Full English/Irish/Scottish/Welsh Breakfast

[FoodMuse]

Hi there,

I've been thinking it would be fun to make a full on Irish/English/Scottish breakfast. In particular black and white pudding.

also

fried egg

fried tomato

rasher bacon

Black pudding

white pudding

beans

Bangers

Am I missing anything?

What do you drink? Is there anything the equivalent of Bloody Mary/Mimosa served?

I found this site that sells all sorts of puddings/bacon etc. But I really want to make the pudding myself.

http://www.foodireland.com/Merchant2/merch..._Code=breakfast

Would love to hear about any breakfasts you had that you liked, recipes and in particular seasonings that you could taste that you thought put the breakfast or pudding over the top. I had a black pudding recently that had a distinct allspice flavor that was great.

Also, anyone know how they prepare the tomatoes? I'm assuming just fried in a pan with a little butter.

Thanks

Grace

Edited May 21, 2008 by FoodMuse (log)

[Adam Balic]

Tomato fried in bacon fat, also mushrooms are common.

[FoodMuse]

Thank you Adam.

[danielcollins]

In my house it would be sacrilege not to include bread fried in beef dripping, and as for drinks it would have to be a cup of sweet, milky tea. Or an ice cold glass of Irn-Bru, although I doubt you'll find many other advocates for that!

[sunbeam]

I like a tinned tomato. I can hear the howls of protest but for me they function like Proust's Madeleine and take me back to the UK boarding-house holiday breakfasts of my childhood.

AA Gill's book 'Breakfast at the Wolsely' has some good advice on classic combinations as well as cooking tips

S

[Prawncrackers]

In my house it would be sacrilege not to include bread fried in beef dripping, and as for drinks it would have to be a cup of sweet, milky tea.

No, your fried slice has to be in the bacon fat. Cheaper the bread the better i reckon too. I agree with the milky tea, have to have a nice brew.

Personally I would struggle to finish a full english without copius amounts of tommy k. Though that is a partisan issue, wars may have been started over this issue.

Edited May 21, 2008 by Prawncrackers (log)

[insomniac]

got to have ketchup!!!!! none of this brown sauce rubbish for me but I do come from the deep south...Oz that is, where tommy k. is the national drink!

[martinwa]

Mimosa's?

No alcohol with breakfast thanks, I've got to work. You must be thinking brunch late on a Sunday. A mug of hot steaming tea, builder's, milk, no sugar for me.

Bury - the town - black pudding, try RS Ireland for mail order, smoked back bacon, best eggs you can find, fried. I'm not too fussed about your Brit banger but a couple of chorizo from Brindisa with eggs and toast is sublime.

Tinned toms are good! I haven't had them for years.

One thing you can't serve a full English without is a spicy brown sauce. H.P. for me, Daddy's for some. You'll find them in that Tea and Sympathy place down in the west village.

[LornaC]

My old Mum's Sunday Special included Tattie Scones. I think the Paul Rankin range sold in Waitrose does them.

And yes I second the glass of cold Irn Bru if it had been a late saturday night.

On bad days it included 'square' lorne sausage with 'pan' bread !

[Tim Hayward]

Beans? BEANS??

What kind of barbarian would put beans on the same plate as a fried breakfast? Christ, you'll be suggesting hash browns next (and as any fule kno they are only suitable for soling a Frenchman's espadrille).

[the queneau]

If you want to add the Irish/Ulster element to this, then you must have breads:

- toasted/fried soda bread (depending on your desired girth)

- fried potato bread (best done in bacon fat, and then put under the grill to crisp up)

- fresh wheaten bread on the side, with lashings of salted butter.

As an Irish bloke, I've also never understood the desire to put beans with a fried breakfast. It's just not the done thing, dahling.

[The Old Foodie]

Beans? BEANS??

What kind of barbarian would put beans on the same plate as a fried breakfast? Christ, you'll be suggesting hash browns next (and as any fule kno they are only suitable for soling a Frenchman's espadrille).

   

←

An English barbarian would put Heinz baked beans on the same plate.

An English barbarian might also put a bit of genuine bubble-and-squeak on there too.

