THE TRADITION OF THE ENGLISH BREAKFAST

The full English breakfast is a centuries old British tradition which dates back to the early 1800's, when the Victorians first perfected the art of eating breakfast and elevated the most important meal of the day into an art form.

When the Victorians combined tradition with the most important meal of the day, they created a national dish, one that is widely loved to this day and regularly enjoyed by millions of English breakfast lovers all over the planet.

The idea of the English breakfast as a unique national dish, stretches back to the thirteenth century and an English institution called the gentry, who could be considered to be the guardians of the traditional English country lifestyle and a group of people who saw themselves as the cultural heirs of the Anglo-Saxons.

The breakfast table was an opportunity to display the wealth of the estate and the quality of the meats, vegetables and ingredients produced on the surrounding land and a chance to show off the skills of the cooks who prepared a vast selection of typical English breakfast dishes every morning, for the residents and guests of the house.

Breakfast served in these country houses was made up of ingredients sourced from farmers based on the estate, the meats were cured and cooked using regional recipes and methods. Their breakfasts were made up of traditional English dishes, cooked in a typical English way and it was here that the idea of the traditional English breakfast began.

Known colloquially as a fry up, the traditional English breakfast is called a full breakfast for good reason, although you do not absolutely have to eat two sausages, three slices of bacon and two fried eggs in order for it to still be traditional.

But whichever way you look at it, the full English breakfast is a substantial meal consisting of back bacon, eggs, British sausage, beans, tomato, mushrooms, black pudding and toast. These ingredients may vary depending on the specific region of the British isles you happen to be in and a subject that is still open to (sometimes quite fierce) debate.


Adapted by:  http://englishbreakfastsociety.com/full-english-breakfast.html