The Great British Breakfast Debate

Few meals inspire quite as much opinion as breakfast. Lunch can be whatever happens to be available, dinner can change completely from one day to the next, but breakfast seems to come with rules. Everybody has a preference, most people have strong opinions about what belongs on the plate, and somewhere along the line we have all decided that our way of doing breakfast is perfectly reasonable while somebody else’s choice is slightly questionable.

For generations of British families, breakfast was rarely complicated. It was toast, cereal, eggs, bacon, perhaps some sausages at the weekend and, if you were lucky, something that involved a frying pan and a little more time than you normally had before school or work. It was practical food designed to get you through the morning, although over the years breakfast has become something much more personal.

Ask a group of British people what makes a proper breakfast and you could start an argument before anyone has finished making the tea.

What actually counts as a proper breakfast?

The phrase “proper breakfast” is surprisingly difficult to define. For some people, it means a full English breakfast with bacon, sausages, eggs, beans, mushrooms, tomatoes and toast. For others, it means a bowl of cereal eaten while standing in the kitchen because they are already late for work.

Then there are those who regard toast as the perfect breakfast because it is quick, reliable and doesn’t require much thought before 8am. Add butter, jam, marmalade or perhaps a little peanut butter and you can have a completely different breakfast without changing the basic ingredients.

And then there are people who simply cannot face food first thing in the morning. They survive on coffee or tea and perhaps promise themselves they will eat something later. The rest of us watch them with a mixture of confusion and concern.

Breakfast, it seems, is personal.

The full English is in a league of its own

When people talk about the great British breakfast, they are usually talking about the full English. It is less a meal and more an event.

There is bacon, there are sausages, there are eggs and there are baked beans. Then you have mushrooms and tomatoes, with toast or fried bread somewhere on the side. Depending on where you are in Britain, you may also encounter black pudding, hash browns or other regional variations.

The full English has one important advantage over most other breakfasts: it feels like you’ve achieved something by finishing it.

It is rarely something you casually throw together on a Tuesday morning before catching the train. It belongs to weekends, holidays, cafés, hotel breakfasts and those mornings when you have decided that today is the day you’re going to treat yourself.

The full English also creates its own set of arguments. Scrambled, fried or poached eggs? Crispy bacon or soft bacon? Brown sauce or tomato ketchup? Mushrooms or no mushrooms? Hash browns or fried bread?

These are not minor decisions. They are matters of breakfast principle.

The bacon debate could go on forever

Bacon is perhaps the ingredient most capable of causing disagreement. Everyone seems to have a preferred level of crispness, and there is very little middle ground.

Some people want bacon that is properly crispy, with the edges almost ready to shatter. Others prefer it softer, with enough texture to remind you that it was once part of an actual pig.

There is also the question of bacon sandwiches. Should the bread be sliced white? Brown? Toasted? How much butter is acceptable? Should the bacon be arranged neatly or simply thrown in? And then comes the sauce.

Brown sauce has its loyal followers. Tomato ketchup has its own supporters. Some people use both, which immediately complicates the situation.

The bacon sandwich is one of those foods where simplicity is part of the appeal. You don’t need a recipe. You just need bread, bacon and an opinion.

Eggs create their own arguments

Eggs should be simple, but somehow they have become another breakfast battleground.

A fried egg can be beautifully runny in the middle, completely solid or somewhere between the two. Scrambled eggs can be creamy and soft or, depending on how they have been treated, resemble something that has spent too long in a school canteen.

Then there are poached eggs, which look wonderfully sophisticated until you attempt to make them yourself and discover that getting the egg into the water without creating something resembling egg soup requires considerably more skill than expected.

Boiled eggs have their own rules. Soft-boiled or hard-boiled? Dippy soldiers or no soldiers? And how long exactly is a “soft-boiled” egg supposed to be boiled?

Breakfast has suddenly become very complicated.

Cereal was the breakfast of a generation

For many Gen X households, cereal was the everyday breakfast. It was quick, easy and didn’t require anyone to start cooking before the rest of the family had properly woken up.

There were endless choices, although the decision often depended on what your parents were prepared to buy. There were cereals that promised energy, cereals covered in chocolate, cereals featuring cartoon characters and cereals that seemed to contain an alarming amount of sugar while simultaneously suggesting that they were part of a balanced breakfast.

The sound of cereal being poured into a bowl is one of those instantly recognisable childhood memories. Then came the milk, followed by the eternal question of whether to pour a little or a lot.

And, of course, there was the final spoonful at the bottom of the bowl, where the milk had acquired the flavour of whatever cereal you had been eating.

For some people, that was the best bit.

Toast is far more controversial than it should be

Toast seems straightforward until you ask people how they like it.

Some want it almost completely white in the middle with just a hint of colour. Others want it dark enough to suggest the toaster has experienced a minor electrical incident.

Then there is butter. Do you spread it immediately while the toast is still hot so that it melts into every corner, or do you wait until it has cooled slightly?

