Full English Breakfast

RE: Full English Breakfast (macphile)

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 01:13:55 GMT

You know, with all the English breakfasts I've eaten at relatives' houses, B&Bs, etc., I've never seen blood pudding. Odd. I guess it depends on the region? And I'd forgotten about the beans, but I'm not a beans person, anyway.

I'm not sure about the "no sweet stuff," though. When I've had full English breakfasts, they've always come with marmalade and jam for the fried bread/toast. It's sitting out on the tables at B&Bs, like they do here.

And when the waitress asks what you want, you just say "full English," without the noun.

If I ate that stuff all the time here, I'd keel over from cholesterol poisoning. But when you spend the entire day hiking around Oxford or London or someplace, it's perfect. You're hungry at lunchtime after that, despite all that food in the morning.

RE: Full English Breakfast (Nancypalooza)

Tue, 13 May 2008 20:31:12 GMT

quote:
Originally posted by grynch

*L*.... misskitty... do you want to try to explain what that phrase would mean to a brit? *L*

I can probably guess. Not too far off, I would imagine, from the look I got from a British doctoral student in my program twenty years ago when I told him that the shag was the state dance of South Carolina.

I found some pix from our stay in Brecon I thought I'd share. This is the sign for the b&b:

And the hilarious thing about the breakfasts we had there was the family dog, Holly. She would just sort of skirt the perimeter when her mommy was around, but as soon as the lady left the room, she would hop right up into my partner's lap

for a cuddle

RE: Full English Breakfast (stevep)

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 23:38:31 GMT

I don't suppose anyone knows where to get a traditional Irish/English breakfast (complete with black and white pudding, yum) in central MA? Particularly Worcester? Apparently Irish Times and Funky Murphy's used to have one but not anymore.

RE: Full English Breakfast (grynch)

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 11:08:40 GMT

quote:
Originally posted by Nancypalooza

The last two nights in Brecon at a little home-farm b&b--that lady could cook her fanny off.

*L*.... misskitty... do you want to try to explain what that phrase would mean to a brit? *L*

RE: Full English Breakfast (Catracks)

Mon, 07 Apr 2008 14:43:29 GMT

There is a lot of English food I like, but will never understand the love of beans straight out of the Van de Camps can or mushy peas.

RE: Full English Breakfast (GenB)

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 18:12:49 GMT

I stayed a while with a cousin in Dorset. She did the fried tomatoes, fried bread, bacon (streaky and regular), tea (with lots of fresh cream), and orange marmalade.
No beans, no mushrooms, no hashbrowns, and (mercifully) no blood pudding.
I think that the beans and mushrooms are more common in London, but the blood pudding seems to be common everywhere.
Kippers are a nice variation.

RE: Full English Breakfast (MissKitty)

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 14:12:20 GMT

quote:
Originally posted by Nancypalooza

Miss Kitty, when we were in the UK last year the full breakfast was always started with a cereal course; were we just being pigs and having both the cereal and the full breakfast, or is that the traditional starter?

It wasn't until the start of our third week there that we felt bold enough to just tell our b&b hosts what we wanted and didn't want on the full. It did give us a really nice sampling of what different folks did better or worse than others. The last two nights in Brecon at a little home-farm b&b--that lady could cook her fanny off.

Heh, no, you weren't being pigs - most hotels and B & B's will offer cereal and fruit and fruit juice as either a beginning or an adjunct to the meal. At home or eating it in cafes we usually don't bother but I think the sometimes overwhelming choice and quantity of food at breakfast in accomadation is out of a wish to provide good value for money and send you off on your days travels or touring with as much good food inside you as possible !

Most hotels/B & B's are very good about accomadating various needs for smaller amounts or different foods at breakfast time if you approach them politely in advance ( the night before, not months in advance, LOL !! ) The bigger hotels aren't too bothered about variations in catering but for the smaller ones its more problematical.

Incidentally, the best B & B breakfasts I have ever had were at a very small ( just two rooms in the family home ) but very high standard place in Winchester - I stayed there a few times and the breakfast was never less than exquisite. The husband used to make bread before he went off to work in the morning, and the wife made a real dream of a breakfast each day - as much produce locally sourced as possible, cereals, yoghurts, toast from the home made bread with a choice of 4 different preserves, fruit - always including a small bunch of flawless grapes with a pair of fruit scissors to cut the stems ! and gorgeous tea and coffee. They have moved to Devon now and I haven't yet stayed at their new place but do intend to - for anyone going to the West Country I would recommend them in a heart beat !

