The 'full English breakfast' known colloquially as a 'fry-up' can be a delicious meal, digging into a piping hot fry-up is an experience that can set you up for the day!
The full English breakfast is a centuries old British tradition and a unique national dish. Ironically the food snobs of today eschew a full English which they associate as a workmanlike, greasy spoon cafe- affair. It is now en vogue to eat croissants or pastries in a trendy café and tea has been replaced with lattes and frothy cappuccinos.
However, far from being a lower class meal, the English breakfast was historically eaten by the gentry whose breakfast table was an opportunity to display their wealth. Entertaining guests, the gentry would supply lavish breakfasts showing off the quality of meats, vegetables and ingredients produced on their land, and the skills of their cooks. A full English would be consumed before a hunt, a long journey, after their parties and when reading their mail and periodicals of the day.
In Victorian times those seeking to advance themselves socially, studied the habits of the gentry. For the aspiring middle classes, a full English breakfast became a chance to demonstrate their wealth and social upbringing.
A fry-up summons an immediate Pavlovian response and if I fail to cook one on a Saturday morning it is met with huge disappointment! The theory is that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, as the saying goes: 'Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, dine like a pauper.' I have to say, after our Saturday morning breakfast we do eat very little for the rest of the day and I feel no guilt in this once a week indulgence.
A full English isn't rocket science but the golden rule is good ingredients. Outdoor bred pork sausages, free range bacon (I always use smoked) and free range eggs. The rest of the ingredients are variable, tomatoes, baked beans, mushrooms, bubble and squeak- the list goes on and it rather depends on how big your appetite is. I do a traybake breakfast because all the juices combine to make delicious flavours and I use minimal fat, also if cooking in quantity it makes my life easier! I love drizzling my sausages in honey and soy sauce as this adds extra stickyness to my tray but it's neither conventional or necessary. My top tip is always add a splash of vinegar to your cooked bacon, my parents always had vinegar with their cooked breakfast and I find the meal lacking if it hasn't got this condiment added, try it and you'll see what I mean.
Full English breakfast
Recipe
Serves 4
4 outdoor bred pork sausages
8 rashers free range bacon
4 free range eggs
1 tin baked beans
16 cherry tomatoes
Olive oil
Honey and soy sauce, optional
Salt and pepper
Vinegar
Preheat oven 200c/gas mark 6
Rub sausages with a little olive oil, honey and soy
Line a large baking tray with greaseproof paper, add sausages and cook for 10 minutes
Add bacon to tray and coat with some of the existing juices
Add cherry tomatoes and place tray in the oven, after 10 minutes remove and turn bacon and sausages
Cook for a further 10 minutes or until bacon and sausages are golden and sticky
Meanwhile heat your beans in a small pan over a medium heat
When the sausages and bacon are nearly cooked, pour a little olive oil in a frying pan
Place pan over a high heat and, as soon as the oil is really hot, carefully break the eggs into the pan
After 30 seconds turn the heat down to medium, tilting the pan and basting the eggs
After 1 minute the eggs should be cooked, lift out with a slice and place on warm plate
With tongs, pick up the sausages, bacon and tomatoes and add to plate, add beans, season and add a splash of vinegar
Eat with a nice doorstop of fresh white bread slathered in butter, washed down with a mug of English tea.
'What a breakfast! Pot of hare; ditto of trout; pot of prepared shrimps: tin of sardines; beautiful beefsteak; eggs, mutton, large loaf and butter, not forgetting capital tea. There's a breakfast for you!'
-George Borrow, (1803-1881)
Love Donna xxxx
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