Marmalade is another serious issue. Thick cut or fine cut? Orange or something more adventurous? And should there be a generous layer or just enough to give the toast some flavour?

There is also the practical problem of making toast for several people at once. Somebody always gets the perfect slice while somebody else receives the one that has somehow become simultaneously burnt and cold.

Where do beans belong?

Baked beans are a particularly British breakfast ingredient, but their position on the plate matters.

Some people are perfectly happy with beans touching everything else. Others insist they must be kept separate, particularly from the eggs. There are people who use toast to transport the beans and people who prefer to keep the toast safely away from the sauce.

Then there is the question of quantity.

Too few beans and the breakfast feels incomplete. Too many and you’ve created a situation in which the entire plate is slowly becoming baked bean soup.

There is also the controversial question of whether beans belong on a full English at all. This is where breakfast stops being a meal and becomes a philosophical discussion.

The brown sauce versus ketchup argument

There are few decisions more revealing than the sauce you choose.

Brown sauce has a certain seriousness about it. It belongs with bacon, sausages and a full English. Tomato ketchup is sweeter and has a completely different personality.

Some people will happily use either depending on the meal. Others have made their choice and will never look back.

Then there are those who insist that sauce should never touch the breakfast plate at all because it interferes with the other flavours.

They may have a point, but breakfast is not the time to judge other people’s choices.

Unless they’re putting mayonnaise on a full English.

Then questions may need to be asked.

The breakfast sandwich deserves respect

The breakfast sandwich might be the most practical invention in British breakfast history. It takes several components of a cooked breakfast, puts them between two pieces of bread and allows you to eat the whole thing while doing something else.

Bacon, sausage and egg can all work beautifully. Add some cheese and you’ve taken things in another direction entirely. Some people swear by a sausage sandwich with brown sauce, while others believe that bacon is the only acceptable filling.

There is also the question of bread versus a roll. A sliced white loaf gives you the traditional experience, while a crusty roll provides considerably more structural support when the contents of the sandwich start becoming ambitious.

The breakfast sandwich is particularly good at the weekend, but it also has a special place after a night out. At that point, nobody cares about presentation. You simply need food.

Then there are the regional differences

Britain’s breakfast traditions don’t stop with the full English. Different parts of the country have their own ingredients, preferences and variations.

A Scottish breakfast can introduce tattie scones and other regional favourites. In Northern Ireland, the Ulster fry has its own distinctive character, including soda bread and potato bread. Welsh breakfasts have their own traditions too, including laverbread.

Even within England, breakfast preferences can vary from family to family and region to region.

The interesting thing is that most people don’t necessarily think of their own breakfast as unusual. It is simply what they grew up eating.

That is how food traditions work. You inherit them without really noticing.

Breakfast habits have changed

The modern breakfast looks very different from the one many of us grew up with. Porridge has made a comeback, yoghurt and granola are everywhere, smoothies have become popular and there are endless options for people looking for something quick and supposedly healthy.

We also have far more choice than previous generations. Supermarkets contain breakfast foods from all over the world, and you can now find products that would have seemed incredibly exotic when many Gen X listeners were growing up.

But convenience has probably had the biggest impact.

For many people, breakfast now happens on the move. It might be eaten at a desk, in the car, on a train or while checking emails. The idea of everyone sitting around the kitchen table together for breakfast has become less common for many families.

And yet, when the weekend arrives, plenty of us still want something more substantial.

Breakfast memories last

Perhaps that is why breakfast can be so nostalgic. It isn’t just about food. It reminds us of particular kitchens, particular people and particular stages of life.

You might remember the cereal your parents always bought, the toast your dad made, the way your mum cooked eggs or the smell of bacon coming from the kitchen on a Saturday morning.

You might remember being told to hurry up because you were going to miss the bus, or sitting in front of the television eating cereal while watching Saturday morning programmes.

You might even remember the exact moment you discovered that adding chocolate spread to toast was an excellent idea.

These memories stick because breakfast was part of the routine of everyday life. It happened repeatedly, which meant it became part of the background soundtrack of growing up.

So, what is Britain’s best breakfast?

That question probably cannot be answered because breakfast isn’t really about finding one definitive winner. It’s about what you grew up with, what you enjoy now and what you want from the first meal of the day.

Sometimes you want a bowl of cereal because you need something quick. Sometimes toast and tea are all you need. Sometimes a bacon sandwich solves the problem. And occasionally, particularly at the weekend, there is nothing wrong with ordering the full English and committing completely to the experience.

The great British breakfast debate will probably continue for as long as people have access to a toaster and a kettle. We’ll continue arguing about bacon, eggs, beans, sauce and whether mushrooms have any business being on the plate.

And perhaps that’s part of the fun.

Breakfast is one of those everyday things that seems simple until you start talking about it. Then suddenly everybody has a story, a preference and a very strong opinion about the correct way to make it.

So, forget the food scientists, nutritionists and television chefs for a moment.

We want to know what really matters.

What is your perfect British breakfast, and which breakfast food would you absolutely refuse to have on your plate?