156 Fun Facts About Egg

Which New Zealand bird lays an egg weighing up to a quarter of its body weight?

A brown kiwi's single egg can weigh 450 grams; the bird's flightlessness means body weight is no obstacle to carrying it.

Which bird lays the smallest egg of any living species, weighing about half a gram?

The bee hummingbird of Cuba, the world's smallest bird, lays pea-sized eggs about 6 millimetres long and well under a gram, the smallest of any living bird species.

The largest egg of any living animal, 30 centimetres long, came from which species?

A whale shark egg case 30 centimetres long, dredged from the Gulf of Mexico in 1953, is the largest egg known from a living animal; the species normally hatches its eggs internally.

What determines whether a hen lays white or brown eggs, according to a widely cited rule of thumb?

The brown pigment is protoporphyrin IX, a precursor of heme, and shell colour has no effect on taste or quality.

The Araucana, a chicken breed from Chile, is famous for laying eggs of what colour?

The American 'Easter egger' hybrids that lay blue and green eggs descend from it; the breed may also be rumpless, lacking a tail entirely.

Which mineral makes up 95 to 97 percent of a chicken eggshell?

Calcium carbonate makes up about 95 percent of the shell, which is why an egg left in vinegar loses its shell: the acid dissolves the carbonate and releases carbon dioxide bubbles.

A hen's eggshell is not solid: roughly how many pores does it have for gas exchange?

The pores let the growing chick breathe, and the air cell at the blunt end grows as the egg ages, which is why old eggs float.

What are the spiral bands of tissue that hold the yolk in the centre of an egg white called?

The chalazae are twisted cords of protein that anchor the yolk in the albumen; the name comes from the Greek for hailstone, and they stand out most in a very fresh egg.

A very fresh chicken egg has a small air cell and earns which US quality rating?

Grade AA, the top USDA rating, requires an air cell no deeper than 1/8 inch and a thick, high white; grades fall to A and then B as the air cell grows during storage.

What is the most abundant protein in egg white?

Ovalbumin makes up about 54 percent of egg-white protein and is the protein that sets when the white is cooked, turning it from clear to opaque and firm.

The yellow of an egg yolk comes from lutein and zeaxanthin, which belong to what class of pigments?

Lutein and zeaxanthin are carotenoids, the same family of yellow-orange pigments as the beta-carotene in carrots; hens cannot make them, so yolk colour tracks the pigments in their feed.

The greenish ring that forms around the yolk of an overcooked boiled egg is caused by which compound?

Iron(II) sulfide forms a thin coating on the yolk with little effect on flavour; plunging eggs into cold water straight after boiling stops it.

Why do American supermarkets refrigerate their egg cartons when most European shops do not?

Unwashed European eggs keep their natural coating intact, so they can sit safely on a shelf, though the shells are dirtier.

A 2002 USDA analysis found roughly what proportion of eggs is contaminated with Salmonella?

One in 30,000: the 2002 USDA risk analysis estimated about 2.3 million contaminated eggs among the 69 billion produced a year, far rarer than the popular fear suggests.

Which country is by far the world's largest egg producer, at over 30 million tonnes a year?

China produces roughly 40 percent of the world's eggs, around 30 million tonnes a year, several times the output of the next producers, the United States and India, at about 6 to 7 million tonnes each.

A hen bred for laying can produce roughly how many eggs per year?

Over 300: a modern commercial laying hen produces more than 300 eggs a year, many times what its wild ancestor manages, thanks to millennia of selective breeding for year-round laying.

Chickens, the source of most eggs eaten today, were first domesticated in which region?

Chickens descend from the red junglefowl of Southeast Asia, where they were first domesticated; they reached Mesopotamia and Egypt by about 1500 BCE and Greece several centuries later.

Ancient Romans crushed their empty eggshells in their plates for what reason?

To stop evil spirits hiding in them, a habit that survives as the superstition of pushing a spoon through the bottom of a finished boiled egg.

Which of these was true of eggs during Lent in medieval Europe?

The pile-up of uneaten eggs before Easter is one reason decorated eggs became a feature of the holiday.

A century egg is cured in a mixture of clay, ash, salt, rice hulls and what?

Quicklime, calcium oxide, makes the curing paste strongly alkaline, pushing the egg's pH to between 9 and 12, which turns the white to dark jelly and the yolk creamy grey-green over weeks.

