Who doesn’t love a full English breakfast? (Perhaps those who prefer a full Irish instead?) Our expectations for what’s on the plate for a full English are fairly common with only minor alterations (baked beans FTW), but our vision for what’s on the plate of our Regency and Georgian era heroes and heroines likely differs wildly.

Region and season (never mind wealth) would affect the breakfast menu drastically, of course, as well as country vs town, but let’s get a general sense of what we might find on their plates, along with a few other fun details about breaking the fast.

Experience: The options to choose from would be on a sideboard, not already on the table as with dinner or served by a footman bringing a plate as with dining a la François. Footmen would stand by the sideboard to plate the food as the family members selected the items. The items could range from simple to extraordinary, depending on the family preferences, if there were guests, and so forth.

Menu Simple: Toast or untoasted bread with butter, preserves, or marmalade, alongside (weak) coffee or tea with milk and optionally sugar.

Menu Extra: Menu Simple plus hot/cold rolls, eggs, cold meats, and other delights possible, such as various cakes. Pork was especially popular for breakfast.

Example menu items: Brioche, French bread, toast, hot rolls, cold rolls, Bath buns (or Bath cakes), plum cake, pound cake, honey cake, cocoa/chocolate (to drink), tea, coffee, kippers (split, gutted, cold-smoked herring), rashers (thin bacon), kidneys, sardines, trout, cold veal pies, sausages, beef tongue, chops (thin and boneless pork, mutton, or lamb), eggs (poached, boiled, fried, or scrambled), butter, marmalade, preserves. Note: the breads/rolls/buns and the drinks would be hot but the meat would be cold.

An interesting point about the menu choices is that the contents changed so drastically from what came before it and what would come after, the Georgian breakfast being a genteel and light affair. Prior, in the early 18th century, the meal was sparse—bread, ale, cheese. After, in the Victorian era of the mid-to-late 19th century, the meal was heavy and large—hot breakfast with kidneys. Meanwhile, the Georgian, and especially Regency, breakfast is light, featuring cold meats, cake, and hot drinks.

Timing: 9-11am was the most common time for breakfast, those in the country eating earlier towards the 9am time and those in town eating later towards the 10 or 10:30 time. Every household, regardless of location, held different hours, so even in the country, a family may not breakfast until more towards 10, especially if they enjoyed exercise first, such as a morning walk. The day did not begin with breakfast rather with some other activity, such as a walk, letter writing, conferring with the housekeeper, etc. A glance at the Daily Morning Schedule might help.

Social: Breakfast was typically partaken with family, rarely alone. One could always enjoy a cup of chocolate in bed or as they prepared for their day, but the actual eating of a breakfast meal was a social event to be had in the breakfast parlour. Always exceptions, of course, for some ladies enjoyed hosting a morning toilette in their dressing room where they would invite guests to nosh and gossip as they dressed for the day.

Location: Breakfast would be eaten in a room designated for just that purpose—the breakfast room. It may have different names, of course, such as the morning room, but the function was the same.

Variations: Regions, season, and level of world travel affected what was found on the plate. If someone had travelled to France, for example, s/he might wish to include some of the popular breakfast items of the French plate, or if the man is not of the gentry or aristocracy, perhaps a commoner from the north, he may prefer oatmeal. Workers, be they merchants, labourers, or otherwise, worked a few hours before breaking their fast, and would typically have a simple menu at home, from a public house, or possibly a street stall, location depending, with the contents being something along the lines of bread and tea or pudding and milk.  

This breakdown from Louis Grivetti is simply fantastic:

Wealthy Rural Pattern 1: Breakfast at 9:00-10:00 A.M. that consisted of tea, coffee, or chocolate, with wheat cakes, followed by biscuits and sherry;

Wealthy Rural Pattern 2: Breakfast at 9:00-10:00 A.M. that consisted of fillets of beef, fish, mutton cutlets, poultry and wild game, sausages, omelets and eggs; bread (white and brown flour varieties), fancy breads, jams, orange marmalade, fruits in season; cold meats including beef (spiced), ham, tongue, wild game, and especially game pies;

Wealthy Town/Urban Pattern: Breakfast at 10:00-11: A.M. that consisted of tea or chocolate with bread or toast and butter;

Artisans and Workers Pattern: Breakfast early morning that consisted of bread and butter, cold meat and cheese, and beer; 

Workhouse (Urban Poor) Pattern: Breakfast early morning, and food items defined by day of the week, usually only bread and cheese, or broth and bread, sometimes with butter and treacle;

Orphanage Pattern: Breakfast early morning, and food items also defined by day of the week, and usually only broth, gruel, or bread with butter.

A must watch:

A fantastically detailed exploration of all you’d ever want to know about Georgian breakfast, including English, Scottish, and French preferences:

Breakfast in the Eighteenth Century: The Unexamined Meal By Jim Chevallier

https://chezjim.com/18c/breakfast-18th.htm

Not to be missed:

https://janeaustensworld.com/2011/07/27/breakfast-in-the-regency-era-and-their-definition-of-morning/

https://blogs.lib.umich.edu/beyond-reading-room/dining-jane-austen-i-breakfast-georgian-england

https://www.regencyhistory.net/blog/regency-dining-breakfast

https://janeausten.co.uk/blogs/customs-and-manners/the-georgian-breakfast