In 1861, Mrs Beeton's The Book of Household Management, suggested that the 'comfortable meal called breakfast' could include a selection from:
"Broiled fish, such as mackerel, whiting, herrings, dried haddocks, &c.; mutton chops and rump-steaks, broiled sheep's kidneys, kidneys à la maître d'hôtel, sausages, plain rashers of bacon, bacon and poached eggs, ham and poached eggs, omelets, plain boiled eggs, oeufs-au-plat, poached eggs on toast, muffins, toast, marmalade, butter, &c."
Many villagers kept a cottage pig, and it was an essential part of the family economy, fed on kitchen scraps, windfall apples, and acorns collected in the autumn. But a Victorian working class farm labourer was more likely to have a slice of bread spread with jam or dripping (the fat from roasting meat) than a cooked breakfast. Curing the pork for bacon was a way of preserving the meat. Black pudding used the pigs blood, and sausages were made from the meat and fat scraps left from its butchery.
My take on the traditional English breakfast includes grilled bacon (own-cured bacon from Phil @theClockhouse, Tenbury Wells), Ludlow sausage (from DW Wall & Sons, Ludlow), black pudding (made at the Ludlow Food Centre), fried free-range egg (from Whistlewood, Boraston), tomato and mushroom (from The Barn store, Tenbury Wells) and fried bread.