Balut, the Filipino fertilised duck egg, is typically incubated for how long before steaming?

Balut is incubated 14 to 21 days, well short of a duck's 28-day hatch; Filipino vendors favour about 17 days, when the embryo is still soft, while Vietnamese balut runs closer to 19 to 21.

A Chinese tea egg is also called a 'marble egg' because of what?

Cracks in the shell leave dark marbled lines on the white when the boiled egg is simmered again in tea, soy sauce and spices; they are sold from street carts across China.

Lemuel Benedict claimed he invented eggs Benedict at the Waldorf in 1894 while seeking a cure for what?

He ordered toast, poached eggs, bacon and hollandaise; maître d' Oscar Tschirky swapped in ham and an English muffin, while Delmonico's insists it made the dish first in 1860.

At Southern and Midwestern church suppers, deviled eggs go by which tamer adjective?

'Dressed eggs' avoids the word devil at church suppers; 'devilled' has meant highly seasoned food since the 1700s, the same idea behind deviled ham and fra diavolo sauce.

Which London department store claims to have invented the Scotch egg in 1738?

Fortnum & Mason says it devised the Scotch egg in 1738 as a traveller's snack; rival theories point to a Whitby, Yorkshire egg once wrapped in fish paste, or to the Mughlai nargisi kofta.

The Denver omelette, also called a Western omelette, is traditionally filled with ham, onions and what?

Green bell peppers, diced ham and onions are the standard, though there are many variations; in Spain 'tortilla' means a thick potato omelette.

Shakshouka, eggs poached in a spiced tomato and pepper sauce, originated in which region?

The name means 'mixture' in Algerian Arabic; Maghrebi Jewish migrants brought it to Israel in the 1950s, where it was widely adopted.

The name of the confection meringue first appeared in print in 1692 in a cookbook by which French chef?

François Massialot's 1692 cookbook holds the first known printed use of 'meringue'; his 1691 edition carries the earliest crème brûlée recipe, and the word reached English in a 1706 translation of his work.

What alternative name honouring a Norman town famous for its butter has hollandaise been given?

Sauce Isigny takes its name from Isigny-sur-Mer in Normandy, famed for its butter; Larousse Gastronomique records the alternative name, and a sauce close to hollandaise appears in La Varenne's 1651 cookbook.

Most food historians place the origin of mayonnaise in the port of Mahón on which Mediterranean island?

Mahón is the capital of Menorca in the Balearics; the Duke of Richelieu's French troops took the port in 1756 during the Seven Years' War, which is when the sauce is thought to have been named.

Which two ingredients does the New York soda-fountain drink of milk, chocolate syrup and seltzer falsely promise?

An egg cream contains neither egg nor cream, only milk, chocolate syrup and seltzer; one theory says 'egg' is a corruption of the Yiddish echt, meaning genuine, and the drink goes flat too fast to travel.

At which institution did the Eggnog Riot of December 1826, over whiskey-spiked Christmas eggnog, take place?

West Point cadets smuggled whiskey into the barracks for Christmas 1826; a young Jefferson Davis was among those involved but escaped court-martial, and the drink itself likely descends from the medieval milk posset.

Kinder Surprise eggs, sold by the billions since 1974, are illegal to import into which country?

The United States bans confectionery containing a 'non-nutritive object' under a 1938 law; one Manitoba resident was threatened with a fine for carrying a single egg into Minnesota.

Under which brand was the Cadbury Creme Egg first sold when it launched in 1963?

It launched in 1963 as the Fry's Creme Egg, Cadbury having merged with J.S. Fry & Sons in 1919, and was renamed Cadbury's Creme Egg in 1971; each egg is two half shells joined while warm.

How many Imperial Easter eggs did Fabergé's workshop make for the tsars between 1885 and 1917?

Ten were for Alexander III and forty for Nicholas II, and 44 survive in whole or in part; a lost 1887 egg turned up in the United States years later.

The very first Fabergé Imperial egg, presented in 1885, opened to reveal what inside?

The Hen Egg's plain white enamel shell opened to a gold yolk holding a golden hen; it was inspired by an 18th-century ivory egg in the Danish royal collection, and Empress Maria Feodorovna was a Danish princess by birth.

