Typical Breakfast

A traditional full Scottish breakfast includes sausage links, bacon, eggs, potatoes, sauteed mushrooms, grilled tomatoes, baked beans, buttered toast and black pudding. Other popular breakfast items include porridge and kippers, which are cold smoked herring. Breakfast is always served with tea or coffee.

Also please write to ask your B and B. They may hook you up properly if you tell them in advance your daughter gets migraines from eating certain foods

Scottish breakfasts are as described in the previous post to mine. They will vary slightly from B&B to B&B and so you may not always be offered items such as kippers, potato scones or black pudding. It can depend on the demand each individual B&B has for particular items. You will of course be offered the staples of a cooked breakfast ie. sausages, bacon, tomatoes, mushrooms, eggs, beans as well as cereals, porridge, fruit juices, toast and tea and coffee.

If you are going to reserve your accommodation in advance then please inform your hosts about your dietary requirements so that they can source alternatives for you. Items such as decaffeinated coffee and tea and gluten free foods are readily available in supermarkets and should pose no problem for your hosts.

If you are winging it with accommodation then obviously you need to inform your hosts as soon as you check in. Then they can make necessary arrangements to meet your needs. B&B proprietors are not unmindful of peoples dietary requirements and can adapt their menus to suit.

My experience is that you are often asked if you want a cooked breakfast which includes the full fry up described above. But they always have cold cereal, yogurt, fruit (often it is canned fruit in a bowl). I would add haggis to the fry up as one of the things that can be offered. It's very common to say, I would just like to have the tomato, egg, and bacon and ask them to leave off the beans or the mushrooms. The sausages can really vary. The bacon is not streaky bacon like we have. It looks more like ham. You can buy it some groceries in the US these days. It's often called Irish bacon.

And of course you get coffee or tea.

Pam

Toast, tatty scones, square sausage also appear. In a cooked breakfast can chop and change what you want, it is in the owner's benefit only to provide what you want to consume and they will generally be more than happy to change. Especially if it financially helps them even by a few pence, these are businesses after all!

Tea, coffee, fruit juice (usually orange), milk will all be generally available for a drink as is tap water.

Thank you! Daughter gets migraines easily so she will leave off any nitrate high foods like bacon and sausage. Do you suppose they are processed the with nitrates like here in the US?

She is definitely a foody so she will be eating everything else they offer, I'm sure! Yes, we do have reservations for the entire 2 week trip but her requirements should be simple, just to leave off those items.

Thank you again!

No one has mentioned what became my favorite B&B breakfast in Scotland: scrambled eggs and smoked salmon. You'll have to check if nitrates are involved in the smoking. Oatcakes and cheese with fruit made a nice change from eggs. There is always toast!

Ahh, one of my favorite morning questions to this day, "would you like a cooooked breakfast?"

Hope she makes some lifelong memories too!

And occasionally.......haggis. I had it a few times during my last two stays in Edinburgh.

The Scottish breakfast is the best! I love those grilled tomatoes and beans.

Never had a breakfast I didn't love in Scotland! Except for the Hagis and blood pudding.
If you haven't had porridge you need to give it a try. A cross of oatmeal and cream of wheat with real cream! Nummy!
Only problem with the eggs is the Scots do not know how to make an easy over egg. No matter how they tried (God bless them)
I survived with scrambled.
Dinners were difficult for us as the restaurants close for lunch at 1 or 2 and don't reopen until 8 or so. So we had a late lunch in a pub ( usually fish and chips) and then bar food in early evening. If you like to eat late, it won't be a problem.
Enjoy your trip!

oh yes, the bacon is more like the Canadian bacon we know in the US. Not sure if it is cured with nitrates. It may just be hung in a smoke house. All the B & B;s we so friendly and accommodating. I'm sure your daughter won't have a problem

oh yes, the bacon is more like the Canadian bacon we know in the US. Not sure if it is cured with nitrates. It may just be hung in a smoke house. All the B & B;s were so friendly and accommodating. I'm sure your daughter won't have a problem

Thank you for all the great information! Hubby and daughter are going in May....me, I'm staying home since I can not get off work for this trip. I'm jealous they will be eating well :-)

Black pudding, white pudding and haggis. If your kipper is cold send it back.

British bacon may be a revelation (what on Earth is that stuff Americans serve up?)

Bacon will typically be what is referred to as Canadian bacon in the US. It will have been cured with nitrates, it cannot be sold commercially without being cured with nitrates.

British sausages do not contain nitrates as they are not cured and there is no requirement to maintain a pink colour, a typical fresh sausage will contain at least 75% meat, rusk and seasoning. Many premium sausages contain at least 90% meat and some contain no rusk at all. Quality varies considerably from place to place but it if nitrate sensitivity is the only issue then you need only avoid the bacon.

Potatoes don't typically form part of a Scottish breakfast although some places will offer them in some form. The ubiquitous mass produced hash brown is making inroads in cheaper places as they are cheap to buy but fill the plate up, horrible little things though.

One of my favourite breakfasts in Edinburgh included a very nice haggis. I'd never eaten it for breakfast previously but the savouriness went well with the rest of the dish. If you find it offered on the menu I would recommend opting for it.