An American barbarian might put hash browns on the same plate, but not in my house. I'm not, actually, sure what a good hash-brown is, unless it is a bastardized version of bubble-and-sqeak (without the cabbage, and what is the point of that?) , or perhaps a bastardised version of those German grated-potato-pancake things (kartoffelsomethings) which are wonderful, and come a close second to genuine bubble-and-squeak (except I am not sure why any self-respecting German would miss an opportunity to omit cabbage).

[PS]

A "Full Scottish Breakfast" tends be kilted by featuring fried potoato scone and fried haggis alongside the usual Brit breakfast ingredients of sausage, bacon, black pud, fried egg and fried tomoato.

Can't say I have ever had a white pudding served to me as part of a cooked breakfast...

[PassionateChefsDie]

I've done many English Breakfasts over the years I was led to believe it should be.

A really nice dry cure Bacon(Smoked my pref)

Fried Bread(I would agree a sandwich loaf slice)

A really good sausage

Grilled Tomato(Yet the barbarian in me prefers tinned so that fried slice has something to soak up)

A slice of Black Pudding on a slice of fried Apple(I agree a nice Bury one)

Pinkish kidneys(Leave them off for me)

Eggs as you choose (me scrambled just set not runny)

I could tell you of the story where I was late the ovens where being changed and the last one down was the AA inspector. I did it somehow, but somethings are best left unsaid.

Edited May 21, 2008 by PassionateChefsDie (log)

[gethin]

I was led to believe it should be.

A really nice dry cure Bacon(Smoked my pref)

Fried Bread(I would agree a sandwich loaf slice)

A really good sausage

Grilled Tomato(Yet the barbarian in me prefers tinned so that fried slice has something to soak up)

A slice of Black Pudding on a slice of fried Apple(I agree a nice Bury one)

Pinkish kidneys(Leave them off for me)

Eggs as you choose (me scrambled just set not runny)

←

but you also need porridge, stewed fruit , kedgeree and some cold roast partridges (very pink) sprinkled with rum , some boiled pheasant eggs plus toast , dark orange marmalade and ginger marmalade, coffee and tea. Slices of Christmas pudding fried in butter when available.

gethin

[PassionateChefsDie]

Lol I agree but how could anyone get through all that.

You probably could add kippers or smoked haddock and a poached egg in there to. I had too many hangovers and a kipper order that would receive an unwelcoming glare.

[apshelbourne]

The FEB (and its regional variants) is a marketing concept with no more genuine tradition than the Ploughman's Lunch. I never heard the term used until the 1970's. It was referred to in my youth simply as a fry-up or fried breakfast.

The English, until recently, have never taken to breaking their fast at a cafe or restaurant, so most people's breakfasts have reflected individual tastes, available time and money. My old Dad, rest his soul, ate two rashers of back bacon, a fried egg and a slice of bread and butter every morning. Mam, who had to cook it, breakfasted on industrial strength tea and Players Navy Cut.

The inestimable Jeeves had a penchant for lightly grilled trout, I recall. Posh folks of the time would not turn up their noses at kippers, devilled kidneys, mutton chops and kedgeree (on the same plate?).

But now every hotel, B&B, cafe and supermarket would think it impossible not to offer their own version of this ancient British eating experience. Bundling up a bunch of easily cooked ingredients into the FEB marketing package is just a neat way of selling stuff to people.

The only constants seem to be egg, bacon and sausage. Common additions include mushrooms, tomato (tinned or fresh), baked beans, hash browns, black pudding, fried slice (bread), sauteed potatoes and white (or hogs) pudding.

But I've often seen "Vegetarian FEB" advertised, so the Lord knows what the essential ingredients really are.

End of ramble.

[dougal]

...

Can't say I have ever had a white pudding served to me as part of a cooked breakfast...

←

Me neither, and I have been known to enjoy a nice mealie pudding with my mince and tatties... (and skirlie has been served at other times, but not breakfast-time) ...

... however including "white" pudding in a fried breakfast does indeed seem to be a particularly Irish speciality.

[insomniac]

...

Can't say I have ever had a white pudding served to me as part of a cooked breakfast...

←

Me neither, and I have been known to enjoy a nice mealie pudding with my mince and tatties... (and skirlie has been served at other times, but not breakfast-time) ...

