What’s in the Irish Breakfast?


What’s in the Irish Breakfast?

The Irish Breakfast
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The Irish Breakfast is a thing of beauty, take it from me being a proud Irish man its a thing of calories and lots of them depending on the weather you go for a small or large? The full Irish breakfast consists of fried sausages, fried rashers ( slices of bacon), fried black and white pudding, tomatoes, beans, mushrooms, hashbrowns and in some cases chips.

If that’s not enough add in some soda bread or toast and a pot of tea and you’re sorted with a good breakfast!

The Irish Breakfast is served in pubs, restaurants and cafĂ©’s all over Ireland, some places have an all-day breakfast so you can have it any time of the day, tis a meal in itself.

Most Irish hotels serve an Irish breakfast and for many tourists visiting Ireland, this is there first time tasting a real Irish breakfast. So let’s check out the ingredients in a full Irish breakfast and the breakfast roll that has become so popular in Ireland.

Check out my post here on Best Pubs in Clare here!

Cost of the Full Irish Breakfast

Irish breakfast
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Depending on where you choose to have the full Irish breakfast some prices can range from 6.00 euros to 9.99. Some cafes and bars will be serving breakfast all day and prices can vary a lot from place to place.

Most hotels have a full Irish as part of the price built into your overnight stay in the hotel. The cost of a breakfast roll is usually around 3.00 to 4.00 euros.

Sausages

Irish Sausages
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A good breakfast needs good sausages, we have many good sausage brands in Ireland, Denny, Clonakilty, Brannan’s, and some of the supermarket ranges are very good like Tesco’s finest range or Lidl’s Glensallagh range. Sausages are known as bangers also in Ireland, we like bangers and mash!

Loads of the butchers in Ireland make their own sausages that are quite tasty. Irish butchers ground up the meat with the right amount of fat and they all have their own recipes that vary all around Ireland. A good sausage is made from good quality pork meat, some have bacon in them and pepper and spices.

I personally like the Tesco finest range of Traditional Pork Irish sausages, they are big, meaty and very tasty! There are loads of different types available nowadays like the Tesco honey and mustard sausages or the smoked paprika and honey sausages.

Some sausages are fried in some oil in a frying pan and other are deep-fried, I prefer my sausages fried in a frying pan with a small touch of oil. For the full Irish you just need good old pork sausages.

Pudding

Irish Pudding
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The word pudding for some people means a desert but in Ireland pudding is associated with breakfast and lots of it! Irish pudding is made from oatmeal, fat, barley, breadcrumbs, pork meat and some cases pork liver. The pudding comes in two different types, Black and White.

The black pudding is also known as blood pudding, pigs blood is added to it and this gives it the dark colour. The mixture is pumped into a beef intestine or synthetic cellulose skins.

The pudding is sliced and fried, the ingredients may put you off, but I can assure it quite tasty! The Irish breakfast will have some fried black and white pudding, maybe one or two slices of each pudding.

Rashers

Irish Fried Rashers
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These small slices of bacon are the star of the show, rashers make any breakfast much better! Irish rashers are well known around the world for there favour and texture. We have some of the best farmland in the world and some great meat producers.

Rashers come in different types, you have streaky which become very crispy when cooked and you have the normal medallions shaped rashers, these rashers are cut from the back cut of bacon. I like the Denny range of rashers, they are mighty good! You simply fry your rashers for a few minutes until crispy, usually you will have two rashers in full Irish breakfast!

Eggs

Irish Eggs 1
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Depending on who is making your full Irish, some people serve scrambled eggs and other serve fried eggs. I personally prefer a fried egg with a runny yolk, ummmm tasty! Some full Irish breakfast will have two fried eggs.

We have a load of organic producers in Ireland that produces really good eggs every day. You simply crack your egg into some oil in a non-stick pan and fry for a few minutes and make sure the yoke is runny!

Tomatoes

Fried Tomato
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Tomatoes are widely available in Ireland and they come in many different colours and shapes.

We have cherry tomatoes, beefsteak tomatoes, grape tomatoes and different colour varieties like heirloom tomatoes. The usual tomato in the full Irish is a Beefsteak tomato, it’s cut into half and fried or grilled until cooked. You can serve one or two pieces of tomato in your full Irish depending on your appetite.

Beans

Baked Beans
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The full Irish included beans and not just any beans you must have baked beans with loads of sticky tomato sauce. These beans are usually a brand like Heinz baked beans but there are loads of different types from budget brands to the likes of Heinz.

You simply open you can of baked beans and cook in a saucepan for a few minutes until bubbling, and spoon out on your full Irish breakfast.

Mushrooms

Fried Mushrooms
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Ireland has loads of mushroom varieties, the most common are button and closed cup mushrooms and chestnut mushrooms. Some people prefer the mushroom whole and just fried like that, some are sliced in small slices or quartered.

Simply fry your mushroom in a non-stick pan for a few minutes until soft and cooked and they are ready to be added to the full Irish!

Hash-browns

Hash Browns in the irish Breakfast
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Only some places serve hash browns with the full Irish, you will get them a lot in some Irish hotels with your breakfast. I personally like a few hash browns, the crispy outer part and the soft potato centre is a hit with me for sure!

To cook simply put you hash brown into the frying pan with some vegetable oil and fry on both sides until golden brown, it should take around 3 to 4 minutes in each side to cook them fully.

Toast

Toasted Bread
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We have loads of different types of bread in Ireland, brown bread, white bread, seeded loaves, batch pan and the list goes on and on. We have some delicious brown bread’s, I like the Mc Cambridge range. This brown bread is very tasty and really good toasted. Simply toast the bread in a toaster for and cover with Kerry gold butter!

Soda Bread

Irish Soda Bread
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Ireland’s soda bread recipes are well known and loved all over the whole. Most supermarkets have soda bread nowadays and some local bakeries sell different types of soda bread’s that are always very good.

A nice thick slice of soda bread is always a good addition to a full Irish breakfast.

Tea

Cup of Tea

We love a good cup of tea in Ireland, one of the most popular brands is Lyons tea and Barry’s tea. We love a steaming hot pot of tea with our full Irish. The tea is served with milk and sugar. Most places in Ireland will serve a nice sized pot of tea with breakfast!

The Breakfast Roll

Breakfast Roll
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The breakfast roll has become very popular in Ireland in recent years, there’s even a song about the Jumbo breakfast roll by Irish Comedian Pat Shortt.

The breakfast roll has a few ingredients, there is a roll which is a bread roll, either a white or brown roll, the roll is buttered with some Irish butter and sausages, rashers, pudding, eggs and hash browns are added, you can add as much as you like maybe some beans or mushrooms and some tomato ketchup and boom that’s the breakfast roll. Most good deli’s and supermarkets serve breakfast rolls.

They can be messy to eat but they are super tasty and great if you’re on the go, like on the way to work or simply want to eat it in your car starting a road trip! Irish Comedian Pat Shortt came up with a song about the breakfast roll, the tune became very popular and was a big hit in Ireland, We love a good breakfast roll, you can beat one!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIIWKA_h12Q

Check out my post on Celtic Symbols of Ireland Explained here!

I hope you find this article useful, I welcome any questions or suggestions by email to info@allthings-ireland.com

Thanks

John C

All Things Ireland

John C

Hey, my name is John Conway and I love travelling around Ireland. I have a passion for All Things Ireland. I love the Emerald Isle! I love Guinness and green fields!

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