The Fancy Breakfast That Inspired McDonald's Egg McMuffin

McDonald's breakfast menu is extremely popular, raking in more than $2 billion annually. The Egg McMuffin is one item on Mickey D's breakfast menu that's a particular fan favorite.

While the Egg McMuffin may be a hit today, it took a while to get there. The Egg McMuffin was created by one of the fast food chain's franchisees, Herb Peterson, thanks to his love of Eggs Benedict. His goal was to step up the company's breakfast menu by adding his favorite dish.

Peterson, who owned a McDonald's restaurant in California, first came up with the idea in 1971. However, it wasn't until 1975 that the McDonald's Egg McMuffin was available across all locations in the United States. Of course, the journey to get there wasn't such a simple one. Here's the interesting story of how a plate of Eggs Benedict was transformed into a fast food breakfast item at Mcdonald's.

When Peterson first came up with the McDonald's Egg McMuffin idea, he decided to try making it as similar to Eggs Benedict as possible. A classic Eggs Benedict recipe calls for poached eggs, an English muffin, Canadian bacon, and hollandaise sauce.

To recreate the dish, Peterson created an open-faced egg sandwich on an English muffin using the same ingredients as Eggs Benedict, including a packaged hollandaise sauce. However, he quickly discovered that the packaged version of the sauce wouldn't cut it. Peterson switched it out for American cheese and was satisfied with the result.

In 1972, Peterson started market-testing his new dish, served with jam and honey for diners to add to their meal. Although the menu item was a hit and wound up being introduced as part of the official McDonald's breakfast menu, it did change a bit. For one thing, the jam and honey were removed completely. Secondly, the company started making it as a sandwich rather than serving it open-faced.

Aside from that, however, the dish is largely the same. It still consists of a fresh egg, Canadian bacon, American cheese, and an English muffin, true to Peterson's original vision.

If an Egg McMuffin still leaves you craving Eggs Benedict, McDonald's offers other Eggs Benedict-inspired dishes at various locations worldwide.

In Spain, you can order a Signature Double Egg Benedictine Burger. This hefty hamburger features two beef patties, gouda cheese, bacon, crispy fried onions, an egg, and classic hollandaise sauce.

Another Eggs Benedict-style dish you can try can be found in New Zealand. McDonald's New Zealand serves a breakfast dish called the NYC Benedict Bagel. This dish is similar to an Egg McMuffin, except it's served on a toasted bagel and includes real hollandaise sauce and American cheese.

Alternatively, if you don't want to travel to Spain or New Zealand, you can add a packet of McDonald's breakfast sauce to your meal. Just know that this hollandaise sauce spinoff is only available in Baltimore, Washington, DC, and Chicago. So, if you don't live near one of those cities, you'll still have to make do with a plain old Egg McMuffin.