The Full English [S. Worthen | Weblog]

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I've been staying in hotels for the past four days and eating way too much. Amongst the eating-too-much is the daily Full English Breakfast. Comparing and contrasting FEB menus led us to ponder regional differences among what is "required" of a FEB. I can't survey regional differences easily, but I can survey preferences generally. (Obviously, Full Irish, Full Scottish, Full Welsh etc. Breakfasts would require a differet poll.) So, in the name of research...

(Forgive me the typo! That should be "fruit compôte", of course.)

[Poll #901779]

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There are 41 comments on this entry. (Reply.)

baked beans are allowed but ive personally stopped having them and replacing them with grilled tomatoes instead.

as the above would suggest i prefer grilled tomatoes over tinned

In season, grilled tomatoes are good. The rest of the year, I much prefer tinned, even if that seems so much less classy. Baked beans, however, I am prejudiced against. I don't like them on toast, I don't feel they belong with breakfast. They are a fine dish in their own right - but preferably later in the day.

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whats hogs pudding?

It's a sausage made from meat and groats. The groats make it white. It had an unexpectedly smooth texture. I'd never heard of it either until these past few days in the West Country.

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The northeast has something similar. It's slightly sweet and often includes raisins. Without the raisins it's a bit like boudin blanc.

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Does it have a specific name? I've never seen rainsins in sausage.

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White pudding

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Of course! Which I've had, but not with raisins.

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I thought groats were units of currency not a foodstuff!

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They are both! I thought groats were oat grains, but apparently (wiki) they are: "the hulled and crushed grains of various cereals".

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So you have to be careful and not mix them up, or your breakfast will be extra crunchy!

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I have answered for "eggs, bacon and other stuff". This can be replaced by other appropriate dishes/combinations eg kippers or smoked haddock with a poached egg without loss of FEB status. Similarly coffee could replaced by tea. One notes also that in the Merchant Marine a proper breakfast should include both curry and cod's roes.

I agree with chickenfeet that kippers/haddock/similar could replace bacon/sausage. And I agree with you that tinned tomatoes are preferable most of the year, as being more flavorful than out-of-season fresh tomatoes. *g*

My knowledge of FEBs comes primarily from B&B and hotel breakfasts, which limits my perspective on the subject. Kippers/haddock/etc., on the menus I've seen, has always been offered either instead of a FEB or as a first course, so I hadn't realized how versatile a role fish could play.

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Kippers/haddock/etc., on the menus I've seen, has always been offered either instead of a FEB

I would say "offered instead of the mixed grill (really fry up)". The rest of the FEB, cereal, juice, toast etc being included. It's meat and eggs vs fish or maybe vs fish and eggs. Smoked haddock with a poached egg is definitely up there for me.

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Wot no croissants? The last time I had an on-train FEB (these can be surprisingly wonderful) there were croissants and toast, choice of fruit compote, grapefruit segments, porridge or cereal. And there should be marmalade, definitely. Ginger conserve is acceptable, but not essential.

Also, my pick of juice would be grapefruit.

Oooh! Can I really count croissants? I would love to! I always do opt for croissants whenever possible, but then again, I also rarely have the appetite for a full FEB in the morning, especially if I've already had one that week.

I did dilemma over whether or not to include condiments in this poll: I thought it might get out of hand, with milk vs. cream for the tea or coffee, the option of whipped cream on the hot chocolate, ketchup and brown sauce, and all the possible categories of conserves.

I'm sorry for overlooking grapefuit. It wasn't on the menu this morning or last to prompt me.

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Croissants are not part of the canonical FEB, and are obviously a fancy furrin novelty. Besides, you can't get decent croissants in England anyway. Toast and fried bread are English, not flakey viennoiserie.

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Well said! Can't have any of that furrin stuff classed under an English breakfast!

It is nice, though, and pain au chocolat is great. But the chances of getting any that are worth eating in a UK B&B or hotel are very low.

Fortunately there is a genuine French bakery up the road from me, so when I get nostalgic for a Full French Breakfast I can go there to feed my cravings.

