# When did grilled egg sandwiches become standard in your world (if ever)

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-grilled-egg-sandwiches-become-standard-in-your-world-if-ever/838307>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [August 7, 2019, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-grilled-egg-sandwiches-become-standard-in-your-world-if-ever/838307 "2019-08-07T17:20:43Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 8\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\
**Post date:** [August 9, 2019, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-grilled-egg-sandwiches-become-standard-in-your-world-if-ever/838307/41 "2019-08-09T06:06:56Z")

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> [@Kron](#):
>
> In my house, those are called elephant eyes, not toad-in-the-hole.

We called them, for some obscure reason, “Rocky Mountains” or “Rockies”. And you had to flip them over and fry the other side as well, timing them perfectly to avoid overcooking the egg.

> [@AHunter3](#):
>
> But when I first experienced them as ubiquitously available and standard fare? New York City, 1984. Long lines of people at deli counters ordering them and receiving them in short order. On rolls, not English muffins, by the way.

Make that 1964 for me.

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**Author:** ![The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stafford_cripps/32/7167_2.png) [@The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stafford_Cripps)\
**Post date:** [August 9, 2019, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-grilled-egg-sandwiches-become-standard-in-your-world-if-ever/838307/42 "2019-08-09T08:24:37Z")

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> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#):
>
> See the first scene in **Withnail and I** (1986). Will put you off fried egg sandwiches FOREVER.
> 
> [https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4ScgpaZBpTU](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4ScgpaZBpTU)

I could have mentioned that as well as **Quadrophenia**. I saw Quadrophenia and Withnail and I in a cinema double bill once - I was looking for things they had in common, and one of them was a scene with someone eating a sandwich with very gooey yoke in a caff. That’s why I remembered it for my post above. To correct myself, I think it might actually have been bread rather than a roll in Quadrophenia as well, but it still fits the OP’s requirements.

As it happens, this is how I like my egg sandwiches.

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**Author:** ![RobDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f07891/32.png) [@RobDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RobDog)\
**Post date:** [August 9, 2019, 8:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-grilled-egg-sandwiches-become-standard-in-your-world-if-ever/838307/43 "2019-08-09T08:34:02Z")

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> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#):
>
> See the first scene in **Withnail and I** (1986). Will put you off fried egg sandwiches FOREVER.
> 
> [https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4ScgpaZBpTU](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4ScgpaZBpTU)

Great username and post combo for the following reason.

That type of egg sandwich was popular in the WWI trenches. Supposedly, the runny yolk caused the troops to hold the sandwich in one outstretched hand while they brushed the yolk / crumbs off their uniform with the other, making them look like they were playing an invisible stringed instrument. Hence they became known as an “egg banjo”.

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**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\
**Post date:** [August 9, 2019, 9:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-grilled-egg-sandwiches-become-standard-in-your-world-if-ever/838307/44 "2019-08-09T09:41:13Z")

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Actually the biscuit sandwiches McD’s made in th mid 80s and bk’s crossandwiches were more o f a revelation as grandma had been making faux egg mc muffins years before McD’s did … she seen them in a texas truck stop shed been to a few times and figured out how to make them herself …

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**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\
**Post date:** [August 10, 2019, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-grilled-egg-sandwiches-become-standard-in-your-world-if-ever/838307/45 "2019-08-10T04:35:18Z")

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> [@Annie-Xmas](#):
>
> I’m pretty sure that McDonald’s was the first fast food chain to offer breakfast foods, starting in 1972 with the Egg McMuffin (and Big Breakfast and Pancakes & Sausage).

FWIW, this site says Jack in the Box produced the first breakfast sandwich in 1969, but it doesn’t say specifically it was the Breakfast Jack. I can’t say I definitely ate them at that time, but I think I did.

> [@Acsenray](#):
>
> It wasn’t until the late 1990s that it seemed to me that egg breakfast sandwiches–defined as cooked egg with cheese and meat (ham, sausage, bacon, etc.) inside bread (English muffins, toast, croissants, etc.) became standard at any cafeteria-style grill, and appeared in some form on almost any breakfast menu.
> 
> Does this timeline represent the advent of grilled egg breakfast sandwiches for anyone else? Or did they become a staple much earlier than I experienced?

I had the Breakfast Jack many times in the late 80s, and possibly earlier.

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**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\
**Post date:** [August 10, 2019, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-grilled-egg-sandwiches-become-standard-in-your-world-if-ever/838307/46 "2019-08-10T04:37:27Z")

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Forgot the link.

> **[Everything on the Jack in the Box Breakfast Menu, Ranked By Calories](https://www.franchisechatter.com/2017/06/24/everything-on-the-jack-in-the-box-breakfast-menu-ranked-by-calories/)**
>
> This guide lists all Jack in the Box breakfast menu items, by number of calories, from 143 calories for light eaters to 1,044 for those who want the heartiest of breakfasts.

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**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\
**Post date:** [August 10, 2019, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-grilled-egg-sandwiches-become-standard-in-your-world-if-ever/838307/47 "2019-08-10T05:16:11Z")

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I have been putting eggs between two pieces of buttered toast since I was a child.

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**Author:** ![Mighty\_Mouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mighty_mouse/32/7776_2.png) [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)\
**Post date:** [August 11, 2019, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-grilled-egg-sandwiches-become-standard-in-your-world-if-ever/838307/48 "2019-08-11T12:00:27Z")

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The cafeteria at my father’s workplace in Karachi Pakistan was offering a toasted egg sandwich (egg over hard in toasted bread) in 1955/57 for the equivalent of 11 US cents. With cheese 13 cents. Cheese was a pretty exotic food in Pakistan in the 1950s. As was tuna fish and mayonnaise, another offering at the same cafeteria.

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