Egg sandwich
An egg sandwich
TypeSandwich
Created byBruce LaPlante
Main ingredientsBread, eggs (fried eggs, scrambled eggs, boiled eggs or egg salad)

An egg sandwich is a sandwich with some kind of cooked egg filling. Fried eggs, scrambled eggs, omelette, sliced boiled eggs and egg salad (a mix of chopped cooked egg and mustard and mayonnaise) are popular options. In the last case, it may be called an egg salad sandwich.

History of egg sandwiches

Fried egg sandwich

Fried-egg over hard, with bacon and cheese, on a sesame bagel

Beyond the basic model of fried egg between slices of bread, many common sandwiches have variations that include a fried egg in addition to bacon, sausage, cheese, black pudding, cold cuts, or as another topping to a hamburger.[1][2][3] A popular breakfast sandwich in New Jersey consists of a fried egg, pork roll, and American cheese on a roll.[4] The Southern egg sandwich is an egg and cheese sandwich, with bacon and avocado as additions.[5]

A popular filling snack with British troops since at least World War I, the "egg banjo" is a sandwich of a runny fried egg between two thick slices of bread[6] (if possible, buttered or with margarine), often accompanied by a mug of "gunfire" (a drink of tea and rum). A popular account of the term's origins is the act of cleaning spilt egg off one's body, the sandwich held out to the side with one hand whilst the other wipes at the drips, giving the impression of playing an invisible banjo.[7][8]

Boiled egg sandwich

A sandwich with sliced boiled egg and kaviar.

A 1905 British cookbook describes an "egg sandwich" made with sliced hard-boiled eggs, marinated in oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper, and garnished with minced watercress. An "egg and chutney sandwich" is made from chutney and minced hard-boiled eggs; an "egg cream" sandwich from hard-boiled eggs pounded into a smooth paste and seasoned with anchovies and mustard.[9] A common alternative is to mash the hard-boiled egg together with mayonnaise, salt and black pepper, usually called simply egg spread, or an egg mayonnaise or egg mayo. Cress is often seen as the typical accompaniment to an egg sandwich. Salad cream is also a common alternative to mayonnaise, mainly within the UK. This simple sandwich of mayonnaise and boiled egg is popular in Japan as "Tamago sando" (egg sandwich). In Scandinavia and Finland, boiled egg and kaviar is a common topping on sandwiches.

Egg salad sandwich

An egg salad sandwich with french fries

It is also common, in the United States, to use egg salad as a sandwich filling.[10]

History as fast food

Prompted by meat rationing during World War II, manager Bruce LaPlante introduced the first fast food egg dish with a fried egg sandwich at a St. Louis White Castle. However, the dish was unpopular, and was abandoned as soon as wartime meat rationing was lifted. Fast food restaurants did not begin serving egg dishes again until the 1970s, starting with the McDonald's Egg McMuffin, invented in 1971 by McDonald's franchisee Herb Peterson in Santa Barbara, California.[11]

See also

References

  1. ^ Deborah Madison (2009). What We Eat When We Eat Alone. Gibbs Smith. p. 54. ISBN 9781423607762. Retrieved 17 May 2018.
  2. ^ Tara Mataraza Desmond & Shirley Fan (2014). Full Belly: Good Eats for a Healthy Pregnancy. Running Press. ISBN 9780762455300. Retrieved 17 May 2018.
  3. ^ George Motz (2016). The Great American Burger Book: How to Make Authentic Regional Hamburgers at Home. Abrams. ISBN 9781613129425. Retrieved 17 May 2018.
  4. ^ Karen L. Schnitzspahn (2012). Jersey Shore Food History: Victorian Feasts to Boardwalk Treats. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 9781614237273. Retrieved 17 May 2018.
  5. ^ Jasper Alexander (2016). The Hattie's Restaurant Cookbook: Classic Southern and Louisiana Recipes. The Countryman Press. ISBN 9781581575583. Retrieved 17 May 2018.
  6. ^ Tom Daziel; Terry Victor, eds. (2008). "Banjo". The Concise New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English. ISBN 978-0415212595. Banjo noun 1 a generously proportioned sandwich or filled roll. In military use in forms such as an "egg banjo" or a "chip banjo".
  7. ^ Rachel Khong & Lucky Peach (2017). All about Eggs. Crown Publishing Group. p. 57. ISBN 9780804187756. Retrieved 17 May 2018.
  8. ^ Major Des Astor (2012). The Official ARRSE Guide to the British Army. Random House. ISBN 9781446464045. Retrieved 17 May 2018.
  9. ^ Beaty-Pownal, S. (1905). The "Queen" Cookery Books No. 9: Salads, Sandwiches, and Savories, Second Edition. London: Horace Cox. pp. 33-4, online [1]. Note: description based on Google Books title page, which differs slightly from Google Books "about this book" information.
  10. ^ Beth Allen (2004). Good Housekeeping Great American Classics Cookbook. Hearst Books. p. 67. ISBN 9781588162809. Retrieved 17 May 2018.
  11. ^ Smith, Andrew F. (2011). Fast Food and Junk Food: An Encyclopedia of What We Love to Eat, Volume 1. ABC-CLIO. p. 221. ISBN 9780313393938. Retrieved 17 May 2018.

External links

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