Which president and first lady moved the Easter egg roll to the White House lawn in 1878?

Rutherford and Lucy Hayes opened the lawn after Congress banned rolling on the Capitol grounds in 1876, when a rowdy egg roll wrecked the lawn.

Egg tapping, the Easter game of knocking eggs together, is plagued by what cheating?

The game was already recorded in 14th-century Zagreb, and it survives in Louisiana as 'pacqueing'.

Which author fixed Humpty Dumpty in the public mind as an egg in 1871?

Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass (1871), with John Tenniel's drawing, fixed Humpty Dumpty as an egg; the rhyme was probably a riddle, and in the 1600s 'humpty dumpty' was a drink of brandy boiled with ale.

Which British Columbia newspaper editor invented the modern egg carton in 1911?

Joseph Coyle, a newspaper editor in Smithers, British Columbia, devised the carton in 1911 to settle a dispute over broken eggs between a farmer and a hotelier; Francis H. Sherman patented the moulded-pulp version in 1931.

The European Union's ban on conventional battery cages for laying hens took effect in which year?

Directive 1999/74/EC outlawed conventional battery cages from 1 January 2012, after a phase-out of more than a decade; Bhutan banned them the same year.

Most egg-allergic children can safely eat egg prepared in which way?

About 70 percent of egg-allergic children tolerate egg baked into cakes and muffins, because prolonged high heat alongside wheat alters the egg proteins that trigger reactions.

Which large flightless bird lays bright green clutches that the male incubates for around 50 days?

Southern cassowary eggs are bright pea-green, and the male alone incubates them for 50 to 52 days, then guards the chicks for about nine months; only ostrich and emu eggs are bigger.

What is the temporary sharp bump on a hatchling's beak, used to break out of the shell?

The egg tooth, a sharp keratin bump on the upper beak, pierces the air cell and then the shell and falls off days after hatching; reptiles and even the platypus have one too.

Before chickens reached Greece around 800 BCE, which bird was the Greeks' primary egg source?

Chickens reached Sumer and Egypt by 1500 BCE and Greece a few centuries later.

Which sweet spread may have originated from 17th-century French eggs scrambled with fruit juice?

Eggs scrambled with acidic fruit juices were a French fashion of the 1600s.

In which US city did a company begin drying egg yolk and white into a meal-like powder in 1878?

A St. Louis, Missouri company began drying yolk and white into a light-brown, meal-like powder in 1878; dried egg production boomed again in World War II to feed US forces.

Roughly how many eggs a year does the wild Asian fowl ancestor of the chicken lay?

The red junglefowl lays only about a dozen eggs a year, in one or two clutches during the breeding season; millennia of selective breeding taught domestic hens to lay year-round.

Which country's people consider gull eggs a delicacy, along with England?

Wild bird eggs are protected by law in many countries, so gull eggs are a niche seasonal treat.

How many eggs was each American projected to eat in 2019, the most since 1973?

The USDA projected 279 eggs per American in 2019, the most since 1973, though well short of the 405 eggs a person ate in 1945.

What is the process of holding an egg to a light to check its air cell and quality called?

Blood vessels seen during candling are not conclusive proof of fertilisation.

Which reference tool do egg producers use to grade yolk colour from pale to deep orange?

The Roche colour fan, now sold by DSM, carries 15 numbered blades running from pale yellow to deep orange; producers match a yolk against its blades and adjust feed pigments to hit a target score.

A very old egg does what when placed in a bowl of water?

A stale egg floats because its air cell has grown as water escaped through the shell's pores, leaving it less dense than water; a fresh egg sinks and lies flat.

Which pigment, a breakdown product of heme, gives some eggshells their blue colour?

Biliverdin, the green bile pigment formed when heme breaks down, is deposited through the shell and tints it blue to green; brown shells get their colour from protoporphyrin IX, a heme precursor.

Why do brown eggs have a higher incidence of blood spots reaching shoppers?

Candling shines light through the shell, which brown pigment blocks.

Which fibrous protein mainly makes up the clear membrane you peel from a boiled egg?

Eggshell membranes are even sold commercially as a dietary supplement.

Roughly how much of egg white is water?

Egg white is about 90 percent water; the remaining tenth is almost entirely protein, with under one percent carbohydrate and virtually no fat.

Most doses of which vaccine are grown in fertilised hens' eggs?

