From pre-made patties to freshly cracked eggs
Tim Hortons recently made a major change to their breakfast sandwiches. No longer are the spongey, yellow egg patties slapped inside an English muffin a part of your breakfast routine, but instead is a freshly cracked and cooked-on-site egg. With so many people desiring healthier options for their meals, this egg switch seems like a great idea — who wouldn’t want to have an actual egg instead of a mysterious yellow patty for breakfast?
Surprisingly, many Canadians are in a fit about these freshly cracked eggs, claiming the previous option was much tastier. One of the leaders of this revolt is Sammy Wade. She created a petition calling for Tim Hortons to bring their egg patty back. As of the beginning of March, the petition has already hit 5,000 signatures. Wade told Black Press Media that “The freshly cracked egg is gross, rubbery, and stringy for some odd reason. It needs to be put down.” Mary Danieli, someone who signed the petition, stated: “This new version is definitely rubbery. The cheese doesn’t even stick to the egg — it slides right off and into my lap. If I wanted rubbery, overdone eggs, I’d go to McD’s. Seriously, this was a shitty concept that you took from another fast food joint. Bring back the patty, please.”
Before the new sandwiches rolled out across the country, the restaurant conducted test markets and reported positive reviews from the subjects. The eggs Tim Hortons now uses are from Canadian farmers and boast the Egg Quality Assurance sticker, which according to Tim Hortons press release, “signifies the use of the highest quality Canadian eggs that meet national food safety and animal welfare standards.” With positive reviews and a move to support Canadian farmers, it looks like Tims had good reason to think the new breakfast sandwiches would be a success.
Within the controversy of the new eggs, there’s one thing that hasn’t been discussed very much: the contents of the old egg patty. We know that they weren’t just simple freshly cracked eggs, so what were so many of us eating beforehand? After scouring the internet there were very few sources listing what was in the egg patty. One source states that the patty was 63 per cent fat, which is a fairly normal fat content for an egg product. A post on Reddit lists the long line of ingredients in the patty, which still includes whole eggs but also a few other additives like soybean oil, dairy products, and salt. Many of us who are in favour of the freshly cracked eggs might go straight to tearing down the old patty in order to glorify Tims’ new choice, but from the looks of it, the contents of the patty were somewhat standard and nothing worse than the other processed foods we often eat on a regular basis.
This may be a major change for Tim Hortons, but McDonald’s has been serving freshly cracked eggs in their breakfast sandwiches since 1976. A&W even allows you to choose how you like your eggs cooked. With that, we can see that Tims was one of the few fast food restaurants that didn’t serve freshly cracked eggs. Therefore, maybe the outrage does seem a bit more justified, as now the only breakfast fast-food options remaining are eggs that not everyone prefers. When going to a diner we’re able to order eggs exactly how we want them, and it seems that scrambled eggs or omelettes best reflects what Tims previously served. Maybe if there was a way to scramble eggs in a quick few seconds Tim Hortons could appeal to everyone for their breakfast.
Even though it is reassuring to know that Tims’ previous egg option wasn’t as terrible as some initially thought, I don’t think it beats a real and whole egg. If Tim Hortons could scramble eggs instead, they might appeal to a wider audience. Until then, freshly cracked is the way it is, and for me, I’m perfectly okay with that.
