Full Irish Breakfast

A hearty cooked breakfast of sausages, rashers, eggs, black and white pudding, grilled tomato and beans, served with toast.

The full Irish breakfast grew out of a farming tradition of eating a substantial hot meal before a long day of physical labor, drawing on ingredients readily available on Irish farms — pork from home-reared pigs, eggs, and homemade blood and white puddings. It became formalized as a standard offering in guesthouses and hotels through the 20th century as Irish tourism grew, and today it is served in almost every hotel and B&B across the country as a signature culinary experience for visitors.

Both black pudding (blood sausage) and white pudding are essential and distinguish it from a full English breakfast, alongside Irish-style back bacon rashers rather than streaky bacon. Soda bread or brown bread is traditionally served alongside wheat toast.