In Scotland, the full breakfast, as with others, contains eggs, back bacon, link sausage, buttered toast, baked beans, and tea or coffee. Distinctively Scottish elements include Scottish style or Stornoway black pudding, Lorne sausage (sometimes called a “square” for its traditional shape), Ayrshire middle bacon and tattie scones. It commonly also includes fried or grilled tomato or mushrooms and occasionally haggis, white pudding, fruit pudding or oatcakes. Another more historical Scottish breakfast is porridge.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_breakfast#United_Kingdom_and_Ireland
A couple months ago I posted the full English breakfast. There are of course local variations of this dish all over the British Isles. The Scottish version contains mostly the same things, and then adds several local delicacies on top.
The biggest departure from the “rules” I wrote about for English breakfast is the inclusion of potatoes on the plate. Tattie scones are a type of flatbread made with mashed potato and flour and are generally considered one of the signature components of the Scottish breakfast.
In addition to the tattie scone, I’ve also included hash browns. I was thinking that the hash browns probably made it into my recipe from looking at recipes that used them instead of the scone, but looking back at the spreadsheet I work from to create my recipes I see that all recipes that included hash browns did so in addition to the scone, so I’m not stretching things there. One interesting side note about hash browns. I don’t know if it’s a midwest thing or true across America, but I mostly see hashbrowns sold as loose grated potato- usually frozen, although in the restaurant industry I encountered freeze-dried. I’ve noticed in doing recipe research that people from the rest of the world seem to use the word hash browns to refer to a potato patty. I think the closest common thing here is likely Tater-Tots, maybe Taco John’s Potato Olés. I did manage to find hash brown patties at the grocery store, but there was only one option compared to several brands of loose ones.
The second signature component of the Scottish breakfast is Lorne sausage. Also known as square sausage, or “slice”, this is basically the Scottish version of a breakfast sausage patty. It’s traditionally made of beef, although modern versions (and my recipe) use half pork, and seasoned with nutmeg, coriander, and pepper. The alternate names come from the fact that rather than being stuffed into a casing, it’s formed into a loaf that you slice portions off of like a loaf of bread.
In addition to the Lorne sausage traditionally being beef, most of the recipes I looked at called for beef link sausage as well. I guess that Cattle has traditionally been a more popular livestock choice than hogs in Scotland.
The final quintessentially Scottish ingredient I’ve included is none other than haggis. Most of my American readers probably only have a vague idea of what haggis is beyond that it’s “gross”. Haggis is a mixture of sheep “pluck” (aka offal- organs and innards) oatmeal and spices, usually stuffed into the sheep’s stomach and cooked. True Scottish haggis has been banned by the USDA because it traditionally contains the lungs, and there’s a chance that the contents of the sheep’s first stomach could back up into the lungs during slaughter. There are a couple brands that make canned haggis mixtures that don’t contain the lungs that are sold here. I purchased a can of Caledonian brand lamb haggis from The Scottish Grocer. They also have a couple varieties of beef haggis, as well as “presentation” haggis’ already stuffed in a casing, and kits that include several cans and the casing to stuff your own. So what does haggis taste like? I would say it has a definite liver flavor, but not overwhelmingly so. Overall I found it pretty similar to black pudding.
The other difference I found in some of the recipes was calling for “streaky” bacon instead of back bacon. Streaky bacon is what the Brits call belly bacon, which is what we normally call bacon here in the US. As you’ll recall from my English breakfast post, what the Brits usually call bacon is back bacon, similar to Canadian bacon here in the US of A. I included both kinds on my plate. I’m pretty sure that’s my own twist, but hey, no such thing as too much bacon, right?
Full Scottish Breakfast
Serves: 1
Cook: aout 30 minutes
Sunflower oil, as needed
1 hash brown patty
1 beef link sausage
1 slice Lorne sausage
1 slice black pudding
1 slice haggis
1 slice streaky bacon
2 rashers back bacon
1 Tablespoon butter
2 medium mushrooms
½ tomato
OR
1 hand-full of cherry tomatoes
Salt and black pepper, to taste
½ cup British baked beans
1 slice bread
1 egg
Tea
Optional:
2 pork sausages, in place of beef link
White pudding, in place of haggis
Heat oil in a large skillet over low heat. Add hash brown patty and link sausage and cook for about 10 minutes, turning occasionally. Add Lorne sausage, black pudding, and haggis and continue to cook for another 10 minutes, turning occasionally until everything is browned and crispy and link sausage is cooked through. As meat is cooked, remove it to a plate and cover it with foil to keep warm. Raise heat to medium, add both kinds of bacon to the pan and cook to your desired level of crispness.
Meanwhile, trim mushroom stems level with caps. Heat a small non-stick skillet over medium heat and add a little oil and the tablespoon of butter. Add mushrooms, open side up, and season with salt and pepper. Cook for 5 minutes or so. Season the tomato and add to the pan, cut side down. Give the mushrooms a flip and cook for 2-3 minutes. Flip tomato and cook another 2-3 minutes.
Meanwhile, place beans in a small pan and heat over low heat, stirring occasionally. Toast bread and butter if desired
When meat and vegetables are ready, heat a little more oil in one of the pans and fry the tattie scone for a couple minutes on each side. Cook egg in your preferred manner.
Place everything on your plate and serve with a cup of tea.
Lorin cooks Legumes 
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