The Irish breakfast is a cooked breakfast consisting mainly of pork products.

The contents

The traditional Irish breakfast includes at least the following fried items: pork sausages, bacon rashers, egg(s), black pudding and white pudding, accompanied by tea and usually toast or traditional brown soda bread (one of the more distinguishing features). The breakfast is virtually identical to the traditional breakfasts served in other parts of the British Isles (see Full English breakfast). The serving of white pudding is also often found in the traditional breakfast meal in Scotland.

Although the items listed are the main criteria for a proper Irish breakfast, other items can be included. This may include hash browns (cakes of fried and chopped potato), fried mushrooms or fried tomato - all of which may also feature in similar traditional breakfasts. Breakfast in Ireland may also be served with some non-traditional items such as baked beans.

Hotel and other fare

Hotels may offer kippers, cereal, porridge and other items, but these are not considered part of an traditional 'Irish breakfast', and usually are only offered as alternatives to the fried breakfast or continental breakfast. Sometimes grilled fare is erroneously served under the title of Irish breakfast.

The term Irish breakfast is the only term used in Ireland. It is also used by the Irish abroad, or by traditional Irish pubs outside of Ireland, or by those hotels choosing to apply the term Irish to various fried breakfast items. In most other cases around the world, various types of fried breakfast are described as English. In France the phrase petit déjeuner anglais (English breakfast) is most common.

Most Irish hotels are guaranteed to serve a fine Irish breakfast. B&Bs also serve a full Irish breakfast, which though generally inferior to those in hotels, are often a point of pride. One of the most expensive places Irish Breakfasts are found is on the dining car of trains (see Iarnród Éireann).

History

The traditional cooked breakfast is a relatively modern invention. Before the arrival of the potato in the middle of the 17th Century, the Irish diet reflected the nature of the cattle based economy. Meat was mostly the preserve of the gentry whilst the poor made do with oats, barley, milk, milk products and offal. The practice of bleeding cattle and mixing the blood with milk and butter (much like the Masai of today) was not uncommon.

After the potato arrived in Ireland it quickly became the dominant source of food for the poor. From the late 17th century to until the late 19th century most people in Ireland lived on a meagre diet that consisted mostly of potatoes cultivated at a subsistence level. Potatoes were also used as a food for pigs that were fattened-up and slaughtered at the approach of the cold winter months. Much of the slaughtered pork would have been cured to provide ham and bacon that could be stored over the winter. In Ireland bacon is traditionally boiled and not cut into rashers and fried. The reliance on potatoes as a staple crop meant that the people of Ireland were vulnerable to poor potato harvests, consequently a number of what today might be called 'lesser famines' occurred throughout the 17th and 18th centuries. The first great famine of 1739 was the result of extreme cold weather but the famine of the late 1840s (see Irish potato famine) which lasted several years led to the death of nearly 1,000,000 people and the emigration of another 2,000,000 was caused by potato blight. After the famine some 3,000,000 people were left destitute. Throughout this period most people would have eaten a simple breakfast of potatoes or porridge washed down with ale and later tea and would have had a more substantial dinner at around midday.

The traditional fried breakfast emerged in the houses of wealthy farmers or landowners in the late 19th century. For the more well-to-do, an array of breakfast dishes would be laid out buffet style in much the same way as hotels do today. Up until this period, fresh meat was generally considered a luxury except for the most affluent. Chickens were not cultivated on a large scale until the second half of the 19th century. The emergence of town grocers in the 1880s allowed people to exchange surplus eggs etc. and for the first time purchase other food items and diversify their diet. Only with the relative increase in the wealth of the general populace in the 20th century was the consumption of the meal commonplace amongst the working classes.

Variations

A small Ulster fry, including potato farl triangles

The traditional Ulster fry cannot be called an Irish breakfast by traditionalists because it does not normally include puddings and soda bread. However it will include fried potato farls (potato bread) and soda farls (flat bread risen with baking soda not yeast) - grilled or sometimes fried. It is said to be a particularly good fry, often to be found south of the border and even further afield.

A breakfast roll is a French bread demi-baguette, filled with this kind of breakfast. The concept developed as a ready-to-go meal from convenience stores. It was spurred on by the innovation of in-store ovens being used to cook part-baked frozen French bread. In addition to standard breakfast ingredients, it usually includes ketchup, and sometimes spicy potato wedges or other random ingredients from the hot counter.