Most influenza vaccine is grown in fertilised hens' eggs, the virus multiplying in the fluid around the embryo, which is why flu shots long carried egg-allergy warnings.

Feeding hens which bloom's petals is a known way to deepen yolk colour?

Marigold petals are rich in lutein, the xanthophyll that deepens yolk colour; yellow maize and alfalfa do the same job, since hens cannot make the pigment themselves.

A yolkless egg is most often produced by what kind of hen?

Such eggs were once nicknamed cock eggs because people assumed roosters laid them.

Cooking roughly doubles egg protein's bioavailability, from 51% raw to about what?

Cooking raises the bioavailability of egg protein from about 51 percent raw to about 91 percent, as heat unfolds the proteins for digestion; cooked eggs also carry a lower salmonellosis risk.

Between which temperatures does egg yolk turn from liquid to gel?

Egg white gels across a wider 60 to 73 °C range, with the outer albumen setting last.

To pasteurise eggs in the shell, they are held at 57 °C for how long?

In-shell pasteurisation holds eggs at 57 °C for an hour and 15 minutes; the white turns slightly milky and meringue takes longer to whip, but the final volume is nearly the same.

A 2025 study's ideal boiled egg alternates hot and tepid water baths how many times?

The 2025 'periodic cooking' study moved the egg between boiling and 30 °C water every two minutes for 32 minutes, eight cycles in all, setting the white while leaving the yolk creamy.

Which fishy-smelling compound taints the eggs of some brown-egg hens fed rapeseed meal?

Trimethylamine, made by gut microbes from the choline and sinapine in rapeseed and soy meal, builds up in brown-egg hens carrying a faulty FMO3 gene, and their eggs smell fishy.

British eggs are generally considered safe for how long without refrigeration?

UK hens are immunised against salmonella and their unwashed shells keep the protective cuticle.

A salted duck egg stops absorbing salt after about how long?

The yolk turns orange-red and firm while the white stays somewhat liquid.

Which juice is often added to pickled eggs to turn them red?

Beetroot juice in the vinegar brine stains the peeled whites a deep magenta, as in Pennsylvania Dutch red beet eggs; the eggs are hard-boiled and shelled before pickling.

How many kilocalories does a 50-gram chicken egg provide, roughly?

A 50-gram egg provides about 70 kilocalories, roughly 6 grams of protein and 5 grams of fat, almost all of the fat sitting in the yolk.

Which cooking method loses the most vitamin B12 from an egg?

Oddly, absorption of B12 from fried or boiled eggs is more than double that from scrambled ones.

Which insecticide contaminated millions of European eggs pulled from sale in 2017?

Fipronil, an insecticide illegally mixed into a red-mite treatment for poultry, was found in Dutch eggs in 2017 and millions were withdrawn across the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.

Which stamp do British eggs from salmonella-vaccinated hens carry?

The British Lion mark, run by the British Egg Industry Council since 1998, certifies eggs from hens vaccinated against salmonella and stamps a best-before date on the shell.

Which US egg quality tier is rarely sold retail and mostly turned into liquid or dried products?

Grade B eggs, with thinner whites and larger air cells, rarely reach store shelves and go mostly into liquid, frozen and dried egg products; Grade A is what supermarkets usually sell.

A New England TV jingle proclaimed brown eggs are local eggs, and local eggs are what?

The New England Brown Egg Council's jingle ran 'brown eggs are local eggs, and local eggs are fresh'; the region's Rhode Island Reds lay brown eggs while most of the US buys white.

In which country are brown eggs so unpopular that the top supplier packages them for export?

Egyptian demand is almost entirely for white 'table eggs'.

What does an EU egg code beginning with 0 signify?

The scale runs from 3 for caged chickens down to 0 for organic.

Which technology lets egg producers avoid culling male chicks by identifying sex before hatching?

In-ovo sexing tests the embryo inside the egg, by hormone sampling or imaging, so male eggs are removed before hatching; Germany's 2022 ban on routine chick culling drove its adoption.

During which Persian festival does each family member decorate a hard-boiled egg?

Nowruz, the Persian New Year at the spring equinox, has each family member decorate an egg for the haft-sin table, where the eggs stand for fertility.

In Barcelona, a hollow eggshell dancing on a fountain jet is a tradition of which feast?