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Still, I deeply love even vaguely decent croissants, and one of the ones I had this week was decently buttery and flaky. I've been generally disappointed by plain croissants in London (although glad there are so many sources of them!), so tend to buy croissants-with-tasty additives instead. (Almonds! Chocolate!)

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Try the french delicatessen on Broadway Market if you get the chance - they do pretty well. Or failing that there are some of the stalls in Borough and Broadway Markets.

For real croissant hits, though, I rely on my not-infrequent work trips to Paris. I don't think many bakers in the UK want to take the time necessary to make croissants properly.

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I've had a few different Borough Market croissants so far and have been disappointed by all thus far. Strangely, I think the best of the lot so far is from my local corner shop - I think they oven-bake frozen Delice de France ones. Of course, they're better for croissanwiches than they are for plain croissants.

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I hadn't heard of hogs pudding, but it appears to be a variety of white pudding (which I've never tried either).

Hash browns seem to have been relatively recently adopted by some establishments as part of their fried breakfasts. I enjoy and appreciate them, but place them at a lower priority than tomatoes and fried bread (yes, I prioritise the components, determined by availability of ingredients, hungriness, can-I-be-botheredness, and space in frying pan).

Fried potatoes (though not hash browns) were part of the late lamented BR Intercity breakfast so they were definitely part of the English b/f scene at least 20 years ago.

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I shouldn't have specified how the potatoes are cooked. Home fries, chips, hash browns, fried potatoes - all appear now and again in FEBs. I too would always prioritize tomatoes and fried bread. (Oh how I love fried bread!)

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The lemur's first encounter with fried bread traumatised her deeply. It was just too transgressive for someone brought up in a state where tofu with organic alfalfa sprouts is considered food.

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Hey, I was brought up there and love fried bread! But also, I love beans on toast when I need comfort food, so ...

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Yeah, but you are not from Marin!

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And if you're using canned tomatoes, you need at least one bread product for soaking up the tomato juice (mmmmmm...).

I read your post immediately after an enormous meal, and it is still making me hungry.

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Eeek. Never chips!

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Yet I've seen a FEB listed on, say, pub menus with chips as an accompaniament. I agree that it seems Wrong.

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I agree that it seems Wrong.

Positively immoral, I'd say.

We have a local Bed and Breakfast place, about two minutes walk away, where friends sometimes stay if we run out of bedspace. She will cook almost any combination (but not chips) to order - and when a vegetarian friend stays she worries so much that she gets up early to bake fresh scones for her, as toast and cereals just wouldn't count as her moneysworth in the landlady's eyes!

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I think that's because the pubs have chips on hand for other meals and fryers, so it makes mre sense for them to economize that way.

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A cereals course is definitely required, even if it is skipped by many people. Kippers or other smoked fish ought to be an option too.

Baked beans are common, though I don't think you'd find them in the best hotels. Eggs, bacon and suasages are the irreducible minimum. Plus toast and marmalade - you get that even in British Home Stores caff!

The problem with baked beans is that they must be of the tinned variety. It's no good to have a nice batch of homemade baked beans with a FEB; they're going to be the wrong variety. And most places with pretensions avoid the tinned.

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Good grief no - tined it must be. Though on the whole I prefer my Full English without.

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Hmm! Now you've got me thinking about how to make the perfect vegan Organic local seasonal Fairtrade breakfast! :-)

I should at least try making Fronch Toast from Vegan with a Vengeance to address this urge...

And how would you? I'd love to know what strikes you as necessary for inclusion and substition and still count.

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I would also vote for a kedgeree option, but this might be straying too far into the Full Scottish Breakfast.

The best FSB I've had was in 1983 at a country house hotel on its own island in Scotland, and the kedgeree was wonderful!

Kedgeree is Anglo-Indian - apparently (wiki) "The name is derived from an Indian dish (kichidi in Hindi) made from rice, lentils, onions and spices."

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I have to say that my answers are purely from memory and may be a bit bastardized by what Americans believe is in an English breakfast after 9 years out of the country! I am sure, however, that as much as I hate baked beans on toast, it was always featured in full English breakfasts.

October