Full breakfast

Great Britain and Ireland

England

Breakfast cereal often precedes this, and the meal concludes with buttered toast spread with marmalade, honey, or other conserves.

Alternative main dishes are kippers, kedgeree (now rare), and devilled kidneys (also rare). In grand houses and hotels in the 19th century small game birds such as snipe and woodcock might be offered, as well as a variety of cold meats.

The "traditional" full English breakfast, treated as a dish rather than a meal, includes bacon (traditionally back bacon), fried, poached or scrambled eggs, fried or grilled tomatoes, fried mushrooms, fried bread or buttered toast, and sausages (also known as "bangers"). Black pudding, baked beans, and bubble and squeak are also often included. In the North Midlands, fried or grilled oatcakes sometimes replace fried bread. The food is traditionally served with tea or coffee, as well as fruit juices.

As nearly everything is fried in this meal, it is commonly known as a "fry-up". As some of the items are optional, the phrase "full English breakfast", or "full English" (or "Full Monty") often specifically denotes a breakfast including everything on offer. The latter name became popular after World War II after British Army general Bernard Montgomery (nicknamed Monty) was said to have started every day with a full English breakfast when in the campaign in North Africa.

Cornwall

The traditional Cornish breakfast includes hog's pudding and Cornish potato cakes (made with mashed potatoes mixed with flour and butter and then fried), or fried potatoes alongside the usual bacon, sausage, tomato, mushrooms, egg and toast. In the past traditional Cornish breakfasts have included pilchards and herring, or gurty pudding, a Cornish dish similar to haggis, not to be confused with gurty milk, another Cornish breakfast dish made with bread and milk.

Ireland

In Ireland, as elsewhere, the exact constituents of a full breakfast vary, depending on geographical area, personal taste and cultural affiliation. Traditionally, the most common ingredients in Ireland are bacon rashers, pork sausages, fried eggs (or scrambled), white pudding, black pudding, toast and fried tomato. Sauteed field mushrooms are also sometimes included, as well as baked beans, hash browns, liver, and brown soda bread. Fried potato farl, boxty or toast is sometimes served as an alternative to brown soda bread. Limerick in particular has a long-standing traditional association with pork-based meat products.

The "breakfast roll", consisting of elements of the full breakfast served in a French roll, has become popular due to the fact it can be easily eaten on the way to school or work, similar to the breakfast burrito in the United States. The breakfast roll is available from many petrol stations and corner shops throughout Ireland.

Ulster

In the north of Ireland, an Ulster fry is a dish similar to the Irish breakfast, and is popular throughout most of Ulster (chiefly in Northern Ireland and parts of County Donegal), where it is eaten not only at breakfast time but throughout the day. Typically it will include soda farl and potato bread.

Similarly to the breakfast roll seen in the rest of Ireland, in Northern Ireland they serve "filled sodas", which usually consist of a soda farl shallow-fried on one side and filled with fried sausages, bacon or eggs. Fried onions or mushrooms are usually added upon request. Filled sodas are a popular choice for breakfast from roadside fast-food vendors.

Scotland

In Scotland, the full breakfast, as with others, contains eggs, back bacon, link sausage, buttered toast, baked beans, and tea or coffee. Distinctively Scottish elements include Scottish style or Stornoway black pudding, Lorne sausage (sometimes called a "square" for its traditional shape), Ayrshire middle bacon and tattie scones. It commonly also includes fried or grilled tomato or mushrooms and occasionally haggis, white pudding, fruit pudding or oatcakes. Another more historical Scottish breakfast is porridge.

Early editions of Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable referred to a Scotch breakfast as "a substantial breakfast of sundry sorts of good things to eat and drink".

Wales

As in the rest of Britain and Ireland, the composition of a Full Welsh Breakfast (Welsh: Brecwast llawn Cymreig) can vary. However, with the new-found appreciation of Welsh food and recipes in the early 21st century, there have been attempts to establish a broad definition.

The traditional Welsh breakfast reflects the coastal aspect of Welsh cuisine. Two key ingredients that distinguish the Welsh breakfast from the other "full" variations are Welsh cockles and laverbread (a seaweed purée often mixed with oatmeal and fried). Both delicacies are traditionally served with thick bacon, but a Welsh breakfast may also include Welsh sausages, mushrooms and eggs. Full Welsh Breakfasts are accompanied by traditional breakfast drinks, with Welsh tea a ubiquitous choice. Today, as they are often served throughout the day in public houses or inns, Welsh beer or ale is not uncommon.

Modern alternatives to the traditional full breakfast will often develop the traditional seafood theme. Smoked fish such as sea trout or sewin may be served accompanied with poached eggs.

North America

This style of breakfast was brought over to the United States and Canada, where it has endured. A full breakfast in these countries often consists of eggs, various meats, and commonly one type of fried potatoes – hash browns, home fries, Potatoes O'Brien, or potato pancakes – and some form of bread or toast. Big breakfasts of this kind are most often served on special occasions or weekends only, owing to the time needed to prepare them and the calories involved. In the Southern US, grits are typically included.

Typical breakfast meats in all of America are bacon, Canadian bacon, breakfast sausage, and ham. In Canada, peameal bacon or cretons are often served. Canada and the US do not follow the trend of the rest of the Anglosphere, where tea is the usual hot beverage for breakfast, but rather both strongly prefer coffee, drunk with milk, cream, or sugar. Maple syrup is common to both, with both nations having sugar shacks in their Eastern forests, Quebec producing the most. Both nations have diners, and there the most common components are eggs, bacon and/or breakfast sausage served with one or two of either toast, English muffins, hash browns, home fries, pancakes, French toast or waffles. Omelettes are a delicacy where anything goes, and several kinds of cheese are added to the mix depending on the desire of the cook, like cheddar, Colby, Monterey Jack, and feta. Eggs Benedict originated in New York and bagels wherever Eastern European Jews settled, but both are now a staple in both countries.

There is also great regional variety. Oatmeal, made with rolled oats, is commonly served at breakfast in much of Canada and New England, but it is generally replaced by grits in the Southeast, where the climate is too warm for growing oats and eating oatmeal for breakfast has become more popular in that region only in the past 50 years. Biscuits leavened with baking powder or baking soda are a staple of the South and a component of biscuits and gravy. Country ham is very popular in every Southeastern state other than Florida and replaces Canadian bacon in recipes. Scrapple and pork roll are breakfast meats common to Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey, and the sausages eaten in South Texas and Florida are sometimes a type of chorizo. Country fried steak is a dish that originated in Texas and steak and eggs are popular in much of the Midwest.

The West is usually the home of dishes like migas, huevos rancheros, and the breakfast burrito, with all three spicy because they contain sizable amounts of chili peppers. Both coasts of Canada and the USA serve smoked salmon for breakfast and it is a staple in particular of First Nations of British Columbia. Eggs Sardou and Eggs Neptune are local variations on Eggs Benedict from Louisiana and Maryland, with each changing out the Canadian bacon with artichoke and crabmeat, respectively. Midwesterners used to eat calf brains with their eggs, and New Englanders will eat the johnnycake, and Spam is a staple of every Hawaiian plate. Californians invented the fruit smoothie. Juices vary with orange juice being the most popular, but also can be apple, cranberry, or pineapple.

Hong Kong

A few establishments in Hong Kong offer all day breakfast or brunch options (hybrid of English and North American items) from formal restaurants to low frills establishments.

Foods included

The ingredients of a full breakfast vary according to region and taste. They are often served with condiments such as brown sauce or ketchup.

Some of the foods that may be included in a full breakfast are: