An English breakfast, which contains everything on the menu, is often referred to as a “Full Monty” – an attribute to Field Marshal Montgomery of World War II fame.

Starting with the country of St George, the base of a full English is bacon rashers and eggs. These are traditionally fried, but grilled bacon and poached or scrambled eggs make for a healthier alternative. Tea or coffee and toast spread with butter are the usual accompaniments.

The cooked breakfast boasts as many national variants as there are regional accents

The full English’s identical twin across the Irish Sea is called the Ulster Fry. This might include white pudding, soda bread called soda farls and a type of hash brown known as boxty or potato farls. The full Irish breakfast is also known as “chub” in certain parts of Ireland. The local Irish slang for eating it is “chubbing up”. North of the border lies the Full Scottish – and is almost identical to its Saxon neighbour, except for the addition of fried sliced haggis, potato scones and oatcakes instead of fried bread.

Just before Wales thinks it has been forgotten about, a proper Welsh breakfast features nutritious laverbread. This is made with seaweed purée mixed with oatmeal and cockles before being formed into patties and fried in bacon fat.

Fried leftover mashed potatoes mixed with leftover vegetables from a roast meal the day before and fried in butter makes a popular English side dish called Bubble and Squeak. The Irish equivalent is Irish Colcannon, and the Scottish version has the wonderfully evocative title of Rumbledethumps.

Bubble and Squeak has become a much-loved feature on the full English Breakfast menu

For fans of good food, it’s a shame that the comforting calorific sizzle of the traditional cooked breakfast is being superseded by the Continental alternative. The full English may not even be survived by the old haunts that serve it. More than one in nine old-style cafés have shut down since 1997.

Where else, but the old-style greasy spoon will you find cauldrons of baked beans glugging away like volcanic geysers, relentless spitting bacon and fuming tea machines?

Today you have to hunt far and wide to find decent, intact cafés with classic lino floors, proper seats and small cabinets of biscuits and crusty rolls. Café family owners are also nearing retirement age and the children don't want to take over the business.

In fact, unless you’re Grade II listed and one of only two protected twentieth century establishments (such as the legendary E.Pellici in London’s Bethnal Green) it’s more than likely that you’re serving Big Macs, rather than big breakfasts.

The full English has retired to hotels – offered to tourists as traditional fare

Even though cooking burns 100 more calories an hour than sitting down, most of us now only treat ourselves to a cooked breakfast at the weekend when we’ve got the time, or have got up so late we’re more into Brunch than Breakfast.

A sausage might contain 127 calories, but a croissant is about 188, and not nearly as sustaining

Cost can be an issue. Admittedly, you probably wouldn’t get much change from a £20 note for six free-range eggs, a packet of bacon and all the trimmings. In terms of nutritional value however, a sumptuous cooked breakfast is better value than an over-priced box of cereal. Perhaps if there are just one or two people in the household, the savvy option may simply be to head for the local greasy spoon.

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Additional ingredients might include:

• Fried bread
• Sausages
• Black or white pudding
• Fried, grilled or tinned tomatoes
• Fried mushrooms
• Chips
• Baked beans
• Sautéed potatoes or hash browns
• Bubble and Squeak
• Brown sauce and tomato ketchup

“Well, there's egg and bacon; egg, sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg, bacon and spam…"