Why Do We Eat Eggs for Breakfast? The History Behind the Habit

EGGS and breakfast seem to belong together. Fried, poached, boiled or scrambled, eggs appear on breakfast tables around the world. Add toast and coffee and the combination feels almost inevitable.

But why? There is nothing about an egg that makes it better suited to 8 am than 6 pm. Chickens certainly don’t produce them with serving instructions attached.

So how did eggs become one of our most familiar breakfast foods? The answer stretches back centuries. It involves farming, religion, changing meal habits and, eventually, some very clever marketing.

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Did people always eat eggs for breakfast?

Humans have eaten eggs for thousands of years. Long before chickens were domesticated, people collected wild bird eggs as a valuable source of food. Once chickens became part of farming life, eggs became easier to obtain regularly.

They were portable, versatile and required little preparation. They could be boiled, fried or cooked into other dishes. That made them useful at any time of day.

The idea that eggs specifically belonged to breakfast came much later. For much of history, breakfast itself wasn’t the clearly defined meal we know today.

Breakfast hasn’t always been such a big deal

Our modern pattern of breakfast, lunch and dinner can seem timeless. It isn’t. Meal habits have changed considerably across cultures and centuries.

In medieval Europe, for example, attitudes towards breakfast varied according to class, occupation and religious practice. Labourers often needed food before beginning physical work. Wealthier people could sometimes wait until later.

Religious customs also influenced when certain foods were eaten. Christian fasting rules restricted animal products on particular days and during certain periods. Eggs were among the foods affected.

As those restrictions changed, so did eating habits. Eggs gradually became an increasingly practical choice for the first meal of the day.

Fresh eggs made sense in the morning

Before refrigeration and supermarkets, people ate according to what was available close to home.

For households that kept chickens, fresh eggs were an obvious food source. Hens generally lay during daylight hours. Collecting eggs became part of the daily rhythm of farms and households.

Eggs also cooked quickly. That mattered when people had physical work ahead of them. A cooked egg could provide protein and energy without requiring hours of preparation.

Over time, practicality helped strengthen the connection between eggs and the morning meal.

But eggs weren’t alone. Bread, porridge, cheese, fish and leftovers have all appeared on breakfast tables at different times and places.

When did bacon and eggs become a breakfast classic?

This is where the story gets particularly interesting. Bacon and eggs may feel like an ancient breakfast partnership, but their modern popularity owes something to 20th-century marketing.

In the 1920s, American public relations pioneer Edward Bernays worked on a campaign for a bacon company. The campaign promoted the idea that a hearty breakfast was preferable to a light one. Bacon and eggs were presented as an ideal combination.

The message worked. Bacon and eggs became increasingly embedded in American breakfast culture. That influence travelled well beyond the United States. Britain already had its tradition of substantial cooked breakfasts. Australia developed its own fondness for eggs, bacon, sausages, tomatoes and toast.

Eventually, the cooked breakfast became as much a cultural idea as a meal.

Why are eggs such good breakfast food?

Tradition isn’t the only reason eggs have endured. They’re genuinely convenient.

Eggs cook quickly and can be prepared in many ways. They also provide high-quality protein along with several important vitamins and minerals. Then there is the sheer variety.

A boiled egg can be eaten almost anywhere. Scrambled eggs take minutes. Poached eggs turn toast into a meal. An omelette can accommodate whatever happens to be lurking in the fridge.

That combination of nutrition, convenience and versatility has helped eggs retain their breakfast crown. But it doesn’t explain why we continue to think of them primarily as morning food.

Habit does much of that work.

Do other countries eat eggs for breakfast?

Absolutely, although not always in ways familiar to Australians. Breakfast traditions vary enormously around the world.

In Japan, eggs might appear as tamagoyaki, a rolled omelette with a distinctive layered texture. Raw egg can also be mixed with hot rice for tamago kake gohan.

Chinese breakfasts can include boiled or tea-infused eggs. In parts of the Middle East and North Africa, eggs feature in dishes such as shakshuka.

Elsewhere, breakfast may include rice, soup, noodles, beans, fish or foods Australians associate more readily with lunch or dinner.

Our idea of what constitutes “breakfast food” is largely cultural. After all, there is no nutritional clock inside an egg.

Why don’t we eat eggs for dinner more often?

Actually, plenty of cultures do. Eggs appear in curries, noodle dishes, salads, soups, rice dishes and savoury pastries. They’re eaten throughout the day across Asia, Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

Even in Australia, quiche and frittata have long escaped breakfast’s gravitational pull. The omelette sometimes has a harder time.

Perhaps we’ve become so accustomed to seeing eggs on café breakfast menus that we unconsciously assign them a morning shift.

Yet eggs make considerable sense at night. They’re quick to prepare and easy to combine with vegetables. They’re also useful when the fridge contains several ingredients but nothing resembling a planned meal.

That’s why I’ve made the case elsewhere on Jocelyn Magazine for eggs for dinner.

So, who decided eggs were breakfast food?

Nobody did. At least, not by themselves. There was no single moment when someone declared that eggs belonged to breakfast. Instead, the association developed gradually.

Availability played a part. So did farming routines, religious traditions and changing ideas about breakfast. Later, advertising helped reinforce combinations such as bacon and eggs.

Eventually, repetition did the rest. We grew accustomed to eggs arriving in the morning. Restaurants put them on breakfast menus. Families served them before school and work. The association became so familiar that we stopped questioning it.

Perhaps that’s the most interesting part of food history. The things we regard as traditions often have surprisingly complicated beginnings.

Eggs are no exception. They may have conquered breakfast, but they were never really breakfast food. They were simply food.

And, as an omelette at dinnertime proves, they still are.

 

Inspired to put eggs back on the menu?

From perfectly poached eggs to omelettes, baked eggs and brunch favourites, there are countless ways to cook this everyday ingredient. Browse egg cookbooks and kitchen essentials on Amazon Australia for a little inspiration.