What did people used to eat for breakfast.

[forevercooking]

Years ago. When people all sat around the table for breakfast before one or both parents went off to work and the kids went to school. What was being cooked/prepared/eaten? I can't imagine men were off down a pit on a diet of cornflakes but maybe I'm wrong.

Porridge. My grandad died in 2000 at the age of about 83 and had eaten porridge for breakfast every single day of his life. With a spoon of black treacle.

Grandad was a coal miner: two pieces of toast with jam, lots of tea. Sometimes porridge.

dad a fireman with second job as a window cleaner: two pieces of toast with marmalade. Sometimes porridge.

Things like bacon and eggs considered very luxurious by both.

@SheilaSazs yes but 1970s is modern to me! Grapefruit was not easily available or affordable before that and has so few calories it wouldn’t have been a sensible thing to eat before a day of physical work.

Grapefruit was fancy. It was a dinner party starter not an everyday breakfast

As a child in the early 60s, I remember having cereal (Rice Crispies were my favourite, though there were also Frosties and Ricicles, Weetabix and Shredded Wheat) and then toast and marmalade. The toast was done under the grill - we didn't have a toaster - and often on one side only. In the winter the cereal would be replaced with Readybrek, with a dollop of dark brown sugar in the middle. Dad would have had the same - Mum ate after I'd left for school, so no idea what she had. Saturdays, we had something cooked, bacon, eggs and fried bread or similar. On Sundays Dad would cook one of the two dishes he could manage - either scrambled egg on toast or - rather bizarrely - soufflé omelette

Grapefruit? That really is a modern idea of breakfast.

I'm in my 60s and some people ate grapefruit for breakfast when I was a child.

Bread and marge, maybe with a teaspoon of jam on occasion.

Always available porridge, eggs, toast (homemade soda bread - speedy to make).

And tea. Gallons of tea. Maybe it's an appetite suppressant? Tea was an all day constant.

my dad had a physical job. My mum used to cook a big fried breakfast for him and his workmates around 10 in the morning: but they had been working a few hours/

during the winter she insisted we had to eat something hot before school. I hated porridge so she used to make me veg and lentil soup

Porridge or cornflakes. Never had a cooked breakfast in our house in the 60s

I'm in my 40s but my parents were from an older generation. We ate traditionally round the table, and dad left for the factory straight after.

Usually we had porridge (cooked from oats)
Sometimes we would eat bread and either home-made jam or dripping. Or honey.

We all drank tea for breakfast.

People malign dripping, but when it is home-made from a good roast, it is extremely tasty - a smear of lard and a good smear of the tasty meat jelly stuff, and a good sprinkle of toast. Sets you up for the day!

Grapefruit went through a vouge of being a diet food , I remember my Mum and Dad on a grapefruit diet in the late 70's.
I've got a feeling that the full English bacon and eggs breakfast dates to an early advertising campaign so is a relatively recent thing, and by that I mean 1920's rather than 70s .
Cereals are a Victorian invention aimed at supplying cheap quick food for factory workers , for all meals, they only caught on for breakfast.

Bread and possibly jam if poor or porridge. Boiled eggs. Tea.
In winter Mum sometimes did fried bread with beans or tinned tomatoes.

Porridge, my grandpa loved kippers but they weren't for every day

My paternal grandfather favoured toast and dripping but he died of a heart attack at 56

My grandparents used to eat their breakfast at the dinner table, it was the only time they ever sat there, apart from Christmas dinner.
My grandad ate kippers every morning followed by jam & toast or bacon & egg on the weekend.
My grandma just had a cup of tea and a cigarette 😅 sometimes just a piece of toast.
I remember when I used to stay with them, having porridge during the winter and tea and biscuits in the summer.

I was born in the 1950s. As a child in the 60s I had Shredded Wheat for breakfast during the week, then at weekends a half grapefruit followed by bacon, eggs and fried bread. Sometimes there was a Ski bilberry yogurt as a treat.

On one of the 'back in time for...' mum cooked a rasher of bacon for dad, she and the kids had bread that the bacon had been pressed onto to pass on some flavour.

One of the Edwardian ones, where it was a middle class family they had lamb chops as part of their breakfast.

I think a lot would be dictated by where you were both geographically and socially.

If you have a maid of all work then you are more likely to be able to afford 3 meals a day and have the time for it to be cooked.

Working class, you might get nothing or bread and drip. I doubt you would be starting a fire if everyone is out of the house for the day.

Born in 1969 here. Growing up in the 70s it was ready brek, weetabix or boiled eggs for me, or cereal (my favourite was golden nuggets which have made a comeback in recent years but taste nothing like they used to. My dad's breakfast was tea and few senior service cigarettes, whilst sat next to me at the table. Mum had tea and a ryvita.

This sounds like some video you would have to sit through in a language class to teach you the words for breakfast and kitchen items.
For most people it wasn’t real life

Toast and butter and jam if you were lucky ate whilst getting ready or walking down the street.

What do you mean years ago when people would sit round the table for breakfast?

People still sit round the table for breakfast. I'm a single, working parent with 2 kids and I managed to cook breakfast every morning, slice up melon and put it on the table where the 3 of us sit for breakfast.

My grandad who grew up in Germany told me he had a German Farmers Breakfast (potatoes, eggs, peppers, onion, chopped ham) but he also said they had eggs, so hard boiled with toast, bacon or sausages if there was any, bread was usually rye bread. When he moved to England it was more boiled eggs and toast, porridge with cream and toast, the odd fry up.

My mum, no idea but her mum used to cook her stepdad fry ups (1940s, 50s onwards). 1970s breakfasts were just cereal and toast.

Stepdad growing up in Ireland said porridge and toast and soda bread, fried breakfasts with potato cakes, black pudding, colcannon etc but more on weekends.

I'm 51. We had wheatabix with hot milk and a banana every morning. I think my dad had the same but he went off to work in the print before my sister and I were up. Mum never ate breakfast.
Dad is 80 now and still has wheatabix every morning - he now adds grapes?! Bless him

I was a child in the 60s and had bread and jam or cornflakes or Weetabix smothered in sugar as the already sugared cereals were more expensive, these were the days of mashed banana and sugar sandwiches. Adults often had toast under the grill and marmalade, jam, porridge or eggs, All Bran was popular to keep you regular.