L'ou com balla, the dancing egg, bobs on the cloister fountain of Barcelona Cathedral at Corpus Christi; the custom is first documented in 1637.

How old are the oldest decorated ratite eggs found in Africa?

Engraved ostrich eggshell fragments from Diepkloof Rock Shelter in South Africa are about 60,000 years old; decorated ostrich eggs were also placed in Sumerian and Egyptian graves 5,000 years ago.

Which country briefly banned giving Easter eggs in 1916 because of wartime scarcity?

The Easter Egg Act was lifted only when the war ended.

Which Spanish Easter dish uses up Lenten eggs as a primary hard-boiled ingredient?

Hornazo, the baked pie of Salamanca and Ávila filled with pork, chorizo and whole hard-boiled eggs, is eaten after Easter; Spanish godparents also give children an Easter mona.

What is the Polish Holy Saturday blessing of decorated Easter baskets called?

Święconka, the blessing of baskets on Holy Saturday, fills them with pisanki eggs, bread, sausage, salt and a butter lamb for the Easter breakfast.

Greek women traditionally dye Easter eggs red on Thursday using what?

Greek kokkina avga are boiled on Holy Thursday in water with onion skins and vinegar, which turns them deep red; they may line the centre of a braided tsoureki loaf.

King Edward I's 1290 household accounts record buying how many decorated Pace-eggs?

The 1290 accounts record 450 eggs bought to be coloured or covered with gold leaf and handed out to the royal household at Easter.

Ukrainian pysanky take their name from a verb meaning what?

Designs are 'written' with beeswax in a batik-style resist method, not painted.

In Germany, decorated public wells at Easter are known as what?

Osterbrunnen, 'Easter wells', are village fountains in Franconia decked with thousands of painted eggs from Good Friday; eggs also hang from trees and bushes as Easter egg trees.

Where is the annual egg jarping world championship held each Easter?

The World Egg Jarping Championship is staged at Peterlee Cricket Club in County Durham on Easter Sunday; jarping is the northern English name for egg tapping.

In South Louisiana, egg tapping goes by which name?

'Pocking eggs', from the French pâquer, is played around Marksville, Louisiana, on Easter Sunday; the winner keeps and eats the losers' cracked eggs.

Which Turin widow filled empty eggshells with molten chocolate in 1725?

The widow Giambone of Turin began filling emptied hens' eggshells with molten chocolate in 1725; chocolate eggs had first appeared at the court of Louis XIV at Versailles.

Which company produced the first hollow chocolate egg, in 1873?

J.S. Fry & Sons of Bristol made the first hollow chocolate Easter egg in 1873; Cadbury followed in 1875 once a process for mouldable cocoa butter made smooth shells possible.

What are the confetti-filled eggshells cracked over heads at Mexican celebrations called?

Cascarones are emptied eggshells filled with confetti and sealed with tissue paper, cracked over friends' heads for luck at Easter and Carnival in Mexico and the US Southwest.

An 8-metre pysanka sculpture stands in Vegreville, in which Canadian province?

Vegreville, Alberta, unveiled its giant aluminium pysanka in 1975 to mark the RCMP centennial; the egg is about 7.8 metres high and honours the area's Ukrainian settlers.

In Eastern legend, whose basket of eggs turned red on seeing the risen Christ?

In Orthodox tradition Mary Magdalene's basket of eggs turned red when she saw the risen Christ; another version has an egg turning red in her hand before Emperor Tiberius.

On the Passover seder plate, the hard-boiled egg represents what?

The beitzah, a roasted hard-boiled egg, stands for the korban chagigah, the festival sacrifice once offered at the Temple, and for mourning its loss; the hunt for the hidden afikomen parallels the Easter egg hunt.

Eggs Florentine swaps the ham of eggs Benedict for which ingredient?

Eggs Florentine sets the poached eggs on cooked spinach instead of ham, 'à la florentine' being the French kitchen term for dishes with spinach; the smoked-salmon version is eggs Royale.

In which two years were no Fabergé Imperial eggs made?

None were made in 1904 and 1905, when the Russo-Japanese War paused the commissions; the series resumed in 1906 with the Moscow Kremlin Egg.

How much did the 1885 Hen Egg, the first Fabergé Imperial egg, cost?

Six weeks later the emperor made Fabergé supplier to the imperial court.

