Breakfast as a phenomenon: Where did the habit of eating eggs come from?
The meals we regularly return to in the morning tend to be quick to prepare and reliably filling. That's why eggs are one of the stalwarts. Scrambled, poached or hard-boiled, in a glass or in the form of an omelette - in different parts of the world, people prepare them in various forms. But when did eggs get on the morning menu? And have attitudes changed towards this type of breakfast - and breakfast in general?
Raw eggs and shells were eaten.
People have eaten eggs since time immemorial, in almost all eras and cultures. In prehistoric times, it was the eggs of various birds, the ancient Egyptians enjoyed the eggs of pelicans and the move towards agriculture brought with it the rearing of ducks, hens and quails. Getting eggs by robbing a nest or domesticating poultry was simply easier than going out with a club to hunt game. Eggs were initially eaten raw and, apart from the white and yolk, our ancestors ate the finely pounded shells to make their teeth and bones stronger. Sometimes they even used them as "toothpaste".
However, it wasn't until the ancient Romans that humans started eating eggs in the morning. They were the ones who introduced breakfast, the third meal of the day (until then, they only ate twice a day, around noon and then around 4pm). The Romans called the first meal of the day the ientaculum. It was a smaller meal that they had right after waking up, at sunrise. It usually consisted of eggs if they were on hand, followed by bread, olives, a few pieces of fruit and cheese, olive oil or honey, and possibly cold meat left over from dinner.
Breakfast is a sin!
In the Middle Ages, breakfast almost disappeared from menus, belonging mainly to the upper classes. Unlike the Romans, medieval Europeans generally ate only two large meals a day. This was linked both to a more hectic way of life and to the fact that in the late Middle Ages, fasting began to be observed. If a medieval household ate breakfast, it was modest (bread, cottage cheese, oatmeal or cereal porridge). Eggs, meat and milk were handled very carefully - the diet was enriched only rarely with meat from farmed or hunted animals, whether game or fish.
As the American culinary historian Heather Arndt Anderson notes in her book Breakfast: A History that doctors and clergymen alike considered the morning meal to be gluttony, one of the seven cardinal sins. The influential Dominican priest Thomas Aquinas, like the entire Catholic Church, condemned gluttony and proclaimed that those who eat breakfast usually have other "lustful" appetites (not just for beer or wine).
Thus, breakfast in the Middle Ages was reserved primarily for children, the sick, the elderly, and occasionally manual labourers who needed to replenish their energy before work. However, people tended to avoid the morning meal - breakfast was a sign of either low social status or physical and mental weakness. Fasting was a victory of the spirit over the appetites of the flesh.
Poached eggs? A trend as early as the 17th century
Egg recipes took over the kitchens in the 15th and 16th centuries. Those for whom meat was not available kept chickens. At the same time, the Church removed eggs from the list of animal foods that were not allowed to be eaten during Lent. The breakfast was rediscovered by the nobility, but the working class were also entitled to it in order to have the strength to labour. Usually a thick soup or various kinds of porridge were served.
Eggs came back into the breakfast game in the first half of the 17th century, when the English physician Tobias Venner described egg breakfasts as beneficial to health. He recommended breakfasting on lost eggs with a little salt, pepper and vinegar served on buttered bread. The popularity of eggs for breakfast across Europe is evidenced by one of the earliest English-language cookbooks, The Closet Opened (1669), in which Sir Kenelm Digby collected both contemporary recipes for traditional English dishes and recipes collected during his travels in Europe. It is clear from the publication just how popular poaching was.
A sign of luxury
As time went on, dinner became increasingly late. People felt the need for a third meal of the day, and so during the 18th and 19th centuries, breakfast was a permanent fixture on menus. Even then, people fell in love with morning coffee and tea and sipped them for breakfast with a fork. While historically breakfasts tended to be simpler and less varied, with bread or porridge made from crushed grain being the most common, the Industrial Revolution changed the shape of breakfasts. Workers needed a hearty meal before an exhausting day in the factory, and so breakfast became a full meal for them.