RE: Full English Breakfast (leethebard)

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 13:53:24 GMT

Ah yes,
There's something else great about English breakfasts:Marmalade...great REAL English marmalade on toast....and a great cup of English Breakfast Tea.....miss it

RE: Full English Breakfast (Nancypalooza)

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 13:36:50 GMT

Miss Kitty, when we were in the UK last year the full breakfast was always started with a cereal course; were we just being pigs and having both the cereal and the full breakfast, or is that the traditional starter?

It wasn't until the start of our third week there that we felt bold enough to just tell our b&b hosts what we wanted and didn't want on the full. It did give us a really nice sampling of what different folks did better or worse than others. The last two nights in Brecon at a little home-farm b&b--that lady could cook her fanny off.

RE: Full English Breakfast (santacruz)

Wed, 06 Feb 2008 15:01:23 GMT

There is only one thing I have to have at a Full English Breakfast and that is THE BLACK GOLD SPREAD CALLED --MARMITE--, it is so good spread over hot buttered toast. It mixes with all the other ingredients with a slight taste of Guinness Ah!

RE: Full English Breakfast (MissKitty)

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 07:58:35 GMT

I like it, even as a former vegetarian ( although apparently you can get very good vegetarian versions now ) I couldn't eat it in massive quantities but I do love that earthy very iron rich taste. You do have to cook the slices until they are crispy on the outside, though.

By the way it really is called black pudding here, if you asked for blood pudding or blood sausage you would get some very puzzled looks.

RE: Full English Breakfast (Twinwillow)

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 15:38:28 GMT

quote:
Originally posted by Sundancer7

I would also put a hold on the blood sausage. I was in Kankakee, IL at a German restaurant several yeras ago and I order the sausage platter which included blood sausage. I did not every know what they were and the first bite told me no way.

To this day it is no way.

Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

I think it's the texture that I object to so much. Gag!

RE: Full English Breakfast (Sundancer7)

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 15:27:33 GMT

I would also put a hold on the blood sausage. I was in Kankakee, IL at a German restaurant several yeras ago and I order the sausage platter which included blood sausage. I did not every know what they were and the first bite told me no way.

To this day it is no way.

Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

RE: Full English Breakfast (Twinwillow)

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 12:50:21 GMT

quote:
Originally posted by juleebella

Don't mean to sound stupid, but what are the round black things sitting on top of the ham in that picture?

You had to ask didn't you. Well, it's "blood pudding" aka, "blood sausage". HORRIBLE stuff! I loved eating a "full English breakfast" while living on and off for 20 years in jolly, ole England. However, I always asked them to "hold" the blood pudding, please.

RE: Full English Breakfast (enginecapt)

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 12:00:35 GMT

Thanks Jim. Took me over 3.5 years to do it.

RE: Full English Breakfast (Jimeats)

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 10:37:15 GMT

Hey Capt. 2500 posts and a Filet Mignon nice job. Mr. Chips will give you the accolades that you have comming I'm sure.
Have a filet for breakfast with your eggs, you deserve it. Chow Jim

RE: Full English Breakfast (leethebard)

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 05:17:25 GMT

True..I had forgot that! They are delicious though.

RE: Full English Breakfast (enginecapt)

Sun, 03 Feb 2008 14:22:52 GMT

I prefer the British version of baked beans because they're not as cloyingly sweet as our kind. Even the made in America Heinz "Vegetarian Beans" are sweeter than the Brit beans.

ATTN Americans: Sweeter isn't always better.

RE: Full English Breakfast (leethebard)

Sun, 03 Feb 2008 07:47:57 GMT

MissKitty,
Love your country!!! Have taken my high school students there many times,mostly as an excuse to see Shakespeare country around Stratford. But the bonus is the English food...pub grub and that heavenly English full breakfast..even ate at an English breakfast buffet!
Love it all...except for the blood pudding. The grilled tomato when grilled right just compliments the meal...and I loved baked beans any time of day!As you've commented,sometimes the sausage is bland...but sometimes it has been wonderful. The FULL English breakfast is just that..A complete exciting meal....and the only meal in England when I have coffee instead of tea!!!
Now I'm hungry...and I miss England.

