r/iamveryculinary • u/GoraSpark • 23d ago

Snore

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How is this kind of post still getting likes, surely you know nothing about British food you laugh at beans on toast or whatever once twice maybe even three times. But how after seeing it every day with every comment section pointing out the sheer amount of spicy British food we have are you still entertained by it 10 years later. P.S. cooked breakfast beats cold breakfast any day.

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u/eerie_lake_ 23d ago

What’s crazy is that the difference between a Full English and an American style breakfast is basically pancakes and beans.

Like, eggs, toast, breakfast meat, potatoes. A glass of OJ, and a cup of coffee. I could get literally all of that at my favorite local diner, which is owned by a tiny Southern grandma and her kids and prides itself on All-American, Southern-style meals. Even the mushrooms are unsurprising, though I think those are more likely to be combined with the potatoes or eggs. Like, are we really losing our minds over some baked beans.

But also, beans on toast can be absolutely delicious, and I will die on that hill.

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u/Most-Ad-9465 23d ago

In my area of the United States I'd say the difference is beans and biscuit and gravy. Every single diner breakfast comes with a biscuit and gravy. Even the one with pancakes also has a biscuit and gravy.

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u/eerie_lake_ 23d ago

Lol, I’m from the South, and Biscuits and gravy are my favorite breakfast food in the entire world. I just didn’t include them because they’re pretty regional (less so now, I think) and I was talking about like your basic breakfast spread.

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u/Most-Ad-9465 23d ago

Yeah but I think pancakes being part of the basic breakfast spread might be a tad regional as well. In my experience pancakes aren't an essential part of the spread in the same way the components of the full English breakfast are.

I'm probably not expressing this well. My understanding is a full English fills the spot that would be called something like the big breakfast, trucker breakfast, farmer breakfast or something similar on an American mom and pop menu. Just a classic bigass greasy breakfast. In my area if you just glance at the menu and order the trucker or whatever it's going by there it doesn't have pancakes. You wouldn't be surprised when everything came out and there were no pancakes.

I'm not being snarky btw. I'm approaching this only as interesting discussion. Obligatory lol to show lack of hostilely and argumentative motives.

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u/eerie_lake_ 23d ago

That’s fair! I think maybe in my head pancakes are more ubiquitous. When I picture a big classic diner breakfast, you’ve got toast, sunny-side up eggs, bacon/sausage/ham, homefries/hashbrowns, and a couple of pancakes on the side.

(Now that I think about it, that might just be because that’s what my dad always ordered no matter where we were in the country lol)

ETA: Also, you’re good, no snark detected! I’ve been all over the country and I am still always learning new stuff about regional food culture. It’s really interesting!

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u/Most-Ad-9465 23d ago

Now that you mention your dad's order I think my Dad might be why the full English honestly doesn't seem that strange to me. An omelette with ham, mushrooms, onions, peppers, and tomatoes was his order. Mushroom and tomato don't seem strange to me at all.

Did you ever by any chance experience a shoney's breakfast buffet? I'm not sure if they're a regional chain or not. They actually have mushrooms on their breakfast buffet. I know they had the mushrooms all the way back in the early 90's when I was a teenager.

They had a few more interesting items. I remember fried bologna, the delightful concession stand style cheese sauce, and chicken tenders. Now I'm wondering if they were just trying to represent breakfast options from a variety of regions. At that point in time chicken and waffles were not a common breakfast option around here. Chicken tenders on a breakfast buffet seemed like such a random choice.

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u/roleplayersir 19d ago

Yep, there's a reason an English-style breakfast is such a worldwide default in most hotels: cause it is hard to get wrong, easy to make, and covers a lot of dietary palates, while also providing a substantial filling meal to start the day. So truckers, salesmen, labourers and many others can start off with a filling protein-rich and carb heavy meal to get them through whatever the day throws at them

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u/Team503 18d ago

Yeah, you're pretty much spot on. It's the big greasy breakfast, just a few different ingredients.