The English (and later American) breakfast, which consisted of eggs, sausages, bacon, beans, mushrooms, and tomatoes, all accompanied by potato chips or toasted slices of white bread, was at its peak at this time - it was essentially a breakfast dinner. Cookbooks advised housewives to prepare just eggs for their husbands before they left for work, an economical and nutritious staple.
For the wealthy, who already had electricity, the newly introduced meal was an opportunity to show off their simultaneously invented appliances - the wealthy class in England and America held breakfast parlours in the morning, where omelettes, among other things, were served. But the socialites and the workers soon began to be troubled by dyspepsia as a result of excessive egg consumption. Nausea, heartburn, abdominal pain, flatulence, constipation and diarrhoea plagued the enthusiastic consumers of heavy, greasy breakfasts. So John Harvey Kellogg invented breakfast cereals in 1863 - and suddenly eggs had to fight for a place at the table.
In this country, eggs became a common part of morning meals in the 19th century - in towns and countryside, a 'water' soup or 'oukrop' was often cooked. It was simple: torn old bread was poured over boiling salted water (sometimes left over after boiling potatoes with cumin), grated garlic was added and the soup was sautéed. People from the wealthier classes used to have oukrop with cream and egg.
Why did egg breakfasts disappear for a while?
During the Protectorate, even the most basic things were suddenly scarce. Therefore, a rationing system was introduced, which determined for each citizen the amount of which foodstuffs and other commodities he could buy in a predetermined shop. Eggs - like meat, butter, flour, sugar and bread - were found in very limited quantities in most households, and so (at least until the 1953 currency reform) breakfast was again rare.
In the following decades, the popularity of eggs was determined by current trends - for example in the 1990s, eggs fell out of favour, especially among women who wanted to lose weight. The yolk, in particular, was considered too calorific, and had a reputation of "the great cholesterol scarecrow".
263 eggs a year, not just for breakfast
Today, we are no longer afraid of eggs on our plates. Food and Agriculture Organization statistics published by the United Nations at the end of 2022 show that global egg production continues to grow, increasing by an average of 3% a year over the last ten years. In 2000, the world produced 51 million tonnes of eggs; twenty years later, it was almost 87 million tonnes.
Asia has traditionally been at the top (accounting for around 62% of global production in 2020), followed by America (around 20%), Europe (around 13%) and Africa (around 4%). The Japanese are the world's leading egg consumers, consuming around 320 eggs a year, which means almost one a day. For comparison - the average Czech ate 263 eggs in 2021.
Egg breakfasts are popular at all latitudes - and are often associated with regional cuisine. Although every culture has its own favourite breakfast that it sticks to, people in the west are getting bolder. Breakfast often evolves into brunch, which is eaten in cafes and bistros.
The first meal of the day also often turns into a social event and becomes an excuse for a friendly get-together or a business or work meeting. This shift brings with it the opportunity and desire to try new foods - and so we gradually find that it pays to experiment in the kitchen in the morning (at least sometimes!).
You've probably already tried a French omelette or eggs Benedict, originally an American speciality - but have you tried tamagoyaki, a Japanese omelette made from several layers of beaten eggs? Or perico, Venezuelan fried eggs mixed with sautéed onions, peppers and tomatoes, served in arepas? Or how about the savoury banitsa pie made from filo pastry and filled with whisked eggs, Balkan cheese and flavoured with garlic, a dish loved in Bulgaria?
Source: Heather Arndt Anderson: Breakfast: A History, Christian Grataloup: Le monde dans nos tasses: L'étonnante histoire du petit-déjeuner, Jiří Štěpek: Ration Papers from the so-called Protectorate, Josy Marty-Dufaut: Cuisiner et manger au Moyen Âge, Melitta Weis Adamson: Food Through History - Food in Medieval Times, Tomáš Pich: Eggs and Egg Products in Human Nutrition, The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