RE: Full English Breakfast (enginecapt)

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 17:11:45 GMT

I've had many a fine caff fry up over in Blighty. And a few clunkers.

RE: Full English Breakfast (iqdiva)

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 17:11:17 GMT

Very well put MissKitty !

RE: Full English Breakfast (MissKitty)

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 16:55:13 GMT

Folks, there is no " competing " - a well made tasty good breakfast is a well made tasty good breakfast no matter what part of the world it comes from :) I have sampled wonderful and awful examples of both Southern breakfast and " The Full English ". They are both fantastic when done well and when not !

RE: Full English Breakfast (iqdiva)

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 12:01:54 GMT

Porkbeaks,you are a man of my heart...Now,that's a Southern breakfast !

RE: Full English Breakfast (brisketboy)

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 11:48:13 GMT

You are right MissKitty because I stayed at a lovely old manor house converted to an Inn called the Langdon Court in Cornwall outside Plymouth that served the best breakfast yet. From the cold ham, salmon kippers to the mushrooms both types of pudding and the eggs. I believe the sausages were indeed cumberland. They certainly did not scrimp on the cost and the portion size. Served a great ploughmans as well.

RE: Full English Breakfast (porkbeaks)

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 11:32:35 GMT

It doesn't have any baked beans or black pudding, but I think the Sunrise Sampler breakfast at Cracker Barrel is (at least) the equal of the "Full English" offering. It includes two eggs with grits, sawmill gravy, homemade buttermilk biscuits, butter and preserves, apple butter, fried apples, hashbrown casserole, portions of smoked sausage, country ham and thick-sliced bacon. All for (I think) $7.99. Coffee (fair to middlin') is extra. Works for me. pb

RE: Full English Breakfast (Jimeats)

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 10:13:10 GMT

I tryed those bacon and cheese muffins again this morning with a twist.
I have an over sized muffin pan, almost cats head size so I doubled the batch. After treating the pan I poured some of the mixture into the cups, less than half. Then I placed those new type silocone muffin cups {small} into each cup as well, pressed down untill batter became level with the top. then filled those cups as well. Baked as normal did the toothpick test and let rest for about 15min.
With a little help those silocone cups were removed leaving a cavity to place in some savory scrambled eggs.
I ran a little short on batter for the small cups so I threw together a quick biscuit mix to fill the voids.
The reason why I did this my daughters were comming by for breakfast {unusuall} but I thought I would use them as testers.
I placed each muffin on top of a round piece of pan fryed ham and some potato pancakes on the side.
The testers gave it two thumbs up. It ended up very easy to do and made a nice presentation. Chow Jim

RE: Full English Breakfast (iqdiva)

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 20:25:09 GMT

English breakfasts do indeed sound wonderful,but as delicious as they are,they can't compete with a true old-fashioned Southern breakfast !

RE: Full English Breakfast (Robearjr)

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 20:17:36 GMT

While I've never been to England, I have had a few English breakfasts in Canada. While I love the meats and eggs, I not that found of the beans.

RE: Full English Breakfast (MissKitty)

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 16:48:02 GMT

Unfortunately, a lot of hotels/cafes/B&B's, even the more " upscale " ones, use el cheapo slurry sausages that are either the value range from the local supermarket or not much better. If you ever catch a programme, on cable maybe, called The Hotel Inspector with cook and hotel proprietor Ruth Watson, she is forever ticking off the subjects of the programme for taking shortcuts with the breakfast ingredients.

We can get so many lovely PROPER decent tasty sausages from butchers, farms and farm shops, small local producers etc I really wonder why commercial producers of breakfasts don't make better use of them - it can't make that much of a dent in their profits, surely ! I think most Americans would enjoy Cumberland sausages - they have a good proportion of pepper, mace and nutmeg in so are spicier than average ( not herby like Lincolnshire sausages though ) whether in the traditional pinwheel configuration or normal links

RE: Full English Breakfast (brisketboy)

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 14:18:18 GMT

My first introduction to a full English breakfast was at the Barn Hotel in Ruislip. I truly enjoyed everything, even the black pudding. Over the years I even got used to their "sausages". Sorry, mate, but other than Linclonshire sausages most leave much to be desired. No way on bangers, and the beans for brekkie took some getting used to.