What Goes Into That Folded Egg At McDonald's?

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McDonald's has been serving breakfast since the 1970s, with fast food favorites like the Egg McMuffin, breakfast biscuits, hotcakes, and hash browns. If you've enjoyed a Mickey D's meal in the morning, you've maybe wondered how exactly that spongy, folded yellow egg on your bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit is made. Luckily, Chowhound has found the answer for you and it's fairly simple. 

Given that it's fast food, it might not come as a surprise to learn that McDonald's folded eggs aren't made with fresh eggs in the restaurant. However, the good news is that they are made with real eggs. A McDonald's supplier makes them at their facility using liquid eggs, which are simply eggs that have been removed from their shell, pasteurized, and re-packaged, typically in a carton to make them easy to pour. The eggs are cooked, folded, and immediately flash-frozen before being shipped to McDonald's locations. Once at the restaurant, they are heated on the grill with butter to make them nice and creamy again before being served. 

Not all the eggs at McDonald's are made from frozen. Just as there is only one McDonald's burger that isn't cooked from frozen, there's also one McDonald's breakfast sandwich that includes a fresh-cracked egg. In fact, there are several other types of eggs made at McDonald's. 

McDonald's various egg-based breakfast items are made with four different types of eggs: folded eggs, round eggs, scrambled eggs, or burrito eggs. The round eggs are made in-house with fresh, USDA Grade A eggs which get cracked into circular molds to create the perfect shape for the round sandwiches. To recreate your own perfectly shaped McMuffin at home, it helps to have an egg ring like the Ameupin Stainless Steel Egg Rings for Frying Eggs or an egg pan like the Bobikuke Egg Pan which can cook multiple eggs at once. 

Mickey D's scrambled eggs are also made in-house, but using liquid eggs instead of freshly cracked eggs. These also get cooked on the grill with butter. Meanwhile, like the folded eggs, the eggs used in their sausage burritos are liquid eggs that are pre-made by their supplier and flash frozen before being delivered to the restaurants. The sausage burrito eggs are made with other ingredients including seasonings, tomatoes, green chilies, sausage, and onions. McDonald's employees prepare them in the kitchen using butter for moisture and flavor. 

Luckily, if you don't love the folded egg, which, truthfully, can be a bit rubbery sometimes, you might be able to ask for a different one. If you're a fan of the freshly cracked round egg instead of the flash-frozen folded egg, check out a guide on how to get fresh eggs on your McDonald's breakfast sandwich every time.