The English Fry Up
In the United Kingdom (and also Australia and New Zealand) the English Fry Up is slang for a full breakfast. This refers to a dish of at least three eggs that is also served with a variety of sided dishes. It is also usually served with coffee or tea.
The phrase is often used in bed and breakfasts and in hotels and restaurants to help distinguish the European Continental breakfast from the English breakfast. Traditionally the Continental breakfast is quite light and consists of tea, milk, coffee and fruit juices that are served with pastries or croissants. The English breakfast is a veritable, fattening grease and cholesterol feast compared to the relatively delicate European breakfast.
It is not difficult at all to find a traditional English Fry Up in England. Most cafes and hotels serve it. It is also a mainstay at English Pubs where they are known as “all-day breakfast.”
In the United Kingdom different areas have their own version of the English Fry Up. The traditional English breakfast includes back bacon, tomatoes, fried mushrooms, fried bread or toast, sausages and baked beans. Sometimes fried mashed potatoes or left over vegetables scrambled with potato are served as well. This is known as “Bubble and Squeak” Onion rings are sometimes added to the meal in the South of England. In the north oatcakes are often added.
The Cornish breakfast includes hog’s pudding, potato cakes (made with butter along with mushrooms, sausage, tomato, egg and toasts. Hog’s pudding is sausage made with bread, pork meat fat and pearl barley. The Scottish version also can include herring or sardines.
The Scottish version includes the eggs, back bacon, link sausage, baked beans and tea or coffee. Black sliced sausage and tattie scones are also be in the meal along with white pudding or a fruit pudding.
Another variation is the Ulster Fry. It consists of bacon, eggs sausages, soda bread, a vegetable roll, mushrooms, beans and black pudding. A strong black tea sweetened with sugar and milk, such as Punjana or Lyon’s is also often served up with an Ulster Fry.
The Full Irish breakfast has the sausage, bacon and fried eggs along with liver, brown soda bread, black pudding and baked beans.
These meals have also translated to the colonies. In Canada a full breakfast like this is known as a Lumberjack Breakfast and in Quebec it may also include crepes.