Well, here I go, taking the plunge and starting my first New Thread, with what I hope is not too stupid a question:
Why are certain foods traditionally considered “for breakfast” (like cereal, pancakes, eggs, bacon, sweet rolls, juice, etc.) while others are for lunch/dinner/supper? Why, for instance, does someplace like McDonald’s serve a completely different menu before and after 10:30 a.m. (or whatever the cutoff time is)? What’s the difference between foods we eat in the morning and at other times of the day? Is it just a matter of what people are used to, and if so, how’d it get started?
Well, I think this at least a two part answer to your question. First, why are eggs, sausages, bacon, etc. considered mainly breakfast foods. The answer is that in most of the world they aren’t. If you go to the UK, (which is the source of at least some of America’s culinary roots) you’ll find that you can get eggs and sausage (usually with a side of chip/fries) anytime. I don’t know how these foods became relegated to breakfast in this country. My guess would be that it’s related to urbanization. Having a big greasy meal at lunch time is the practice of country folk (although McDonald’s et al are popularizing it again.)
One thing I’ve noticed is that traditional (American and UK) breakfast meats tend to be at least somewhat cured. If you consider what it was like before refrigeration on a farm, cured meats could be cooked without having to slaughter (and pluck) a chicken, and would be available much longer than fresh meat. They are also easy and quick to cook. Eggs have the same pre-refrigeration convenience. Eggs are also an easily digestible source of protein, nice for tummies that don’t wake up easily.
Looking over the list it looks like most of the foods are either easy to cook, or can be prepared in advance and stored easily.
Then, foods that require more preparation or longer cooking times may have become relegated to lunch or dinner when you have more time to prepare a meal.
but then there’s the spam, egg and spam, egg sausage and spam, spam, egg, spam, spam, and spam, the spam, spam, spam, egg, sausage, spam and spam, and the spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, sausage and spam. Minus the spam for me, please.
You obviously have not been to the IHOP, where breakfast is served all the time. When I lived in Chgo, I’d go to Walker’s Pancake House and have their apple pancake any time of the day. I just loved their apple pancake, with apples baked in the batter and Saigon cinnamon on top. Their mushroom omelette is also a winner – any time.
Another factor driving the scheduled menus at fast food restaurants is the wish to increase their profits. Not too many people eat a hamburger for breakfast, ergo, to maximize trade volume, have an approprite menu for the time of day, without having to slow the minimum wage line cooks with a huge variety of orders.
The enormous quantity purchasing level enjoyed by the largest chains is truly phenomenal. The added cost of running a few hundred extra tons of potatoes through a shred and wash process for breakfast hash browns instead of the die cut for French fries is almost zero. The large volume of spuds bought assures a rock bottom cost of goods and they have diversified their menu at very little extra cost.
Instead of just being a “lunchtime” burger joint, you now have the awe inspiring choice of eating at their establishment more than once a day.
:insert hurling sounds here::
Aside from the excellent points made about cured meats and eggs being popular in the days before refrigeration, I think there is also an inverse effect here in the United States. Our nation is so incredibly fertile and well husbanded in the agricultural sector that we have a huge variety of foods available in our markets.
It is no small leap to see that since we have the means to eat a variety of foods we therefore shall eat a lot of different foods. Our nation’s affluence literally guarantees us some of the most varied meals on the planet. Rest assured that our trusty fast food dispensers are banking upon selling them to us as well.
The problem for McDonalds, that doesn’t cause problems at smaller diners, is that they have to clean the griddle plates after using eggs. Once they do that, and turn up the heat for hamburgers, they can’t go back to eggs without a repeat cleaning.
The enormous protein-heavy breakfast (eggs AND bacon AND sausage AND ham) dates from the hearty American “culture of abundance” farmhouse breakfast. You got up at 5, drank a cup of coffee, milked cows, cleaned stalls, fed chickens, etc. and then came back in the house at 7 for your REAL breakfast, which stoked your biochemical furnace for another 4 hours of hard labor.
I read somewhere that somebody figured that the average farm laborer (toting bales of hay, shoveling manure, etc., as opposed to driving a John Deere harvester around the back 40) required about 10,000 calories a day.
Et tu - I suspect another thing going on at McUpchucks is that they rely heavily on having food cooked before it is ordered - like Zenster said, not too many people order a burger for breakfast (or eggs for supper). OTOH, Jack-in-the-Box does more cook to order food, and has their breakfast dishes available all day long. Which has earned them a few bucks from me at least, since I invariably have eggs for lunch or supper at least once or twice a week. Ummm, sausage croissant.
Also, I think some areas of the world tend to do leftovers from the night before for breakfast. In those areas, I’ll bet the breakfast and dinner menus don’t look very different.
My sister has a book about everyday life in Elizabethan England which says, IIRC, that breakfast in those days was usually last night’s leftovers. (Sort of a Renaissance version of cold pizza, I guess.) But, as was mentioned earlier, we have a culture of abundance that may have led people to disdain leftovers. Hence a demand for foods that could be prepared quickly.
I read the book “Uncommon Courage” (I think that’s the title, anyway) about the Lewis and Clark expedition, and according to the records they kept the men often ate 8-10 pounds of meat a day! I suppose if you work hard enough you really can eat all you want without worrying about gaining weight.
And back on topic, there are some foods that just don’t appeal to me at breakfast time. For instance, tomato soup. I love tomato soup but the thought of waking up to a nice steaming bowl of it makes me feel slightly ill. The opposite doesn’t apply though - bacon, eggs, pancakes, etc. appeal to me any time of the day. Is there any scientific explanation for this (other than “Venkman likes bacon”)?
When I lived on a Canadian traditional farm in the 1970’s that’s exactly what we did.
Now, when I come in from my (much lighter) barn chores, I eat a bowl of oats, nuts, fruit, and yogurt. I can’t stomach that fat and protein until after noon, these days.
Breakfast is my favorite meal to eat out, but it has to be around 10 a.m. (long after I’ve eaten my first breakfast at six). It’s hard to make fried potatoes and scrambled eggs inedible, although possible.
Part of the reason too, is that breafast foods are “quick and easy”. Eggs anyone can cook in a few minutes (my dad showed me and my brother how, on a camping trip, when we were 6 or 7). Bacon, thin sliced, no time at all (and provides the grease to spoon onto the eggs to cook the top). Toast? Pop in the toaster, ready in no time, just spread something on. Pancakes, mix goop, pour, ready in 3 minutes. Coffee brews while you’re doing other things.
If that’s too much like work, pour some cereal out of a box.
So when there’s no cold pizza left, you can make breakfast quickly.