Which Siberian gold-mine industrialist commissioned seven Fabergé eggs for his wife?

Alexander Kelch, whose fortune came from Siberian gold mines, gave his wife Barbara seven Fabergé eggs between 1898 and 1904, the only series to rival the imperial commissions.

How many Fabergé Imperial eggs are displayed at Moscow's Kremlin Armory Museum?

Ten imperial eggs, including the 1900 Trans-Siberian Railway Egg, are shown at the Kremlin Armoury in Moscow; six delivered imperial eggs are lost, all of them gifts to Maria Feodorovna.

Which Soviet leader had many Fabergé eggs sold abroad in 1927 to raise foreign currency?

Between 1930 and 1933, 14 imperial eggs left Russia, many to Armand Hammer.

Which oligarch bought the nine-egg Forbes Fabergé collection before its 2004 auction?

Viktor Vekselberg bought the nine imperial eggs of the Forbes collection in 2004 before they could be auctioned, for what he said was just over US$100 million, and opened a Fabergé Museum in Saint Petersburg in 2013.

For how much did the Fabergé Winter Egg sell at Christie's in December 2025?

The same egg had fetched US$9.6 million in 2002.

Which 1983 James Bond film centres on a Fabergé egg heist?

Octopussy (1983) opens on a forged Fabergé egg and a Sotheby's auction for the real one, a prop modelled on the 1897 Coronation Egg with its miniature coach.

The earliest omelettes are believed to have been cooked in which ancient land?

Food historians trace the earliest omelettes to ancient Persia; they were nearly indistinguishable from kookoo sabzi, the Iranian herb frittata.

The omelette de la mère Poulard, called the world's most famous, comes from where?

Annette Poulard opened her inn at Mont-Saint-Michel in 1888; her fluffy omelette, beaten by hand and cooked over a wood fire, is served plain but often with heavy garnishes.

Alexandre Dumas's 'Arabian omelette' recipe called for the egg of which bird?

Dumas's Grand Dictionnaire de cuisine describes an Arabian omelette made from a single ostrich egg, served with a spicy tomato and pepper sauce he credited to the Bey's cook.

Which Japanese omelette wraps a ketchup-seasoned filling and wears a ketchup topping?

Omurice, a blend of 'omelette' and 'rice', wraps a thin omelette around chicken fried rice seasoned with ketchup, with more ketchup squeezed on top; it dates from early 20th-century Japanese Western-style restaurants.

The omelette Arnold Bennett was created at which London hotel's grill?

Savoy Grill chef Jean Baptiste Virlogeux created it for Arnold Bennett, who stayed at the hotel while writing his novel Imperial Palace, with smoked haddock, Parmesan and cream.

The hangtown fry of bacon and breaded oysters originated in which Gold Rush town?

Placerville was nicknamed Hangtown, giving the omelette its name.

Which Thai omelette is deep-fried in a wok of oil and served over rice?

Khai jiao is beaten with fish sauce and poured into a wok of very hot oil so it puffs and crisps, then served over rice with Sriracha; khai yat sai is the stuffed omelette.

Which Italian city claims to have invented the frittata, favouring a version made with pasta?

Neapolitans call the pasta frittata a stroke of local genius.

The word quiche was first attested in 1605 in which regional language?

The word is first attested in 1605 in Lorrain, the Romance dialect of Lorraine, and probably comes from the German Kuchen, cake, via the Lorraine Franconian Küeche.

Which ingredient marks a classic quiche Lorraine?

Quiche Lorraine's filling is eggs, cream and lardons of smoked bacon in a pastry shell; cheese is a later addition, and the onion version is called quiche alsacienne.

On American Chinese menus, egg drop soup is also literally translated as what?

'Egg flower soup' translates the Chinese dan hua tang, describing the wisps the beaten egg makes in the broth; American versions are often thickened with cornstarch.

Which Greek chicken-and-rice soup is finished with a slowly stirred egg mixture?

Avgolemono, 'egg-lemon', finishes chicken and rice broth with eggs beaten with lemon juice, added off the heat and stirred slowly so the egg thickens without curdling.

Guangzhou pastry chefs modelled the Cantonese daahn taat on which English baked good?

The Cantonese egg tart copied the English custard tart, baked in shortcrust or puff pastry; Guangzhou department stores sold it as a 'Weekly Special' in the early 20th century.

