried or grilled tomato or mushrooms and occasionally haggis, white pudding, fruit pudding or oatcakes. Another more historical Scottish breakfast is porridge.

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".

Wales

As in the rest of Britain and Ireland, the composition of a Full Welsh Breakfast (Welsh: Brecwast llawn Cymreig) can vary. However, with the new-found appreciation of Welsh food and recipes in the early 21st century, there have been attempts to establish a broad definition.

The traditional Welsh breakfast reflects the coastal aspect of Welsh cuisine. Two key ingredients that distinguish the Welsh breakfast from the other "full" variations are Welsh cockles and laverbread (a seaweed purée often mixed with oatmeal and fried). Both delicacies are traditionally served with thick bacon, but a Welsh breakfast may also include Welsh sausages, mushrooms and eggs. Full Welsh Breakfasts are accompanied by traditional breakfast drinks, with Welsh tea a ubiquitous choice. Today, as they are often served throughout the day in public houses or inns, Welsh beer or ale is not uncommon.

Modern alternatives to the traditional full breakfast will often develop the traditional seafood theme. Smoked fish such as sea trout or sewin may be served accompanied with poached eggs.

North America

Bacon and eggs with pancakes

This style of breakfast was brought over by British immigrants to the United States and Canada, where it has endured. A full breakfast in these countries often consists of eggs, various meats, and commonly one type of fried potatoes – hash browns, home fries, Potatoes O'Brien, or potato pancakes – and some form of bread or toast. Big breakfasts of this kind are most often served on special occasions or weekends only, owing to the time needed to prepare them and the calories involved. In the Southern United States, grits are typically included.

Canada and the US do not follow the trend of the rest of the Anglosphere, where tea is the usual hot beverage for breakfast, but rather both strongly prefer coffee, drunk black or with milk, cream, or sugar. Maple syrup is common to both nations, which have sugar shacks in their Eastern forests. Both nations have diners, and there the most common components are eggs, bacon and breakfast sausage served with one or two of either toast, English muffins, hash browns, home fries, pancakes, French toast or waffles. Omelettes are a delicacy where anything goes, and several kinds of cheese are added to the mix depending on the cook's desires, such as cheddar, Colby, Monterey Jack, and feta. Eggs Benedict originated in New York and bagels wherever Eastern European Jews settled, but both are now a staple in both countries.

There is great regional variety. Oatmeal, made with rolled oats, is commonly served at breakfast in much of Canada and New England, yet is generally replaced by grits in the Southeast, where the climate is too warm for growing oats, while eating oatmeal for breakfast has become more popular in that region only in the past fifty years. Biscuits leavened with baking powder or baking soda are a staple of the South and a component of biscuits and gravy. Country ham is very popular in every Southeastern state other than Florida and replaces Canadian bacon in recipes. Scrapple and pork roll are breakfast meats common to Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and New Jersey, and the sausages eaten in South Texas and Florida are sometimes a type of chorizo. Country fried steak is a dish that is popular in Texas, and steak and eggs are popular in much of the Midwest.

The West is usually the home of dishes like migas, huevos rancheros, and the breakfast burrito; all three are spicy because they contain sizable amounts of chili peppers. Both coasts of Canada and the United States serve smoked salmon for breakfast, and it is a staple in particular of First Nations of British Columbia. Eggs Sardou and Eggs Neptune are local variations on Eggs Benedict from Louisiana and Maryland that change out the Canadian bacon with artichoke and crabmeat, respectively. Midwesterners used to eat calf brains with their eggs, and New Englanders will eat the johnnycake, and Spam is a staple in Hawaii. Californians invented the fruit smoothie. Orange juice is the most popular choice, but others use apple, cranberry, or pineapple.

Hong Kong

A few establishments in Hong Kong offer all day breakfast or brunch options (hybrid of English and North American items) from formal restaurants to low frills establishments.

Foods included

Potato bread (top) and soda farl (bottom) are included in the Ulster fry.

The ingredients of a full breakfast vary according to region and taste. They are often served with condiments such as brown sauce or ketchup.

Some of the foods that may be included in a full breakfast are:

Images for kids

• 

  The full English breakfast often consists of bacon, fried egg, sausage, mushrooms, baked beans, toast, grilled tomatoes, and accompanied with tea or coffee.

See also

In Spanish: Desayuno completo para niños