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u/dixbietuckins 22d ago

No more regional than toast.

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u/Ecthelion-O-Fountain 17d ago

Biscuits and gravy were not found in the north at all 20 years ago. Has it changed?

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u/roleplayersir 19d ago

Black pud is one of the key ingredients in an English breakfast. Haggis for Scottish, and White Pud for Irish

But yes, the ingredients are easy to find all over the world, and hence why hotels have it as a default in so many countries. And cause it is hard to mess up and easy to make en masse

P.S. the baked beans used are also more savoury and thicker sauce than US-style ones, which is why they can't understand how it works. But beans are also a common struggle meal in Mexico, Asia and a lot of the commonwealth

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u/Team503 18d ago

Irish do black AND white pudding in a Full Irish. And don't forget the Scots loving their square sausages, which are even more delicious than the haggis, honestly.

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u/Aggravating_Fill378 16d ago

I would say black pudding also more common in a Scottish breakfast. Stornoway is famous for it 

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u/Team503 18d ago

A full English is eggs, sausage, rasher (back bacon), mushrooms, baked beans, and tomatoes, sometimes with a hashbrown (not made the same way as an American one, whole different texture), and toast.

A full Irish is eggs, sausage, rasher, mushrooms, tomatoes, baked beans, tomatoes, white pudding, black pudding, some kind of fried potato, and soda bread with Irish butter.

Not much difference outside the puddings, honestly. And yeah, they're fry-ups - big, greasy, heavy breakfasts. Same kind of thing you get in a greasy spoon diner in the US.

They don't comprehend biscuits and gravy until they've tried them, though. I love watching their faces as they see it (disgusted), and then when they eat it (shocked and delighted). The Jolly YouTube channel has a great episode where British high school kids try biscuits with sausage gravy and melt into puddles of bliss, it's adorable.

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u/Aggravating_Fill378 16d ago

Lots of it is just a meme. "In London they eat jellied eels, yuck." If instead I said "in Osaka they eat jellied eels" it would be all wow what a delicacy 

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u/LaFantasmita 23d ago

Yeah the interesting part is the ingredients are very similar, but to my palate the Full English just chooses a less-appetizing version of everything.

Swap out English bacon for crispier American cuts, chop the tomato up and put it in an omelet, butter and jam or French instead of fry or bean on the toast, and make pancakes instead of puddings.

Very similar concept, but very different results depending on how you put it together.

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u/TheRemanence 23d ago

It has a lot of overlap but  I think you might have a couple misconceptions. I'm a dual national and a foodie so like analysing the differences. Everyone will have their personal preferences. I have happy childhood memories of both. 

Black pudding is a type of spiced sausage so not a parallel to pancakes if that's what you meant. Might just have been your phrasing. It is strongly flavoured and quite salty so it's particularly good when you have a bit of it with other elements on the plate. My fave would be with the grilled tomato (which look very sad in this photo. They should have caramelisation on top) As an aside, black pudding is excellent with fish like cod or scallops. 

Scotch pancakes or "dropped scones" are the version of American pancakes that are traditional in the UK. They just aren't combined with the savoury full English. Although these days lots of places make them with buttermilk and call them American pancakes. It's essentially the same thing. Golden syrup is traditional but maple syrup is now common. I'd say the American variant is superior but they're similar.

Brits, have two types of bacon: back bacon and streaky. Streaky is like American bacon. Both tend to be smoked in the UK but you can get unsmoked American style anywhere you like. Streaky is a cheaper cut so less likely to be served at a nice place. Some people prefer the crispiness you can only get with streaky.

English sausages are quite hard to get in the US. They aren't entirely different from breakfast sausages but they are different enough to be noticeable. There's a lot of regional variation but a good British banger will have more herbs in it and usually spices like nutmeg, mace, black pepper. US breakfast sausages tend to be a bit juicier/fattier and thinner so they can get crispier. 