Which fast-food chain bought the Macau pastel de nata recipe from Lord Stow's Bakery in 1999?

KFC acquired the recipe in 1999 from Margaret Wong, Andrew Stow's former wife, and sold the caramelised-top tart across Asia, including Singapore and Taiwan.

Which Puerto Rican eggnog is made with rum and coconut milk?

Coquito, Puerto Rico's Christmas drink, blends coconut milk, condensed milk, rum and cinnamon, with egg yolks in many family recipes; Mexican rompope uses cinnamon and rum.

Which hot eggnog cocktail was invented by British journalist Pierce Egan in the 1820s?

The Tom and Jerry, a hot eggnog of egg batter, rum and brandy, is said to have been devised by Egan to promote his 1821 book Life in London; it appears in Damon Runyon's 1932 'Dancing Dan's Christmas'.

Which Dutch liqueur of around 20% alcohol is essentially a bottled eggnog?

Advocaat is a Dutch liqueur of egg yolks, sugar and brandy at about 14 to 20 percent alcohol, essentially a bottled eggnog; Warninks is the best-known brand.

A 2010 Rockefeller University test found salmonella in strong eggnog was gone after how long?

At least 20% alcohol plus refrigeration is recommended for aged eggnog safety.

How many membranes line the inside of a hen's eggshell?

Two membranes, an outer and an inner, line the shell; they separate at the blunt end to form the air cell, and together they are the skin you peel from a boiled egg.

Which egg white protein is the major allergen and a trypsin inhibitor?

Ovomucoid, about 11 percent of egg-white protein, is the dominant allergen, Gal d 1, and a trypsin inhibitor that survives cooking, which is why some allergic children react even to well-cooked egg.

Which metal bowl has been used in France since the 18th century to stabilise egg-white foams?

Copper ions bind to the protein conalbumin, forming a stable complex that keeps the foam from overbeating; French cooks have whisked whites in unlined copper bowls since the 1700s.

Which vitamin can become deficient after months of eating raw egg whites daily?

Avidin in raw whites binds the vitamin and blocks absorption.

Louis Désiré Blanquart-Évrard introduced which photographic printing paper in 1850?

Albumen prints, introduced by Blanquart-Évrard in 1850, coat paper with egg white and salt before sensitising it with silver nitrate; they dominated photography from 1855 to 1890.

Which unsaturated fat makes up about 47% of the fat in an egg yolk?

Oleic acid, the monounsaturated fat of olive oil, is about 47 percent of yolk fat; palmitic acid is the main saturated fat at about 23 percent, with linoleic acid near 16 percent.

Which antibody transfers from hen to yolk to protect the embryo?

IgY, the avian counterpart of mammalian IgG, passes from the hen's blood into the yolk, giving embryo and hatchling passive immunity; it is harvested commercially from eggs for antibodies.

Feeding hens large amounts of which vegetable tends to produce red or deep orange yolks?

Capsicum peppers are rich in the red carotenoid capsanthin, so hens fed lots of them lay red or deep-orange yolks; yellow maize and alfalfa give the usual golden shade.

What is the pale spot on a yolk's surface that carries the hen's genetic material called?

The germinal disc, or blastodisc, is the pale 3-millimetre spot on the yolk's surface holding the hen's genetic material; if fertilised it becomes the blastoderm from which the chick develops.

The earliest documented scrambled-egg recipe appears in a 14th-century cookbook from which country?

The Libro della cucina predates most European egg cookery texts.

Scotch woodcock is scrambled eggs served on toast spread with what?

Gentleman's Relish, the anchovy paste Patum Peperium, is spread on the toast under the soft scrambled eggs; despite the name no bird is involved, as with Welsh rabbit.

Which Venezuelan and Colombian scrambled-egg dish takes its name from a bird?

Huevos pericos, 'parakeet eggs', are scrambled with butter, onions and tomatoes, the colours recalling the bird; they are a breakfast staple in Venezuela and Colombia, often with arepas.

Escoffier's double-boiler method for scrambled eggs can take how long?

It never browns the eggs and gives an aerated, creamy result.

In Pennsylvania, an over-easy fried egg is commonly given what name?

'Dippy eggs' is the Pennsylvania term, heard especially around Pittsburgh, because toast is dipped into the runny yolks.

