....please find the definitive guide to the Full English Breakfast as published in the Guardian this week.

Although personally I find the addition of the bean a mistake, the rest is pretty much bang on

I love an English breakfast although my OH does not.

In the UK a lot of places are now serving hash browns with the breakfast which I am not keen on.

But the most important thing is brown sauce!!

Looks like a great way to induce an Englishman's heart attack.

tut tut. Where's the fried bread?

haha.

Oh. And a good English breakfast doesn't need condiments.

Did you read the article? Or just a pictures kinda guy?

He recommends frying the bread in the fat that comes from the sausages and bacon!

Yeah, but if it is such an important part, why isn't it in the picture - he treats it like an optional extra...

He couldn't wait to eat it

Straight through the chest with a 6 inch blade?

True, but I'd be a happy corpse

[QUOTE=Carlos R;1536899]tut tut. Where's the fried bread? QUOTE]

Is it the right moment for me to confess that I keep a bowl of bacon fat in the fridge ready for that occasional overwhelming need for fried bread?

I use bacon from Puddledub in Fife UK (their farm used to be "next door"), and cannot recommend it enough.

Other Full breakfast "rules" for me:
- Eggs must be large, and fried on one side only, and have full runny yoke. Cooked after sausages and bacon.
- Bacon must be crispy at the edges
- Sausages can be pierced and cooked first; they provide the fat for the bacon, eggs and mushrooms. Pork sausages with 70% meat content or higher.
- mushrooms cooked last, and lightly; don't leave them too long
- beans should be minimal, without too much sauce because...
- Real tomato or brown sauce can be used if desired.
- Fried bread is optional
- Black pudding optional, but should be cooked lightly on both sides to preserve moistness
- Serving of onions is punishable by death
- Tomatoes optional, but fried face down in two halves.

I shouldn't have read this thread. We are going home tomorrow morning and now all I can think of is where the best (or first) place is I can get a full english... The ferry better be magically fast and get me home double time!

I never even heard of onions on a FEB!

That was exactly why I posted it, I was back in Newcastle last weekend and researched the best place to go for a full English. For the record, an outstandingly good one at Cafe Royale in Newcastle. Fab meats, no beans, and cakes for the laydeez

In that case, next time you are in Newcastle, go to The Butterfly Cafe, on Heaton Road. OH MY GOD. My whole mouth just filled with saliva... I'll be there at roughly 10.01 on Monday morning banging on the door.

Years ago when I was off to Aberdeen to study a postgrad degree, I went out on a bender the night before. Must have had a dodgy pint () as I was up all night and most of the morning doing this:

This delayed any food intake and my departure from the NE. Eventually I gathered the strength to go on my way having avoided all food intake.

By the afternoon I was past Newcastle and on the single-lane A1 up through Northumberland into the hills. By this stage I was starving.

Stopped at a random greasy spoon caf and ordered the FEB which set me back a whopping 15 quid (back in ’96!).
Anyway, along came a plate the size of steering wheel, containing 6 sausages, several tomatoes, a tin of backed beans, a dozen rashers of bacon, 3 eggs, fried bread, mushrooms accompanied by toast and a mug of tea. I survived the first mouthful (always the acid test if you have a hangover IMO) and polished off the plate.


Last proper FEB (i.e. non-hotel) I had was in Nov '11 @ Peter De Wit's in Greenwich village.

I have had the devotion of a British heart for 42 years - and I've never ever cooked him English breakfast Mind you, first thing he does when hitting British soil, is to stop for a good Full English, the works.

That is why it is great that you can't always have what you want or fancy in your new country - it is such a wonderful thing when you do go back- makes it very special, whatever it is you are yearning for - makes the heart grown fonder, and all that. After a period of absence, it tastes better - the views look more stunning, etc.

[QUOTE=Anjela;1536943] you should try duck fat instead...

fry everything in the duck fat. the mushrooms are spectacular! take out everything then fry the bread. and i always cut my tomatoes the other way

Nah, if you're going that route, you are still better served going through the stomach, otherwise the blade might get deflected by the rib cage. But I can see your mind is on the ball!

[QUOTE=robyn.oz;1537021] Never, not for fried bread. You're missing the point!

I use duck fat (home collected) for roast potatoes though. Yum.

Terrified of going to the doctor's on Tuesday for my latest blood result as as I suspect she's going to throw the book at me and fried anything is going to be off the menu for the rest of my days.

What other way?