History
The McDonald's egg sandwich was invented in 1972. Former McDonald's President Ray Kroc wrote that Herb Peterson and his assistant, Donald Greadel, the operator of a Santa Barbara, California, franchise, asked Kroc to look at something, without giving details because it was:
| “ | ...a crazy idea — a breakfast sandwich. It consisted of an egg that had been formed in a Teflon circle with the yolk broken, and was dressed with a slice of cheese and a slice of grilled ham. It was served open-faced on a toasted and buttered English muffin.... The advent of the Egg McMuffin opened up a whole new area of potential business for McDonald's, the breakfast trade. | ” |
In the 1970s, some McDonald's restaurants served Egg McMuffins all day as a promotion.
Several cities like Hong Kong serve Sausage & Egg McMuffins around the clock, due to the prominent use of the egg in meals other than breakfast in those countries, the muffins and sausage patty there are softer than the usual variant to suit local customers. US restaurants usually restrict the item to the breakfast menu. This is mainly because the grill temperature required to cook beef patties is significantly different from the temperature at which eggs are cooked, according to Herb Peterson in a special episode of Unwrapped.
Peterson had first presented the Egg McMuffin at the Santa Barbara franchise without the knowledge of McDonald's Corporate, which at the time served only lunch and dinner at all their locations. When Corporate discovered Mr. Peterson's unauthorized breakfast offerings, it initially reprimanded him and threatened him with a number of penalties for breaking the franchise agreement.
The first McDonald's Corporate authorized Egg McMuffin was served at the Belleville, New Jersey McDonald's in 1972.
Read more about this topic: Mc Muffin
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