I’ve read references to sucking eggs in a lot of old literature. The practice seems to have died out in the early to mid-Twentieth Century, I presume because people became more worried about salmonella and other food-borne diseases.
When I have heard the phrase “So you think you can teach your grandmother to suck eggs?”, it has usually been in a context where a younger person was trying to introduce some novelty to an older person, and the elder was already quite familiar with it.
On the topic of how common or well known the expression is, I’m Canadian and I’ve known and used it for more than 5 decades, in the sense of someone trying to explain how to do something to someone who both already knows, and has had way more experience.
I had never heard it until my wife used it, which she does whenever I try to explain something she knows well. She is from NYC, but her mother grew up in Louisville, so maybe it’s southern. In the context, I understood what she meant.
You only suck or blow eggs if you want the shell intact. For decoration or handicraft.
As posted by @Qadgop_the_Mercotan
We used to use the technique on emu eggs, which is a bit more work, and then engrave the shell. A bit like below:
The English phrase is referenced in The Hobbit:
But suddenly Gollum remembered thieving from nests long ago, and sitting under the river bank teaching his grandmother, teaching his grandmother to suck—“Eggses!” he hissed. “Eggses it is!”
Another native German here. I’ve heard the saying “das Ei will klüger sein als die Henne”, although it’s not exactly in my active usage reportoire. Instinctively, I would not have interpreted it as referring to teaching, in the sense of trying to teach something to someone who already knows it very well. I would more interpret it as referring to an attempt of doing something in which one is not an expert, while an actual expert would be around to ask for help. Same general direction, but subtly different nuance.
Then again, it’s surely not a very common saying, and I’ve probably come across it only very few times, so it’s perfectly possible that I misinterpreted it.
That definitely makes the whole idea a lot less barfworthy.
The first time I ever heard the phrase was in the Ren and Stimpy song Happy Joy Joy so I thought it was a threat.
“I’ll teach you to be happy! I’ll teach your grandmother to suck eggs!”
Eier lutschen has pornographic overtones to me .