# Breakfast at Fast Food Places **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 26, 2008, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breakfast-at-fast-food-places/478756 "2008-12-26T18:24:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Student\_Driver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3da27b/32.png) [@Student\_Driver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Student_Driver)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breakfast-at-fast-food-places/478756/21 "2008-12-27T03:56:12Z")
> [@Q.E.D](#): > > Eh, no. The product is apparently called PWE. Oh, it [contains](http://www.dietfacts.com/html/nutrition-facts/mcdonalds-mcskillet-burr51314.htm) real eggs, but that’s a far cry from _being_ real eggs. We used “liquid whole egg” at Hardee’s when I worked there, which is literally just pasteurized, pre-scrambled egg. [Link (PDF warning); check out page 2.](http://www.ballasegg.com/assets/pdfs/specs_liquid.pdf) I wonder if it’s a market-by-market supplier issue? ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breakfast-at-fast-food-places/478756/22 "2008-12-27T03:59:08Z")
I rather doubt it. It’s more likely the fact that Hardee’s and McDonald’s are two entirely separate corporate entities with no direct connection to one another. ---
**Author:** ![Student\_Driver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3da27b/32.png) [@Student\_Driver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Student_Driver)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breakfast-at-fast-food-places/478756/23 "2008-12-27T04:18:27Z")
Perhaps, but considering they’re in the same business and had nearly identical business models at the time, I wouldn’t be surprised if individual McD’s franchisees or markets, like CFS Foodsystems’s franchisees and markets, rely on different suppliers and make substitutions. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breakfast-at-fast-food-places/478756/24 "2008-12-27T04:22:23Z")
As far as I know, all McD’s franchises are required to use exactly the same products, without exception. They don’t have discretion in this matter. ---
**Author:** ![Student\_Driver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3da27b/32.png) [@Student\_Driver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Student_Driver)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breakfast-at-fast-food-places/478756/25 "2008-12-27T04:26:19Z")
Incidentally, looking at the ingredient list in **Q.E.D.**'s post, I’m not sure where the “powdered egg” assertion is coming from. The egg ingredient listing is only “Pasteurized whole eggs with sodium acid pyrophosphate, citric acid and monosodium phosphate (all added to preserve color), nisin (preservative).” The second part regaring the liquid margarine isn’t something that reconstitutes the egg, it’s what the egg is cooked in. Daub the grill with the margarine, ladle the egg out, fry. It looks like it’s just liquid egg with preservatives… a bit more than plain egg, but not reconstituted powdered stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breakfast-at-fast-food-places/478756/26 "2008-12-27T04:37:01Z")
> [@Student\_Driver](#): > > Incidentally, looking at the ingredient list in **Q.E.D.**'s post, I’m not sure where the “powdered egg” assertion is coming from. I agree that seems unlikely, especially since the first thing listed in the actual ingredients is **P** astuerized **w** hole **e** gg. ---
**Author:** ![WarmNPrickly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d78d45/32.png) [@WarmNPrickly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WarmNPrickly)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breakfast-at-fast-food-places/478756/27 "2008-12-27T04:46:26Z")
> [@Student\_Driver](#): > > Incidentally, looking at the ingredient list in **Q.E.D.**'s post, I’m not sure where the “powdered egg” assertion is coming from. [McDonalds own website](http://nutrition.mcdonalds.com/nutritionexchange/nutrition_ingredients.html) lists it as **Pasturized** Whole Eggs, so I’m guessing that **Q.E.D.**'s cite may be naming it incorrectly. I agree with you. It looks like it basically just eggs with some preservatives added. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breakfast-at-fast-food-places/478756/28 "2008-12-27T05:37:19Z")
Jack in the Box employee checking in, for what it’s worth… We do serve breakfast all day. The breakfast burritos are made with liquid pasteurized eggs, but the other breakfast sandwiches are made from whole eggs that we crack open ourselves. All of this is cooked on the same grill, at the same temperature, as hamburger patties are. As long as the grill lane is scraped clean of grease and debris between cook cycles, it doesn’t have any effect on the quality. ---
**Author:** ![purple\_granny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ac8455/32.png) [@purple\_granny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purple_granny)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breakfast-at-fast-food-places/478756/29 "2008-12-27T05:51:12Z")
as one who spent many years working the overnight shift, I really wished I could get an egg mcmuffin on my way to work! ---
