“I came down as soon as I thought there was a prospect of breakfast,” Jane Eyre’s eponymous heroine says, declaring her unabashed love for the English breakfast in Charlotte Bronte’s novel back in 1847. This, and many such references to the ‘bonafide threat to good cardiovascular health dish’ can be spotted through the history of English literature. After all, a full English breakfast has remained the centrepiece of British gastronomic culture for over 500 years.
This staggering spread traditionally consists of bacon, eggs, sausages, baked beans, mushrooms, tomatoes, black pudding with a few slices of toasted bread to mop up the plate. Loaded with fried red meats and eggs, one needn’t wonder why the gluttonous meal is also known as a ‘fry-up’.
BLACK PUDDING, BEANS OR HASH BROWNS?
For a meal that has been around for more than five centuries, there is curiously much debate surrounding its essential components. Is it black pudding, bacon or baked beans? Or is it the sinfully crunchy hash browns? In a 2023 survey in the UK, less than half the participants agreed that black pudding is a non-negotiable part of the platter. This quintessentially English preparation, ominously also known as blood sausage, is a type of sausage made with pig’s blood, spices and herbs, onion, barley or oatmeal. A part of British cuisine since the 1400s, blood sausage finds mention even in Homer’s Odyssey.
On the other hand, hash browns fared even worse. The English Breakfast Society, a society dedicated to celebrating the legacy of its titular dish, claims that hash browns were an American import from the 1890s that popped up at New York restaurants around the same time. Debates on its components aside, the full English breakfast is as authentic in its British identity as Yorkshire pudding, Bangers and Mash, Fish and Chips or a Shepherd’s Pie.
BREAKFAST IS BORN
But when did breakfast become a bonafide meal in itself? Culinary historians state the concept of breakfast wasn't even around in Europe till the 14th century. Romans considered eating more than one meal a day to be a sin, which impacted the way people consumed food for a long time. Over the years, food and communal dining became a symbol of wealth and social status. As a display of prosperity, the English aristocrats began hosting lavish feasts at their countryside manors. With food foraged from their manicured vegetable gardens and sprawling farms, the feasts became a beacon of English hospitality and nobility in the 1500s. But unlike its modern counterpart consisting of an assortment of meats and veggies served in a single platter, the Anglo-Saxon iterations of English breakfast alluded to a buffet spread with a selection of meats, breads and cheese.
Among other things, the English nobility was a staunch gatekeeper of the tradition of lavish breakfasts for nearly four centuries. Interestingly, these breakfasts were significantly different to what we understand as breakfast today — the first meal in the holy tripartite of breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Until the early 19th century, the British consumed only two meals a day. The rural English population consumed a protein rich breakfast in the morning and a heavy afternoon meal which they referred to as dinner. In the evening, they would opt for a lighter meal, consisting of tea and freshly baked tea cakes, daintily crafted sandwiches and scones with a dollop of cream. The three-meal-a-day dining habit only emerged during the Industrial Revolution, when the rural population migrated to the urban centres and began working in factories. As work hours increased, so did the need to snack in between heavier meals. Hence workers began sneaking in bread inside factories to be eaten during the day. Others would head back to their homes in between work for a light meal before dinner.
Right around the same time, with Queen Victoria ascending the throne of Britain and the rise of merchant classes, grand feasts experienced a resounding comeback. Where the gentry was on a gradual decline, this emerging social class of industrialists promptly adapted themselves to aristocratic lifestyle habits, giving English breakfast a new lease of life. But the Victorian Era breakfast wasn't just sausages and bacon. Kedgeree, for instance, was a popular breakfast item during this time. Introduced by the British colonists to the UK, this rice, egg and fish dish is a version of the Indian rice and lentil porridge Khichdi.
THE 'FULL' TREATMENT
By the turn of the 19th century, full English breakfast became synonymous with prosperity and opulence. Garden parties, social gatherings, summer picnics — the Edwardian Era was truly the Golden Age of Britain. Tables would be set out with jams and toasts, eggs and sausages, fried tomatoes and baked beans along with an array of food items that no longer qualify as English breakfast staples, like game pies, mackerel, quail eggs, beef galantine. These would be accompanied with a range of hot and cold beverages like tea, coffee and orange juice.
Such was the patronage enjoyed by this sumptuous fare, that even in the face of rationing during World War II, the allure of the English breakfast refused to wane. It is said that during the 1950s, a staggering half of the British populace commenced their day with a hearty feast of bacon, eggs, sausage, and all the trimmings. Strangely, this love affair was not limited to a particular social class. The working class, in particular, embraced this culinary tradition with open arms. Their rendezvous with this delectable fare was often orchestrated by Greasy Spoon, a modest café chain concentrated around construction sites, ports, and warehouses. These eateries witnessed a familiar sight: labourers congregating around tables adorned with generous helpings of a full English breakfast, accompanied by steaming mugs of tea and tabloid newspapers.
These no-frills establishments were best known for their all-day breakfast offerings, where chefs were more than willing to serve up the UK's national treasure for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Thus was born the all day breakfast platter, a culinary offering that effortlessly transcended socioeconomic strata to be enjoyed by one and all.
Over the years, this artery clogging meal has become more of an occasional indulgence than a bowl of daily sustenance. But whoever ever ate only to sustain?