# Why is cured cooked meat associated with breakfast? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 23, 2017, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-cured-cooked-meat-associated-with-breakfast/787289 "2017-05-23T16:49:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![john\_b\_2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a9a28c/32.png) [@john\_b\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/john_b_2)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2017, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-cured-cooked-meat-associated-with-breakfast/787289/21 "2017-05-24T05:17:47Z")
I can remember from reading and watching very old movies breakfasts with meat referred to as ham and eggs. There was an expression back then “ham and egger”. You can see ham and egg breakfasts listed in the menus in diners and cafeterias in old films. In my life it seems that ham and eggs, while still available, have given way to bacon and eggs for a meat and egg breakfast. It’s been a long time since I’ve ordered breakfast out so I can’t remember whether ham and eggs are still listed on most breakfast menus. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2017, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-cured-cooked-meat-associated-with-breakfast/787289/22 "2017-05-24T05:26:23Z")
OTOH, I still find a cup+ of Special K, plus a mere teaspoon of sugar and plenty-too-much milk to be a dinner for me and a snack for the dogs. Haute cuisine is lost on me. ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2017, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-cured-cooked-meat-associated-with-breakfast/787289/23 "2017-05-24T06:18:34Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > OTOH, I still find a cup+ of Special K, plus a mere teaspoon of sugar and plenty-too-much milk to be a dinner for me and a snack for the dogs. Haute cuisine is lost on me. The origins of the cereal for breakfast thing are well documented. And are the product of the Victorian obsession with pooing more and masturbating less 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2017, 9:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-cured-cooked-meat-associated-with-breakfast/787289/24 "2017-05-24T09:44:42Z")
As I mention elsewhere, I eat much less now that I’m older, so something like ham and eggs would be more my main meal of the day, eaten well after 11:00 am. But I do love the combination (and steak and eggs even more). Three or four times a year, I like to do a full British fry-up, but whooo-boy! A platter like the one shown in the link would take me a day and a half to eat, which is why I always start cooking around 11:00 on Sunday and just stretch it out, in small portions. I agree that bacon and breakfast sausage (links or patties) go best with pancakes or waffles served with maple syrup (and lots of butter), though I can be persuaded to pair them with eggs as well. ---
**Author:** ![GrumpyBunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bc8723/32.png) [@GrumpyBunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrumpyBunny)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2017, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-cured-cooked-meat-associated-with-breakfast/787289/25 "2017-05-24T11:28:16Z")
> [@Drummond\_Bays](#): > > ‘Breakfast for dinner.’ (Typical meat, eggs, toast, taters, etc.) Is one of the best, especially if one has not actually had breakfast that day! 😃 I’m emphatically not a morning eater, so “breakfast for dinner” is about the only time I eat meat, eggs, and taters together. > [@griffin1977](#): > > The origins of the cereal for breakfast thing are well documented. And are the product of the Victorian obsession with pooing more and masturbating less 🙂 Given the disinclination toward raw veggies in Victorian cooking, they might’ve needed the help pooing. The masturbation thing, though…I’m not sure how Colon Blow Bran Nuggets would help that. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2017, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-cured-cooked-meat-associated-with-breakfast/787289/26 "2017-05-24T12:21:51Z")
> [@Quimby](#): > > Bacon became associated with Breakfast because people who sell bacon wanted to sell more bacon and hired an ad company who said, “Hell, eat it for breakfast”. And so it was done. > [@Alan\_Smithee](#): > > Do you have a cite, or is this just speculation? Not **Quimby** and frankly surprised it’s true [but](http://www.americantable.org/2012/07/how-bacon-and-eggs-became-the-american-breakfast/) … > [@](#): > > … So how did bacon become associated with the American breakfast? Let me introduce you to the grand-daddy of public relations and advertising, Mr. Edward Bernays. > > The Austrian-born Bernays was the nephew of Sigmund Freud, and was quite good at using psychology … > > … In the 1920s, Bernays was approached by the Beech-Nut Packing Company – producers of everything from pork products to the nostalgic Beech-Nut bubble gum. Beech-Nut wanted to increase consumer demand for bacon. Bernays turned to his agency’s internal doctor and asked him whether a heavier breakfast might be more beneficial for the American public. Knowing which way his bread was buttered, the doctor confirmed Bernays suspicion and wrote to five thousand of his doctors friends asking them to confirm it as well. This ‘study’ of doctors encouraging the American public to eat a heavier breakfast – namely ‘Bacon and Eggs’ – was published in major newspapers and magazines of the time to great success. Beech-Nut’s profits rose sharply thanks to Bernays and his team of medical professionals. … ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2017, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-cured-cooked-meat-associated-with-breakfast/787289/27 "2017-05-24T13:42:39Z")
> [@Alan\_Smithee](#): > > Do you have a cite, or is this just speculation? [Here](http://www.americantable.org/2012/07/how-bacon-and-eggs-became-the-american-breakfast/) is an article about it. ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2017, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-cured-cooked-meat-associated-with-breakfast/787289/28 "2017-05-24T16:20:28Z")
> [@GrumpyBunny](#): > > The masturbation thing, though…I’m not sure how Colon Blow Bran Nuggets would help that. Didn’t say it made sense: > [@](#): > > Kellogg thought that diet played a huge role in masturbation and that a bland diet would decrease excitability and prevent masturbation. Thus, Kellogg invented Corn Flakes breakfast cereal in 1878. He hoped that feeding children this plain cereal every morning would help to combat the urges of “self-abuse” [John Harvey Kellogg - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Harvey_Kellogg#Masturbation_prevention) ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2017, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-cured-cooked-meat-associated-with-breakfast/787289/29 "2017-05-25T00:50:45Z")
This thread made me curious and to share what I found - [a history of how breakfast became a thing](https://priceonomics.com/how-breakfast-became-a-thing/), [another](https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/06/breakfast-the-most-contentious-meal-of-the-day/487220/) with some other details, and more about [breakfast in ancient Greece and Rome](http://www.extracrispy.com/culture/758/what-ancient-greeks-and-romans-ate-for-breakfast). ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2017, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-cured-cooked-meat-associated-with-breakfast/787289/30 "2017-05-25T01:13:33Z")
Fresh meat is for dinner, because you had to go out and kill it earlier in the day. Obviously. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2017, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-cured-cooked-meat-associated-with-breakfast/787289/31 "2017-05-25T04:34:56Z")
I remember reading a first-hand account of the Battle of Culloden in 1746. Bonnie Prince Charlie and his entourage breakfasted on roast goose and other assorted fowl. Didn’t help them much against the English, though. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2017, 7:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-cured-cooked-meat-associated-with-breakfast/787289/32 "2017-05-25T07:51:45Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > I remember reading a first-hand account of the Battle of Culloden in 1746. Bonnie Prince Charlie and his entourage breakfasted on roast goose and other assorted fowl. Didn’t help them much against the English, though. ☹ And the Scots learned their lesson - since that day, they haven’t eaten anything that hasn’t been properly boiled or fried. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-cured-cooked-meat-associated-with-breakfast/787289.md?page=1)