What Actually Is A Traditional Country Breakfast? - Tasting Table

"A country breakfast, or farmer's breakfast, is meant to be big and filling. It's a high-calorie meal that can include eggs, hash browns, steak, sausage, ham, bacon, pancakes, grits, gravy, or more. It's traditionally meant to fill you up and give you the energy you need for an early start to the day on a farm. Even during the Depression, farmers got a jump on the day with these hearty meals."

"The idea of a big, hearty breakfast started in England, where the full English breakfast - dating back to the Victorian era - is the stuff of legends. The American equivalent is the country breakfast, born of the South. It was influenced by multinational settlers who brought their lofty breakfast traditions, but it has fewer rules and is still packed with protein and carbs to start your day."

"The British are very particular about their full English breakfast and the definition of it. For instance, there's a difference between a full English and a full Irish, and a full Scottish is something else again, though all three are very similar. A country breakfast in America has no such restrictions and is much more adaptable to whatever you have handy."

The country breakfast originated in the American South as a big, filling meal adapted from multinational settlers' breakfast traditions. The meal focuses on high calories and protein to sustain long workdays and often includes eggs, hash browns, steak, sausage, ham, bacon, pancakes, grits, and gravy. The full English breakfast began in Victorian England, but American country breakfasts have fewer rules and more adaptability. Eggs have been a breakfast staple since Roman times, and bacon's popularity in the United States rose during the 1920s after an advertising campaign. Hash browns are an American innovation, with the term appearing in print in 1888.

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