Yeah, I think hash browns can be really nice - and arguably superior to sauteed potato slices. I just can’t quite bring myself to accept them as part of something that calls itself ‘Full English’
There’s a tv program in the uk called “4 in a bed” … in which pairs of b&b/hotel
owners take it in turns to host the others in their establishments for a day/night.
That is a good source of Full English Breakfast info.
Here is an example.
There are baked beans, and there are pork and beans.
Are we distinguishing between Hash browns and home fries? Locally at least, home fries are chopped up fairly small chunks of potatoes (plus diced onions usually) sort of scramble fried loose, while hash browns are shredded potatoes generally wadded up into patties or similar, maybe with some flour added to make them stick together better. Which ones are showing up in your English breakfasts?
We were just in London for a couple of days, and my wife’s priorities were all museums. She asked what mine were… “Full English breakfast, classic pub lunch, fish and chips.”
I did each twice. Both breakfasts listed hashbrowns, and I imagined fluffy, shredded potatoes. But both mornings, the shredded potatoes were compressed into a small triangle (2x3x1"thick). One place, they came with a paper wrapper holding half of it, presumably to facilitate picking it up to eat it.
Almost certainly from the local supermarket.
That’s them!
A little disappointing, but hey, I was clearly having an authentic English breakfast. And, look, there’s a grilled to-mah-to on the label, so clearly intended to be part of the Full English.
Those were sold as “Potato Cakes” by the fast food joint Arby’s. They dropped the item, and Mrs. Plant (v.3.0) still hates them.
I have wondered if the English came to know of pork and beans during the Second World War, when too many Americans were getting ready to invade Europe.
Per wiki:
In 1886, Heinz Baked Beans were first sold at the Fortnum & Mason department store in London. After opening its first overseas office in London in 1896, the company opened its first UK factory in Peckham, south London, in 1905. This was followed by a second factory at Harlesden, north-west London in 1919.
The Brits have known Heinz Beans for over a century.
I am very glad that we were not a bad influence on them, and ignorance has been fought. What more can one ask for?
You’re still partially right:
So what are the origins of beans on toast? Heinz claims that an executive invented the dish as a marketing ploy in 1927, but it’s likely the dish is still around today because it was so common as a cheap protein during World War II, for breakfast, dinner, or both.
Both breakfasts listed hashbrowns, and I imagined fluffy, shredded potatoes. But both mornings, the shredded potatoes were compressed into a small triangle (2x3x1"thick). <<
I have to agree: prepackaged ‘hash browns’ are rather nasty. To use a Crocodile Dundee quote: you can eat 'em but they taste like shit. Properly prepared small roasted breakfast potatoes, on the other hand, I find quite acceptable, even if they aren’t very traditional!
LOL. Not so good when you’re heading off to sit in front of a computer all day!
A full fry-up breakfast wasn’t that likely in an 1870 factory worker’s house (more likely a hunk of bread and a smear of jam). Much more likely in a family with much more time and money.
And some more on hash browns:
You were lucky to have bread! We had to smear our jam on rocks!
Seriously, though, a Full English seems to me the kind of thing to eat under one of two circumstances; you’ve got a long day of hard work ahead of you, or you plan on doing absolutely nothing that day. I had a full Irish breakfast (the same as an English, but with black and white puddings) when in Vegas last year and I was full until dinner.
Mmmmmmmmmmmm.
And a pint too - Classy !
(note lack of potatoes …)
I don’t know why some places put the beans in a separate bowl - chuck 'em on the
plate with everything else !
I’m not a heavy eater by nature, but that sentence put me in the mood to guzzle down a triple-bypass breakfast.
I’ve eaten in many English bed and breakfasts, and many of them besides offering Full English Breakfasts (which you could ask not to get some of the items) would have a table where you could get fruit and cereal and perhaps other things on your own.
That’s what I was imagining
Easier to throw away when they’re in a separate bowl. But that empty space in the middle of the plate is just begging for a pile of chips.