Full breakfast

The British cafe (such as this one in Islington, London, with a "breakfast served all day" sign) typically serves the full breakfast throughout the day

The "traditional" full English breakfast,[9] includes back bacon[10] (and/or more rarely, streaky bacon[11][12][13]), sausages (usually pork or Cumberland), eggs (fried, poached or scrambled), fried or grilled tomatoes, fried mushrooms (button or Portobello), and fried bread. Black pudding and baked beans are also very frequently included, and very rarely bubble and squeak: potato products are not generally included in a full English breakfast.[14][15] Buttered toast, and jam or marmalade are often served at the end of the meal although toast is generally available throughout the meal.[16] In recent years, hash browns have become a popular inclusion.[17] In the North Midlands, fried or grilled oatcakes sometimes replace fried bread. The food is traditionally served with tea or coffee,[18] as well as fruit juices.

As nearly everything is fried in this meal, it is commonly known as a "fry-up". As some of the items are optional, the phrase "Full English breakfast", "Full English", or "Full Monty" often specifically denotes a breakfast including everything on offer. One theory for the origin of the latter name is that British Army general Bernard Montgomery, nicknamed 'Monty', was said to have started every day with a "Full English" breakfast while on campaign in North Africa during the Second World War.[19][20]

Breakfast cereal (or porridge), often precedes the breakfast dish, and the meal typically concludes with buttered toast spread with marmalade, jam, honey or other conserves, together with additional tea and coffee.

A full Irish breakfast

In Ireland, as elsewhere, the exact constituents of a full breakfast vary, depending on geographical area, personal taste and cultural affiliation. Traditionally, the most common ingredients in Ireland are bacon rashers, pork sausages, fried eggs (or scrambled or poached), white pudding, black pudding, toast and fried tomato.[21] Sauteed field mushrooms are also sometimes included,[22] as well as baked beans, hash browns, and brown soda bread.[23][24][25] Fried potato farl, boxty or toast is sometimes served as an alternative to brown soda bread. Limerick in particular has a long-standing traditional association with pork-based meat products.[26]

The "breakfast roll",[27] consisting of elements of the full breakfast served in a French roll, has become popular in Ireland due to the fact it can be easily eaten on the way to school or work.[27] The breakfast roll is available from many petrol stations and corner shops throughout Ireland.[27]

An Ulster fry served in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The potato bread is under the eggs, with the soda bread (soda farl) at the bottom.

In Ulster, the northern province in Ireland, an "Ulster fry" is a dish similar to the Irish breakfast, and is popular throughout most of the province (chiefly in Northern Ireland and parts of County Donegal), where it is eaten not only at breakfast time but throughout the day. Typically it will include soda bread (soda farl) and potato bread.[28]

Similarly to the breakfast roll seen in the rest of Ireland, "filled sodas" are found throughout Ulster, which usually consist of a soda farl shallow-fried on one side and filled with fried sausages, bacon or eggs. Fried onions or mushrooms are usually added upon request. Filled sodas are a popular choice for breakfast from roadside fast-food vendors.

A similar Scottish alternative

In Scotland, the full breakfast, as with others, contains eggs, back bacon, link sausage, buttered toast, baked beans, and tea or coffee. Distinctively Scottish elements include Scottish style or Stornoway black pudding, Lorne sausage (sometimes called a "square" for its traditional shape), Ayrshire middle bacon and tattie scones. It commonly also includes fried or grilled tomato or mushrooms and occasionally haggis, white pudding, fruit pudding[29] or oatcakes.[30][31][32] Another more historical Scottish breakfast is porridge.

Early editions of Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable referred to a Scotch breakfast as "a substantial breakfast of sundry sorts of good things to eat and drink".[33]

As in the rest of Britain and Ireland, the composition of a full Welsh breakfast (Welsh: Brecwast llawn Cymreig) can vary. However, with the new-found appreciation of Welsh food and recipes in the early 21st century, there have been attempts to establish a broad definition.[4]

The traditional Welsh breakfast reflects the coastal aspect of Welsh cuisine. Two key ingredients that distinguish the Welsh breakfast from the other "full" variations are cockles (Welsh: cocs) and laverbread (Welsh: bara lafwr or bara lawr) (a seaweed purée often mixed with oatmeal and fried).[34] Fried laver with cockles and bacon was the traditional breakfast for mine workers in the South Wales Coalfield, but a breakfast may have also included Welsh sausages, mushrooms and eggs.[4][35][36]

Full Welsh Breakfasts are accompanied by traditional breakfast drinks, with Welsh tea a ubiquitous choice. Today, as they are often served throughout the day in public houses or inns, Welsh beer or ale is not uncommon. Modern alternatives to the traditional full breakfast will often develop the traditional seafood theme. Smoked fish such as sea trout or sewin may be served accompanied with poached eggs.[4]

Bacon and eggs with pancakes

This style of breakfast was brought over by Irish and British immigrants to the United States and Canada, where it has endured.[37] A full breakfast in these countries often consists of eggs, various meats, and commonly one type of fried potatoes – hash browns, home fries, potatoes O'Brien, or potato pancakes – and some form of bread or toast. Big breakfasts of this kind are most often served on special occasions or weekends only, owing to the time needed to prepare them and the calories involved. In the Southern United States, grits are typically included.

Canada and the US do not follow the trend of the rest of the Anglosphere, where tea is the usual hot beverage for breakfast, but rather both strongly prefer coffee, drunk black or with milk, cream, or sugar. Maple syrup is common to both nations, which have sugar shacks in their Eastern forests. Both nations have diners, and there the most common components are eggs, bacon and breakfast sausage served with one or two of either toast, English muffins, hash browns, home fries, pancakes, French toast or waffles. Omelettes are a dish where anything goes, and several kinds of cheese are added to the mix depending on the cook's desires, such as cheddar, Colby, Monterey Jack, and feta. Eggs Benedict originated in New York and bagels wherever Eastern European Jews settled, but both are now a staple in both countries.

There is great regional variety. Oatmeal, made with rolled oats, is commonly served at breakfast in much of Canada and New England, yet is generally replaced by grits in the Southeast, where the climate is too warm for growing oats, and eating oatmeal for breakfast has become more popular in that region only in the past fifty years. Biscuits leavened with baking powder or baking soda are a staple of the South and a component of biscuits and gravy. Country ham is very popular in every Southeastern state other than Florida and replaces Canadian bacon in recipes. Scrapple and pork roll are breakfast meats common to Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and New Jersey, and the sausages eaten in South Texas and Florida are sometimes a type of chorizo. Country-fried steak is a dish that is popular in Texas, and steak and eggs are popular in much of the Midwest.

The West is usually the home of dishes like migas, huevos rancheros, and the breakfast burrito; all three are spicy because they contain sizable amounts of chili peppers. Both coasts of Canada and the United States serve smoked salmon for breakfast, and it is a staple in particular of First Nations of British Columbia. Eggs Sardou and eggs Neptune are local variations on eggs Benedict from Louisiana and Maryland that change out the Canadian bacon with artichoke and crabmeat, respectively. Midwesterners used to eat calf brains with their eggs, Southerners did the same with pork brains, New Englanders eat johnnycake, and Spam is a staple in Hawaii.

A few establishments in Hong Kong offer all-day breakfast or brunch options (hybrid of English and North American items) from formal restaurants to low-frills establishments.[38][39]