... however including "white" pudding in a fried breakfast does indeed seem to be a particularly Irish speciality.

←

I had mealy pudding after porridge with salt on the Isle of Skye in the early 70's at an old friend's croft.....apparently it was white pudding...I had NO idea until now..I like porridge with salt now, must come with age...

i

[Tim Hayward]

Joking aside, I don't think one should get too misty-eyed about the heritage, or indeed the Englishness of the Fry Up.

Mayhew makes very few references to breakfast as a kind of meal and described working class Londoners as 'breaking their fast' with pretty much anything available - which wasn't much. Leftovers, a slice of bread and sweet tea - dripping when available. Similar story holds for the morning nosh of agricultural workers in the same period.

The proper English Breakfast really only comes into it's own with Lt Col Kenney-Herbert, who's admirable tome, '50 breakfasts' begins to categorise the kind of things we recognise now.

What's most important is that the meal we recognise developed in large houses with servants. The idea was that a sort of buffet of easy to prepare stuff, 'rechaufeed' over spirit lamps meant that the toffs could make a big deal out of serving themselves while the servants were occupied mucking out their rooms and laying out the grouse slaughtering tweeds for the day. First thing in the morning was the busiest time for staff at a country houseparty and things would pretty much grind to a halt if the whole lot of them were hovering around the guests getting their nosh.

K-H describes pretty much everything we hold dear in the book, as if it were an innovation. Sausages, bacon, devilled kidneys and black pudding could be kept warm without any loss. Eggs were boiled in purpose built copper pans over spirit lamps. Kedgeree, porridge, and any of the cooked veg could be spooned out by even the most inbred.

It's interesting that for so long the Brits felt it was unbearably rude to express any opinion about food at all but breakfast was place they felt they could have positive prejudices about cut of marmalade, doneness of toast, genre of egg etc. Basically they had to get involved because, downstairs in the kitchen was near empty.

Many of the individual elements of the FB were popular in caffs for other classes - though, as in most other cultures, this is probably to do with being able to knock out the meal to complex personal specs on a griddle and a few pans. In effect, the ubiquity of the FB for the post war working class was about the technical expedience of its preparation. The ubiquity of the 'Full English' in hotels was more about aping the gentry.

My Grandad ate a full fried every day of his life, from the day he was weaned to the day he carked at 64 of congestive heart failure. The poor old sod felt it was the nearest an Englishman got to a right - or possibly a rite. Perhaps he didn't eat enough grouse in between :-)

Edited May 21, 2008 by Tim Hayward (log)

[FoodMuse]

Wonderful.

I thoroughly enjoyed every reply.

Question about this tinned tomato business. Do you mean like this?

https://www.surfasonline.com/products/24709.cfm

apshelbourne

Your post was my favorite. Thanks for taking the time. "Vegetarian FEB" eaters get what they deserve. Soy based blood sausage?

Tim Hayward

I know I had beans on a plate somewhere in London- and thought it was wrong and odd to eat at breakfast. I'm a Bostonian we eat our baked beans as they should be eaten, with brown bread out of a can and hot dogs that are heated in the beans. Boston baked beans are the best lots of salted pork and molasses. Oh shit now I sound like an American Barbarian.

the queneau

I've made soda bread so many times in the past (my family thinks we're Irish, it's been a couple of generations) but always think it's dry no matter how much butter I slather on. Maybe fried in butter could change my mind.

The Old Foodie

Forwarded your funny barbarian comment to a friend. If you've never had good hashbrowns it's only because you've never made them yourself. What's not to like about shredded potato fried until crispy in hot fat? They are an abomination in diners in the US. Greasy and flabby.

PS

Never in my life have I heard of a scone with potato in it. Sounds odd. Is there a potato flavor? I used to make scones quite often, but never saw that. V. Interesting.

I do plan on making haggis at some point, I think I'll like it.

PassionateChefsDie

I have to know what's AA inspector? I hadn't heard about this fried bread business.

gethin

Porridge=gruel to me. The rest of your list sounds so delicious!

Dougal

What's a skirlie? Never heard of it. I had black and white puddings on my plate in Adare, Ireland.