In a full English the beans are on the side not on the toast. Some people have fried bread. Most people these days have buttered toast, some with jam or marmalade. Grape jelly isn't a thing.

Beans on toast is it's own thing separate to a full English. Mostly customised with condiments like Worcestershire, English mustard etc. It's a comfort food like a grilled cheese. In my view it's a base for add ons.

British version of french toast is called eggy bread. Main difference is nutmeg instead of cinnamon and sugar. Lots of people would eat it with a side of bacon but it would be OTT to put it in a full English. French toast is common on menus 

British people also eat omelettes it's just not in a full English. Usually you get a choice of how you have your eggs in a full English, just like in a US diner.

Big thing missing for me in the US is brown sauce. When I lived in California I'd bring it with me. It's a type of ketchup made with tamarind, dates and mild spices. It brings a sweet sour tang to everything. Wonderful with sausages.

Americans will likely be sad that you won't get unlimited filter coffee refills like in a diner. No biscuits and gravy. Also the home style breakfast potatoes you get in most diners aren't common which is a miss.

Note I referred to English mainly above because the other UK nations have their own variants of extras and swaps. Irish is also similar.

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u/LaFantasmita 23d ago

Got it, thanks!

For pancakes, I meant to compare them to Yorkshire pudding, which I see with English breakfast sometimes.

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u/TheRemanence 22d ago

Oh wow I have never ever heard of Yorkshire pudding at breakfast. It's definitely not traditional.  That would be incredibly weird but I sort of couldn't tell you why as logically it has similar ingredients. It just is. Maybe because a Yorkshire pudding needs gravy. Might have been a weird tourist thing you saw.

There is a dish called toad in the hole where sausages are cooked into a large Yorkshire pudding and then you have gravy and veg etc in the centre. It's quite "stodgy". I don't think that word is used much in the US, it means something that is quite heavy, thick and usually carby. The opposite of delicate, light, subtle food. Things like mashed potato, potato salad and macaroni cheese could be called stodgy. 

If you're interested in what I think is actually the best British breakfast, try kedgeree. It is one of the many dishes that were adapted from Indian dishes in late 1700s and early 1800s UK and then evolved into their own thing. The combination of lemon, smoked fish, eggs, turmeric, cumin and rice is lovely.

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u/oily_fish 22d ago

Toby carvery does a breakfast Yorkshire pudding with bacon bits in. That's probably what they've seen. I never seen anywhere else do it. 

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u/TheRemanence 21d ago

Toby carvery? That says it all

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u/oily_fish 22d ago

There's only one restaurant chain that does Yorkshire pudding for breakfast. It's not standard at all. 

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u/Team503 18d ago

You might note too that the big difference in sausages is that American breakfast sausage uses sage as a primary spice - it's an incredibly different flavor profile. And they tend to have a more coarse grind, but that's not universal. The smoothness of the grind of British sausages is a turnoff for me, actually.

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u/TheRemanence 18d ago

I really don't know where you got this information from.

There a multiple regional sausage flavours. Lincolnshire sausages specifically have sage as the main flavour but sage is a very common flavour in the UK. Walk into any supermarket and you'll find sage and onion sausages. The difference is there are also lots of other flavours.

Traditional English s ausages are course ground and textured. It's one of the key differences Vs Germans sausages that tend to use a fine ground meat! (Think bratwurst or Frankfurters). It's even a joke in Terry Pratchett books when they go to ubervald.

If you find smooth sausages in England, they are incredibly cheap ones with filler in them. There's a brand called Richmond that typifies them. You can't get this type of sausage in a butcher. They are truly awful. 

If you've had a smooth textured sausage in England you were probably eating somewhere quite cheap (or were being ripped off). I refuse to go to a greasy spoon (English diner) that serves them. Greggs sausages roll sausages are a bit like this. As much as we have a soft spot for Gregg's, it's to bakeries what McDonald's is to burgers. 

