The Ulster Fry is one particularly tasty permutation of the cooked breakfast served throughout the British Isles under various names (English Breakfast, Irish Breakfast, Scottish Breakfast etc.). The Ulster version is similar to fries found in the rest of Ireland, although with perhaps a little more starch to soak up the copious volumes of fat which inevitably attend such a feast.
The usual ingredients are as follows:
- Rashers: a few slices of meaty back bacon - none of your streaky muck.
- Sausages: you know, pork, sawdust and rusk in a tube of skin. The Ulster Fry often features fatter sausages than you're likely to find elsewhere in Ireland, but any sort of "sausage patty" is right out.
- Black Pudding: warning, contains pig's blood. A good quality black pud, as we all know, is nothing short of sublime.
- White Pudding: complementary foodstuff to black pudding, famously contains no pig's blood.
- Fried Eggs: cooked any way you like them, but preferably over easy.
- Tomato: some English breakfasts include a tomato straight from a tin. This practice is an abomination in any context, but should certainly never be attempted with an Ulster Fry. A fresh tomato must be used, fried or grilled
- Soda Bread: this should come in the shape of a soda farl, which is a rough rectangle of dough, cooked on a griddle or skillet. You could replace this with some slices from a regular cake of soda bread, but this will severely compromise your right to call the resulting meal an Ulster Fry.
- Potato Bread: you can call it slim, fadge or boxty, but be sure to have some on hand to complete your Ulster Fry.
Traditionally, all the the meats etc. are fried in a pan, with the potato bread going in last to mop up the juices. However, if you are interested in longer life, you can choose to grill (or "broil", as the United Statesians so quaintly put it) the meat. However, this will leave you with the problem of what to fry the potato bread in - this last is left as an exercise for the reader.