**Author:** ![SeanArenas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeanArenas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeanArenas)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breakfast-at-fast-food-places/478756/30 "2008-12-27T05:52:27Z")
I’m pretty sure the Burgers for Breakfast credo was Carl’s Jr. not Jack in the Box. I think Jack in the Box serves breakfast all day, and CJ’s serves lunch all day. I used to go to CJ’s to get a Double Western Bacon Cheeseburger for breakfast. Sometimes at the local CJ’s, they wouldn’t be able to server burgers right after they opened - they said the burger cooker took 20 minutes longer to heat up than the breakfast ovens and stoves, so I’d have to wait 20 minutes after their opening time to order a lunch item. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breakfast-at-fast-food-places/478756/31 "2008-12-27T06:01:56Z")
> [@SeanArenas](#): > > I’m pretty sure the Burgers for Breakfast credo was Carl’s Jr. not Jack in the Box. It was neither. As the poster you misunderstood said, it was [Burger King](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burger_King_products#Products): > [@](#): > > The range of products sold usually depends on the time of day. Lunch items such as hamburgers and fries are traditionally not served during breakfast time, however some BK stores do sell food under their “Burgers for Breakfast” program. ---
**Author:** ![Hap\_Shaughnessy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ecc23a/32.png) [@Hap\_Shaughnessy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hap_Shaughnessy)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breakfast-at-fast-food-places/478756/32 "2008-12-27T06:03:33Z")
> [@Q.E.D](#): > > As far as I know, all McD’s franchises are required to use exactly the same products, without exception. They don’t have discretion in this matter. McDonald’s does use “local” products, though their definition of ‘local’ is closer to the level of _country_ than _county._ I can remember a few weeks or so in the mid 90s when the “McChicken” was regionally unavailable (I think this only effected Ontario, but it may have been wider) due to a labour dispute at the manufacturer level (IIRC that was Maple Leaf Foods, but not 100% sure. Either way, eggs & chicken nugget meat came from elsewhere.) ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breakfast-at-fast-food-places/478756/33 "2008-12-27T16:39:26Z")
> [@SeanArenas](#): > > I’m pretty sure the Burgers for Breakfast credo was Carl’s Jr. not Jack in the Box. I think Jack in the Box serves breakfast all day, and CJ’s serves lunch all day. > > I used to go to CJ’s to get a Double Western Bacon Cheeseburger for breakfast. > > Sometimes at the local CJ’s, they wouldn’t be able to server burgers right after they opened - they said the burger cooker took 20 minutes longer to heat up than the breakfast ovens and stoves, so I’d have to wait 20 minutes after their opening time to order a lunch item. Difficult to accept as true, since the burger cooker at a Carl’s Jr. is a flame broiler, which is nothing more or less than a double conveyor belt, one belt running the burger between the gas-fired flames, the other running the buns underneath simple heating elements (IIRC, been some 25 years since I worked there) to mildly toast them. And since CJ’s employees show up some hour plus before the store opens, usually, they would have plenty of time to get anything that needed warming up, warmed up (says the man who used to be married to a CJ’s manager). ---
**Author:** ![Aestivalis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Aestivalis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aestivalis)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breakfast-at-fast-food-places/478756/34 "2008-12-27T17:36:06Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > White Castle does burgers anytime, which was great when I worked overnights. > > White Castle had a pretty sad breakfast menu. I remember their sandwhich was an egg on toast. Big deal LOL Actually the White Castle breakfast sandwich is pretty good, if you like a sausage, egg and cheese on toast. I used to get mine with jalapeno cheese, which was pretty awesome, as it enhanced the spiciness of the sausage patty. Then I moved, and didn’t have to drive through the ghetto to get to work. ---
**Author:** ![MatthewStabile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/dfb087/32.png) [@MatthewStabile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MatthewStabile)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breakfast-at-fast-food-places/478756/35 "2008-12-27T19:23:05Z")
I used to work at a Roy Rogers, (and might be again very soon thanks to our crap economy) and the grill would be set at 325F for dinner and lunch, and at 220F or 225F(I forget) for breakfast (They use liquid egg). When you cook burgers they tend to let off a ton of grease which ends up leaving a tiny layer of burntiness on the surface of the grill, so before you can start cooking some eggs it needs to be cleaned really well, and then cleaned really well again so the teeny tiny bits of metal that came off from scrubbing the surface are not there. In the US at least, the majority of people I have dealt with eat breakfast food for breakfast, and lunch and dinner food for lunch and dinner. My father is one of them. “Its 9am and you are making a hot dog? Fry and egg!” is not uncommon when I decide to think outside of the breakfast box. And you had to see the freakout my mother did when we were in Bulgaria having a quick bite at the mcdonalds when they didn’t have egg mcmuffins even on the menu. When asked the manager at the store replied “We have toast?” which would be the only remotely breakfast thing on the menu ---
