An egg sandwich is a general term for any sandwich whose primary ingredient is egg. They may be made with fried, scrambled, poached, or hard boiled eggs or egg salad. The eggs might be placed on white, wheat, rye, or sourdough bread; English muffins; bagels; or croissants. A sandwich may be very simple, including little other than eggs and bread, or complex, such as eggs Benedict, a type of open-faced egg sandwich.
Simple egg sandwiches are often considered comfort food. Frequently made at home, bread may be buttered or coated with mayonnaise, ketchup, or other condiments. If eggs will be scrambled, they are usually cracked into a bowl and mixed first. Sometimes milk may be added to the egg mixture to help increase fluffiness. Salt and pepper is often added directly to the egg mixture as well. The egg mixture is then poured into a nonstick or buttered pan, cooked until no longer runny, and placed between the bread slices.
Fried eggs are made by cracking the eggs directly into a pan and flipping them once during cooking. Both the whites and the yolk are solid in a properly cooked fried egg. Small single egg pans can be found which allow the fried eggs to form a circular shape roughly the size of an English muffin. These eggs are commonly seen in breakfast sandwiches at fast food restaurants, such as McDonald's famous Egg McMuffin®.
Both scrambled and fried egg sandwiches may also have cheese — often American — or meats sandwiched with them. Bacon and sausage patties are popular meats included with these sandwiches. While fried egg sandwiches may be used with any bread type, English muffins are most commonly paired with fried eggs.
Hard-boiled eggs are made by boiling eggs for several minutes inside the shell. Once peeled, these eggs can be sliced and placed on bread or mashed with mayonnaise or Greek yogurt, lemon juice, salt and pepper, and a variety of spices and condiments to make egg salad. Egg salad sandwiches are often served with tomato slices or lettuce.
More complicated egg sandwiches, such as eggs Benedict, are offered at many restaurants. Eggs Benedict is an open-faced egg sandwich, meaning while it sits on a piece of bread — always an English muffin in this case — it lacks the top piece. On top of the English muffin is usually a piece of ham, though bacon may also be used. A poached egg, or one that has been cracked into boiling water to cook, sits on top of the meat. The sandwich is then topped with hollandaise sauce, a gourmet sauce consisting of egg yolk, butter, and seasoning.