Eggstraordinary Facts

Here are some eggstraordinary facts about eggs. Have you got a fact about eggs that Q doesn’t know?  Email QtheLion@britegg.co.uk and let him know!

• In Britain, we eat nearly 10 billion eggs a year; that's 26 million every day, which placed end to end would reach from the earth to the moon.
• Boiled eggs are the most popular way to eat eggs, followed by scrambled and fried.
• The fastest omelette maker is American egg-centric Howard Helmer who can rustle up 427 omelettes in 30 minutes.
• People have decorated and given eggs to each other in the springtime for hundreds of years, as a symbol of the new life which grows in the spring.
• Eggs provide lots of the essential nutrients for a balanced diet, including most of the vitamins the body needs and a wide range of important minerals, including iron and calcium.
• The largest egg ever had five yolks and was 31cm around the long axis.
• The heaviest egg weighed 454g - that's six times heavier than a Large egg from the shops.
• The world's largest omelette was made in Madrid from 5,000 eggs by chef Carlos Fernandez. It weighed 1,320lbs.
• The longest throw of a fresh egg - without breaking it - is 98.51 metres. The record was achieved in Texas, USA in 1978.
• The world record for pancake flipping is 349 flips in 2 minutes and the largest pancake ever tossed measured 15m in diameter.

How about some myths and fables!

Eggs Legends

• The tradition of decorating eggs, especially at Eastertide originated in China thousands of years ago. They would decorate eggs to celebrate the return of Spring after the hard winter. The practice travelled to Egypt and the Middle East and then to Europe.

• France’s most dazzling monarch Louis XIV enjoyed boiled eggs and delighted his courtiers by the deftness in which he sliced off their tops with a single stroke.

• Queen Victoria breakfasted on boiled eggs using a golden egg cup and spoon.

• Which came first – the chicken or the egg? According to the Bible, it was the chicken:

“And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.  And God said, “Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creatures that had life and fowl that may fly about the earth and the open firmament of heaven” Genesis 1:20

• In some parts of France, brides break an egg for luck just before they enter their new home.