**Author:** ![SeanArenas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeanArenas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeanArenas)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breakfast-at-fast-food-places/478756/36 "2008-12-27T22:01:32Z")
> [@DSYoungEsq](#): > > Difficult to accept as true, since the burger cooker at a Carl’s Jr. is a flame broiler, which is nothing more or less than a double conveyor belt, one belt running the burger between the gas-fired flames, the other running the buns underneath simple heating elements (IIRC, been some 25 years since I worked there) to mildly toast them. And since CJ’s employees show up some hour plus before the store opens, usually, they would have plenty of time to get anything that needed warming up, warmed up (says the man who used to be married to a CJ’s manager). I’m just going off what they told me. I went to one about 2-3 days a week for burger breakfasts while I worked a particular job. It had me going there at their opening time, and they almost always asked me to wait 15 or 20 mins. ---
**Author:** ![Santo\_Rugger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Santo\_Rugger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santo_Rugger)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breakfast-at-fast-food-places/478756/37 "2008-12-27T22:29:05Z")
> [@Hap\_Shaughnessy](#): > > McDonald’s does use “local” products, though their definition of ‘local’ is closer to the level of _country_ than _county._ Or _state_. When was the last time you saw a Mickey D’s offering a green chile cheeseburger outside of New Mexico? 😉 > [@Q.E.D](#): > > As far as I know, all McD’s franchises are required to use exactly the same products, without exception. They don’t have discretion in this matter. Unless they run out. I had to have made a dozen trips to the grocery store when I worked at KFC to get flour, salt, chicken, or “special seasoning”. That’d probably be much harder for a McD manager to do, though, since more of their products are pre-made. We were probably breaking the rules, though, you’re right. ---
**Author:** ![Santo\_Rugger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Santo\_Rugger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santo_Rugger)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breakfast-at-fast-food-places/478756/38 "2008-12-27T22:30:31Z")
> [@SeanArenas](#): > > I’m just going off what they told me. I went to one about 2-3 days a week for burger breakfasts while I worked a particular job. It had me going there at their opening time, and they almost always asked me to wait 15 or 20 mins. They were incompetent. ---
**Author:** ![SharkB8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/977dab/32.png) [@SharkB8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SharkB8)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2008, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breakfast-at-fast-food-places/478756/39 "2008-12-28T00:52:00Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Jack in the Box employee checking in, for what it’s worth… > > We do serve breakfast all day. The breakfast burritos are made with liquid pasteurized eggs, but the other breakfast sandwiches are made from whole eggs that we crack open ourselves. All of this is cooked on the same grill, at the same temperature, as hamburger patties are. As long as the grill lane is scraped clean of grease and debris between cook cycles, it doesn’t have any effect on the quality. Oh good, you’re here… Hows about you slip me the recipe for your delectable tacos? I haven’t lived in a town with a Jack in the Box in 15 years, but have been known to have friends and relatives mail them to me :o ---
**Author:** ![BrandonR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@BrandonR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrandonR)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2008, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breakfast-at-fast-food-places/478756/40 "2008-12-28T01:20:44Z")
> [@SharkB8](#): > > Oh good, you’re here… > > Hows about you slip me the recipe for your delectable tacos? I haven’t lived in a town with a Jack in the Box in 15 years, but have been known to have friends and relatives mail them to me :o Here’s an interesting article of how they’re made (more of the logistics than the recipe): [News Articles - FindArticles](http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_/ai_65302871) If you’re as big a JitB taco fan as I am, you’ll enjoy it (and perhaps be a little amazed). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breakfast-at-fast-food-places/478756.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breakfast-at-fast-food-places/478756.md?page=3)