English Breakfasts

Rumpole on English Breakfasts - Louis Cohen
An English Fry-up - Norm Crandles
English Cooked Breakfast - Sven Johnson
Grafton Regis English Breakfast - Scott Powell
A Mixed Grill - Jay Reay

Rumpole on English Breakfasts - Louis Cohen
Rumpole of course says that in the distant future, England will be remembered for 3 things:
- The Oxford Book of English Verse
- The British breakfast
- The presumption of innocence

An English Fry-up - Norm Crandles
Fried crumpets, alonga pig's pudding, eggs, bacon and tomatoes.

English Cooked Breakfast - Sven Johnson
My significant other, English by decent, claims an "English Cooked Breakfast" consists of the following:
Oatmeal Porridge
Kippered Herring (called "Kippers")
Fired eggs
Bacon and Sausages
Tomatoes fried (in the bacon/sausage grease) or grilled
Fried or toasted Bread (served in the famous English "toast chiller")

Grafton Regis English Breakfast - Scott Powell
Twenty years ago my wife and I stayed in a converted manor house outside Northampton, the Grafton Regis. Our hosts prepared a breakfast which included eggs, grilled tomato, sausages, bacon and the kippered herrings and baked beans but minus the Blutwurst. Fortunately we had been forewarned. Had actually been looking forward to cold canned spaghetti on overdone toast smeared with Marmite.
As for a nice blood pudding with one's brekkie - The Old Ground Hotel in Ennis serves up a nice Cork drisheen.

A Mixed Grill - Jay Reay
A mixed grill is one of the culinary feats of the world, if done properly and not consumed too often. It is the sturdier form of the full English breakfast, meant to be taken as the main repast of the day, and comprises a mix of grilled meats with some vegetables, viz: a lamb chop, grilled; sausages, either one Cumberland or two smaller pork or mixed pork/beef, grilled not fried; perhaps a rasher of dry-cured ham or gammon; a large fresh free-range egg fried so that the white is set but the golden-orange yolk runs when pierced; ; fried or plain-mashed potato (but often improved by boiled new potatoes in season); large field mushrooms, grilled (with butter and black pepper for choice); often a helping of good garden peas; a mid-sized tomato, halved and grilled until nicely crisp on top; often these days the meat section will include a shish kebab of pork, chicken or lamb alternated with peppers, but this is an innovation I dislike.
I like a mixed grill to be traditional, perhaps even with gravy, and to stick my ribs together in the face of arduous work in inclement weather. Accompanied by a large trucker's mug of hot tea, any blend - except of course, Earl Grey - and two slices of thick brown bread well covered with butter.
I must insist that this is my version of a British breakfast - a Scots or Irish breakfast without the black or white puddings and with good potatoes. The English breakfast would probably have watery Danish bacon, plastic sausages, fried bread, and also baked beans or some other tasteless neologism.