Second breakfast

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Second breakfast (or zweites Frühstück, drugie śniadanie, tízórai) is a meal eaten after breakfast, but before lunch. It is traditional in Bavaria, in Poland, and in Hungary. In Bavaria or Poland, special dishes are made exclusively to be eaten during second breakfast. In Vienna and most other parts of Austria the second breakfast is referred to as Jause.[1] It is typical to eat four to five meals a day in these locations.


The second breakfast is typically a lighter meal or snack eaten around 10:30 in the morning (its Hungarian name, tízórai, actually means "[snack] at 10"). It consists of coffee and pastries or some sausages. The typical sausage is a white sausage, Weißwurst, which is considered the specialty of Munich. The sausage is prepared during the early morning to serve during the second breakfast. It is served with pretzels, sweet mustard, and wheat beer. The meal is roughly similar in concept to the British elevenses, though elevenses is little more than a colloquial term for a mid-morning snack. In Poland second breakfast usually consists of some snacks like sandwiches, or pastries, but may consist of light dessert-type dishes like chocolate pudding or kisiel.

First and second breakfast is also a common custom in farm areas of North America. Farmers who need to rise early to tend to animals or perform other chores may eat a small "first breakfast", such as toast and coffee, just after rising, followed by a heartier second breakfast after the first round of chores is done.

In literature and film[edit]

In J. R. R. Tolkien's novel The Hobbit, the protagonist, Bilbo Baggins, eats a second breakfast. In the preface to its sequel, The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien mentions that hobbits prefer to eat six meals a day.

In Thomas Mann's book The Magic Mountain, frequent and detailed references are made to second breakfasts. Beer is served along with "cold cuts on toast". Sometimes food from the first breakfast appears again such as oatmeal and fruit. In fact, Mann refers in Magic Mountain to "third breakfasts" as well.

See also[edit]


  1. ^ (German) Database of Austrian German. Retrieved 2010-03-19.

External links[edit]