Pineapple should be part of full English breakfast, say historians

WHAT could be more English than a breakfast of bacon, sausage, eggs, mushrooms and tomatoes? Surprisingly, one that includes pineapples.

According to historians, the exotic fruit was once eaten at breakfast to indicate the diner’s status and refined palate. The English Breakfast Society is now urging aficionados of the cooked breakfast to replace mushrooms or tomatoes with a grilled round of fresh or tinned pineapple alongside their bacon, eggs and sausages. Guise Bule de Missenden, the society’s founder and chairman, insists pineapple has a long history on the nation’s breakfast plates.

“Interestingly, in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, the pineapple was considered to be a high-status breakfast item in Great Britain,” he said. “Pineapples used to be seen as exotic, expensive, difficult to obtain and were a highly prized breakfast ingredient for wealthy English families, which is why you can find lots of old English pineapple breakfast recipes.

“King Charles himself loved them, so if you wanted to add a touch of the exotic to your plate and eat like a 17th-century lord, there is no reason not to give it a try. A slice of grilled pineapple can add variety to the English breakfast

‘Pineapples used to be seen as exotic, expensive, difficult to obtain and were a highly prized ingredient’

plate. Simply swap the mushrooms or tomato for a grilled pineapple slice in someone’s English breakfast one day to give them a surprising and unexpected delight.”

The English Breakfast Society has previously courted controversy over the proper composition of a full English by calling for an end to the inclusion of hash browns in favour of more traditional bubble and squeak.

Mr Bule de Missenden said last year: “Somebody had to put their foot down. Otherwise we’ll find kebab meat in our English breakfast before long.

“The hash brown – the reconstituted, tater-based fast food – was popularised by Mcdonald’s but somehow we now find it in our English breakfast.”

Juliette Kellow, a dietitian, said: “Health experts agree canned fruit is just as nutritious as fresh and counts towards the Government’s recommended five-a-day.

“Canned pineapple in fruit juice is a great choice – just two rings count as one of our five daily portions.”

Pineapples were first brought to Europe after Christopher Columbus discovered them in Guadeloupe in 1493 and took them back to Spain. The fruit was later incorporated into architecture and design as a mark of wealth and good taste, such as on top of the towers at St Paul’s Cathedral in London.