Insomniac

Mealy pudding is the most unappetizing name ever. So, it's another name for white pudding?

What a great group. Thank you!

Grace

edited for clarity

Edited May 22, 2008 by FoodMuse (log)

[The Old Foodie]

On the topic of how traditional is the traditional breakfast, I checked out Phyllis Browne's book A Year’s Cookery, by Phyllis Browne (1879). She gives menus and recipes for the whole year.

She says “I have specially addressed myself to people of moderate income, with moderate domestic help, and ordinary kitchen utensils” - and that is us, right?

Mindful that some of you are still languishing in Wednesday 21, I give you her breakfast for this day:

May 21

Potted Veal and Ham

Savoury Eggs

Hot Buttered Toast

Dry Toast

Brown and White Bread and Butter

Bread and Milk

And for those of us already scoffing our breakfast on the 22nd, she suggests:

May 22

Dried Haddock

Fried Bacon

Hot Buttered Toast

Dry Toast

Brown and White Bread and Butter

Bread and Milk

Eggs there, and Bacon there - just not together. The dried haddock (she gives several ways of making it edible) does not appeal.

[Adam Balic]

PS

Never in my life have I heard of a scone with potato in it. Sounds odd. Is there a potato flavor? I used to make scones quite often, but never saw that. V. Interesting.

I do plan on making haggis at some point, I think I'll like it.

Grace

←

Making haggis is quite fun. If you leave out the offal (so you have meal, onions, suet/lard and spice) you have the ingredients for a mealie pudding.

Potato scones are not like regular scones they are flat and shaped as quarter circles (farls). They are what scones would have been like before the introduction of chemical raising agents in the 19th century. You can just grill them if they are fresh, but mostly they are fried in fat. Although they are potatoless and cut in full rounds, not quarters, the fat scones shown here are very similar to the modern potato scone.

The last time I ate breafast in Ireland there was also red pudding on offer, no idea what this is.

The best breakfast I ate in Scotland was smoked haddock with poached eggs, toast with marmalade and cups of tea.

[Stephen_K]

My version of a proper Irish breakfast is:

Sausage

Bacon (rashers)

Lambs liver

Black and white pudding (all from Kellys butchers, Newport, Co Mayo)

Fried Tomato

Mushrooms

Eggs fried runny

Piece of Achill boxty (potato cake made with raw potato)

Endless cups of tea, copy of The Irish Times and nothing to do for the rest of the day!!!

Edited May 22, 2008 by Stephen_K (log)

[dougal]

...

Dougal

What's a skirlie? Never heard of it. I had black and white puddings on my plate in Adare, Ireland.

...

←

Skirlie (not a skirlie) is just basically fried oatmeal. Fried so its lightly toasted.

The basic concept can be developed with other additions, choice of frying fat, etc.

http://www.scottishrecipes.co.uk/skirlie.htm

White "mealie" puddings would usually contain onion and rather a lot of fat. My family never fried them. Most popularly they'd be poached (whole) in a pan with the minced beef and carrots - rather like cooking dumplings in a stew.

http://www.scottishrecipes.co.uk/white_pudding.htm

A very similar mix to the mealie pudding would be used as stuffing for chicken, but skirlie would be austerely plain medium oatmeal... and not served for breakfast. Smoked fish, oh yes. Porridge of course. But fried oatmeal of any sort? Not for breakfast. Now this may be particular to my family, or the North East of Scotland, or to roots further back in Shetland or elsewhere... But I have read that fried white pudding for breakfast is much more an Irish breakfast thing.

Now then, what about some Butteries? Ideal for a Scot's breakfast, (or for a 'piece' at any time of day).

http://www.scottishrecipes.co.uk/butteries.htm

As an incidental, its worth noting that British bacon is cured with very little (or no) sugar - certainly less sugar than the amount of salt. And its not cooked at all until it hits your own pan. It is bought either cured and raw (sometimes called "green" bacon, but more usually "unsmoked") or else cured and *cold* smoked (ie smoked without cooking).

And, for the avoidance of doubt, tea would, of course, be served hot, to be drunk with a little milk (and optionally a lot of sugar).

Edited May 22, 2008 by dougal (log)