For the meal following a Jewish fast, see Break fast. Still life with fruits, easy breakfast for large groups, and large wheels of cheese.
Breakfast is the first meal of the day usually eaten in the morning. The word in English refers to breaking the fasting period of the previous night. 13th century it was the name given to the first meal of the day. In Ancient Egypt, peasants ate a daily meal, most likely in the morning, consisting of soup, beer, bread, and onions before they left for work in the fields or work commanded by the pharaohs. The Iliad notes this meal with regard to a labor-weary woodsman eager for a light repast to start his day, preparing it even as he is aching with exhaustion. 5th century BC poets Cratinus and Magnes.
It was usually composed of everyday staples like bread, cheese, olives, salad, nuts, raisins, and cold meat left over from the night before. 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning, while 16th century scholar Claudius Saumaise wrote that it was typically eaten at 9:00 or 10:00 a. It seems unlikely that any fixed time was truly assigned for this meal. Italian polenta, made from roasted spelt wheat or barley that was then pounded and cooked in a cauldron of water. This section’s factual accuracy is disputed. Relevant discussion may be found on Talk:Breakfast. Please help to ensure that disputed statements are reliably sourced.
A medieval baker with his apprentice. As seen in the illustration, round loaves were among the most common. In the European Middle Ages, breakfast was not usually considered a necessary and important meal, and was practically nonexistent during the earlier medieval period. Monarchs and their entourages would spend a lot of time around a table for meals. Only two formal meals were eaten per day—one at mid-day and one in the evening.
The exact times varied by period and region, but this two-meal system remained consistent throughout the Middle Ages. Breakfast in some times and places was solely granted to children, the elderly, the sick, and to working men. Anyone else did not speak of or partake in eating in the morning. Eating breakfast meant that one was poor, was a low-status farmer or laborer who truly needed the energy to sustain his morning’s labor, or was too weak to make it to the large, midday dinner.
In the 13th century, breakfast when eaten sometimes consisted of a piece of rye bread and a bit of cheese. Morning meals would not include any meat, and would likely include 0. Uncertain quantities of bread and ale could have been consumed in between meals. By the 15th century, breakfast in western Europe often included meat. By this time, noble men were seen to indulge in breakfast, making it more of a common practice, and by the early 16th century, recorded expenses for breakfast became customary. Breakfast in eastern Europe remained mostly the same as the modern day: a “continental breakfast”.
Traditionally, the various cuisines of Africa use a combination of locally available fruits, cereal grains and vegetables, as well as milk and meat products. 1843, it was documented that Egyptians were early risers that sometimes had a first meal consisting of coffee along with the smoking of a pipe, and did not eat breakfast until noon. Ramadan, and is often done as a community, with people gathering to break their fast together. In Japan, it is common to eat miso soup and rice porridge for breakfast. 1843, poor Lebanese people would consume raw leeks with bread for breakfast.
The croissant appears to have originated in Vienna, Austria, in 1683. French breakfasts are often similar to the continental breakfast. In the early 16th century, some physicians warned against eating breakfast, because they said it was not healthy to eat before a prior meal was digested. By the 1550s, however, there were multiple sources that claimed breakfast was an important meal. For example, in 1551, Thomas Wingfield stated that breakfast was essential.
In 1589, Thomas Cogan stated that it was unhealthy to miss breakfast in the morning. The first groups known to have produced maple syrup and maple sugar were indigenous peoples living in the northeastern part of North America. While it has been a source of controversy where the lumberjack breakfast came from, the most cited source is that the lumberjack breakfast was first served in a Vancouver hotel, in 1870. The breakfast consisted of eggs, assorted fried pork strips, and flapjacks. A typical Aztec breakfast often included corn porridge with honey and chillies, or tortillas with beans and salsa. Breakfast cereals are also common in Mexico, mainly due to American influence.