McMuffins are cheap, tasty, and simpler than ever to come by, so it's easy to take these
'lil breakfast buddies for granted.
But the iconic McDonald's sandwich is anything but an ordinary pile of eggs, cheese, and
Canadian bacon.
Here's the fascinating truth of McDonald's Egg McMuffin.
The McMuffin was dreamed up by one Herb Peterson, a McDonald's franchise owner with three locations
in Santa Barbara, California.
A fan of Eggs Benedict, Peterson wanted to design a Benny-inspired sandwich that would
give him an excuse to open his restaurants before lunchtime.
Thus, in 1971, the pioneering restaurateur invented the Egg McMuffin: that tantalizing
tower of toasted English muffin, egg, Canadian bacon, and melted American cheese.
McDonald's president Ray Kroc was hesitant at first, but was sold after his first bite.
It took six years to get the Egg McMuffin on menus of McDonald's nationwide.
By 1976, however, Americans were hooked.
Soon, McDonald's extended its hours and beefed up its breakfast menu with more AM-only treats.
Following the success of the Egg McMuffin, McDonald's breakfast tactics were predictably
imitated by competitors.
In 1983, Burger King launched the Croissan'Wich, a breakfast sandwich built from a croissant,
egg, and cheese with an optional choice of meat.
Lagging far behind was Taco Bell, which introduced a breakfast menu with breakfast tacos, burritos,
and the short-lived waffle taco in 2014.
"What is this, a 'Waffle Taco'?
What's next, a 'Pancake Enchilada'?"
"It's a slippery slope, I tell ya!"
Competitors like Wendy's, Sonic, and Subway also rolled out their own breakfast menus,
but for all their efforts, McDonald's continues to reign as the most popular fast-food breakfast
spot in the U.S.
According to Foursquare, McDonald's ranks number one for breakfast in every state in
the U.S. except for Oklahoma, as of the making of this video.
Oklahomans preferred Sonic for breakfast, but ranked McDonald's as a close second.
For 13 consecutive months beginning in 2012, McDonald's saw sales fall or remain flat.
Ronald McDonald got an eerie new makeover.
The restaurant starting making "artisan" chicken sandwiches, but they never really took off.
Customers left and right were ditching hamburgers in favor of tacos.
But when McDonald's unleashed its all-day breakfast and made the McMuffin accessible
24/7 in October 2015, everything changed.
Following the extension of breakfast hours, sales rose by nearly 6 percent -- the largest
increase McDonald's had seen in nearly four years.
Now, McDonald's breakfast counts for 25 percent of its U.S. sales — and shareholders are
in love.
“I love you."
"I think you're the Egg McMuffin of boyfriends."
The McMuffin's perfectly round egg patties may look suspicious, but there's a good reason
for the shape.
McMuffin inventor Herb Peterson commissioned a local blacksmith to create a stainless-steel,
teflon-coated, six-ring tool to cook the egg into a circular patty that fit onto the muffin
perfectly.
To this day, McDonald's uses similar contraptions, depending on the location.
But because the Egg McMuffin's egg is a little too perfect, customers have speculated that
they're fake, or are made using an industrial-sized version of that egg tube machine from those
late-night infomercials.
"Just crack, pour, and watch them pop up in no time!"
But McMuffins indeed come from fresh eggs, weighed to ensure they are the perfect size,
cooked on a normal griddle.
In fact, the Egg McMuffin is the only item on the menu made from fresh eggs, making it
a cut above the rest.
"It's the Egg McMuffin of automobiles."
"I'll take it."
McDonald's gets a bad rap as being the quintessential purveyor of unhealthy American cuisine.
To the company's credit — they're making major strides to provide healthier options
these days.
But long before ditching the artificial preservatives in McNuggets and soft serve and taking soda
off the Happy Meal menu, McDonald's offered at least one kinda-healthy food: the Egg McMuffin.
Seriously!
The Egg McMuffin is made with a real egg that is poached and not fried.
The classic version of the sandwich has a small circle of Canadian bacon, a single slice
of American cheese, and real butter.
Together, this all adds up to a reasonable 290 calories and 12 grams of fat.
In terms of unhealthy breakfast options, you could definitely do a lot worse.
Consider, for example, McDonald's own steak, egg, and cheese biscuit, with its 530 calories
and 30 grams of fat.
And don't even get us started on sugary, empty-calorie donuts.