Boxing Harry and the mythology of the Full English Breakfast

[Bally002]

I think I experienced a degree of culture shock just reading that.

In my neck of the woods, "fried bread" didn't come in slices. Ma used to make it, but she made it out of corn meal and diced onions, frying it into "fritters" from batter made of corn meal with the other flavorings mixed in, like the aforementioned onions. I think the technology of it must have come down through an Indian branch of the family, and that it probably originated as "fry bread", but what Indians cook as fry bread now bears only a slight resemblance, being made of wheat flour as it is. So our "fried bread", while fried, looked more like a bastardized pancake made out of corn meal and whatever else was handy.

But at least we did use lard or leftover bacon grease to fry it in, so there is that commonality.

I am mystified by the reference to potatoes in connection with a need for a freezer. We never kept potatoes in a freezer, we instead kept them in a root cellar, being "root crops" as they are... then again, we stored them as the whole tuber, and only processed them into whatever their final form was going to be at the point of cooking,

Tea at breakfast is a novel and alien concept here in the South. It's rare enough to find folks drinking hot tea. Southerners generally drink it cold, very cold, and with way too damned much sugar in it. I'm one of the rare breed here that ever drinks it hot, a habit I picked up during one of our sub-zero winters years ago, drinking it more for the heat than for the caffeine. Nowadays, the only tea I drink is Green Tea, more for the antioxidants than anything else.

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Oh, yes, throwing pre-sliced bread into the pan is very quick and convenient, which is part of the point. When commercial caterers add hash browns, chips etc they will certainly be using pre-packaged products out of the freezer. As for peeling and slicing fresh potatoes, that again misses the point of quickness and convenience.
I take it, then, that southern gentlemen never fell into the habit of getting up, making a pot of tea, and then taking their wives a cup of tea in bed, as my dad always used to do.

If I'm doing the fried bread thing I cut a hole in the slice and crack an egg into it. and separately fry the piece I cut out.  Flip the egg slice, then onto a plate with fried tomato and onions.  Bacon if it's in the fridge too.  Dabs of Worcestershire Sauce here and there.

Bally:)