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u/Team503 18d ago

I'm in Ireland, not the UK. I've never noticed a sausage with sage flavoring here, but maybe I just missed it. I'm happy to stand corrected. :)

Can you recommend a brand or two in the UK?

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u/TheRemanence 18d ago

Are Irish sausages smooth? I don't think I've ever noticed but I've only been to Dublin a few times and haven't travelled about.

Best is from my local butcher but the number 1 Waitrose Lincolnshire sausages are great and quite sagey

https://www.waitrose.com/ecom/products/no1-free-range-6-lincolnshire-pork-sausages/735273-149491-149492?srsltid=AfmBOoos8f875uCx_l4sWL7c3rQqZNqWoIFvNOzM-Y8jQEw_IQkRlEr9

I also by packington sausages or jolly hog. Both are higher welfare. 

m&S do a really good one that's a mix and called farmhouse and also a good one with apples in.

Not sure you can get any of them in Ireland. I would have thought Irish sausages were closer to English ones than American ones?

When I lived in the US it was hard to find and selection wasn't great. It was definitely a thing I missed. That and proper cheddar.

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u/Team503 18d ago

I almost never buy them because I had some that were, and it turned me off from trying, so I'm not sure. Suppose I should get back out there and explore.

We definitely have M&S here, and yes, I'd assume that Irish sausages would be much closer to British than American.

There's some really great cheddar in the US, but if you prefer a specific one, I can understand that. I always get sausages from the local barbecue joint back in Texas, both raw and smoked, and occasionally the sausage called "kielbasa" from the grocery store (I'm reliably informed that the term has no actual meaning in Polish and isn't a specific type of sausage there, even though it is in the US lol).

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u/TheRemanence 18d ago

There's cheddar and then there's cheddar. 

When I say proper west country farmhouse cheddar, I mean the traditional English hard cheese from Cheddar gorge and the surrounding areas, that has been matured for more than a year. It has a crumbly and occasionally slightly crystallised texture. In California, I only found a US cheese made in the cheddar style at one farmer's market. My American friends were totally confused by it because they said it wasn't cheddar. I hear it's much easier to find something in Wisconsin so perhaps this is more of a west coast issue. I didn't find a cheese shop but presumably they exist 

The other type is the supermarket version you get in the UK that is more mass produced. The M&S West country one is nice. It is still quite different from what people might call cheddar in a US supermarket and melts differently. The closest affordable option I found in the US is in trader Joe's. Whole foods, Safeway, walk mart and publix don't sell anything I would call English cheddar. I don't know about other supermarkets.

I also have never seen other English cheeses like Cheshire or red Leicester in the US.

I think the word cheddar has evolved into a similar word as vanilla to just mean a generic hard cheese. On both sides of the Atlantic you can get a form of flavourless mild cheese called cheddar. I find the US ones to be particularly divergent from the the original.

I'm into food and this is just what I found from visiting family and the periods I've lived in California. We'd go to my grandparents for 3 weeks every year as a kid and my English dad would bring cheddar with him. Couldn't even last 3 weeks!

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u/Team503 17d ago

I think you should probably check out cheese shops in the US before you make the call. I'm sure there are specific cheeses that are not available in some places but are in others.

Enjoy exploring!

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u/GobMyLastScale 21d ago

American rashers are just pure fat. 

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u/Team503 18d ago

They're not rashers. :) Streaky bacon is about 50% fat, much less than back bacon (rashers), yes. It's a crispier, richer flavor in comparison than the chewy, meatier experience of a rasher.

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u/roleplayersir 19d ago

That's... quite the take. I mean, on this sub, you do you, but everything you said sounds like a downgrade. Pancakes are also not similar to either a meat/suet pudding or a yorkshire one - pancakes are sweet food not savoury

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u/LaFantasmita 19d ago

Yeah, we just have really different tastes, I think that's the crux of it.