The Dutch fried-egg dish uitsmijter shares its name with which job?

Uitsmijter means 'bouncer', literally 'out-thrower', supposedly as the last dish served before closing time; it is fried eggs on buttered bread with ham and cheese, a common Dutch lunch.

In Thai menus, which two words after a dish's name mean 'add a fried egg'?

Khai dao literally means 'star egg'.

A Portuguese or Brazilian steak topped with a runny fried egg is called what?

Bife a cavalo, 'steak on horseback', tops a grilled steak with a runny fried egg, typically served in Brazil with rice, beans and fries.

Which German open ham sandwich is topped with a sunny-side-up fried egg?

Strammer Max is rye bread with ham under a fried egg, a Saxon and Berlin lunch staple since the 1920s; the name is slang for a 'strapping Max'.

Which Roman cookbook, the first known, includes recipes with boiled eggs?

De re coquinaria, the late-Roman collection attributed to Apicius, is the oldest surviving cookbook; at least one of its recipes calls for preserved hard-boiled eggs.

Which chemical, along with vitamin C, has been shown to reverse the cooking of an egg white?

The trick works by breaking connections between denatured proteins.

Which Danish company invented the machine-made 'long egg' for even slices?

Danæg of Denmark introduced the machine in 1974, setting a tube of yolk inside a tube of white so every slice has a yolk; Kenko Mayonnaise makes long eggs in Japan.

Which chef published a 'perfect boiled egg' recipe after 'relentless trials'?

Heston Blumenthal's method puts eggs in cold water barely covering them, brings it to the boil, takes the pan off the heat and leaves the eggs six minutes for a set white and runny yolk.

In Britain and Australia, toast strips for dipping in a soft-boiled egg are called what?

Soldiers are dipped once the egg top is removed with a knife, spoon or a spring-loaded egg topper.

Which Sephardic eggs are braised overnight in onion skins until the whites turn brown?

Huevos haminados are simmered overnight with onion skins and coffee or tea until the whites turn brown and creamy; they are served with the Sabbath stew hamin and inside sabich.

Which Japanese company makes kimipuchi, a yolk product that stays soft when microwaved?

It is coated in egg white to mimic soft-boiled eggs in convenience-store bento.

Which US body recommended piercing eggshells before boiling in 1966, advice later reversed?

The American Egg Board now warns piercing can introduce bacteria and hairline cracks.

Which Turkish dish pairs poached eggs with garlic yogurt and red-pepper butter?

Çılbır, eaten by Ottoman sultans from the 15th century, sets poached eggs on garlic yogurt with butter warmed with red pepper; Bulgaria's Panagyurishte-style eggs are a close cousin.

Which Colombian breakfast poaches eggs in a scallion and coriander milk broth?

Changua, a Bogotá and Boyacá breakfast, poaches eggs in milk and water with scallions and coriander, served over stale bread; it is also called caldo de huevo.

Adding a splash of which pantry staple to poaching water speeds an egg's setting and limits white dispersal?

Vinegar's acidity accelerates poaching; straining the egg first also removes the thin white that forms foam.

Japanese tamagoyaki is traditionally cooked in a pan of what shape, called a makiyakinabe?

The makiyakinabe is a rectangular pan, so thin layers of egg can be rolled into a neat log; the rolled omelette emerged as food for Edo-period townspeople.

Which Edo-period change allowed tamagoyaki to appear in Japan?

The early version, tamago fuwafuwa, steamed beaten egg in a konbu and bonito broth.

Which Korean dish steams beaten egg in an earthenware pot until it puffs?

Gyeran-jjim is beaten egg steamed in a ttukbaegi earthenware pot with anchovy stock until it puffs like a soufflé; gyeran-mari is the rolled omelette.

Which 1896 cookbook contains one of the earliest printed recipes for an egg salad sandwich?

Fannie Farmer's Boston Cooking-School Cook Book of 1896, famous for standardising level measurements, includes one of the earliest printed egg salad sandwich recipes.

In 19th-century Mexican cookbooks, huevos rancheros were sunny-side-up eggs in what?

Huevos rancheros are fried eggs bathed in red or green chile sauce on tortillas; city cookbooks added the 'rancheros' label, pointing to the hacienda cowherds who cooked eggs in salsa.