Why American Bars Stopped Serving Free Boiled Eggs

There was once a time in America when you could walk into a bar, order a drink, and enjoy a free lunch. It was actually expected that you would eat while chuffing down a brew, and boiled eggs were always at hand. Pickled eggs eventually replaced the regular crack-and-peel boiled egg, but even those have virtually disappeared from bars. This could partly be blamed on a marked increase in salmonella-induced illnesses in the 1980s. 

In 1987, an epidemic of food poisoning hit the elderly and chronically ill, nine of whom died, and the outbreak was linked to a major Iowan egg producer. As a result, the Food and Drug Administration designated that raw eggs were a "potentially hazardous food," and restaurants and other establishments that served eggs were offered strongly worded guidelines for only using pasteurized eggs that were properly cooked. 

Today, the FDA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture regulate the production and distribution of eggs, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention focuses on the sanitation and preparation of eggs in restaurants and offers guidance to local health inspectors. Is it any wonder that the humble boiled egg has vanished from the American bar scene? With a few exceptions, the boiled egg is nearly gone with the dodo bird and replaced with deviled eggs or Scotch eggs, which, of course, aren't offered free of charge as they once were. It's a far cry from the boiled egg's rather lurid origin as a bar staple in the 1800s.

There are two origin stories, but the most likely scenario is in 1838 when a plate of food was served with every drink at La Bourse de Maspero, a coffeehouse, bar, and slave exchange rolled into one New Orleans establishment. This clever ploy for retaining and gaining barflies proved popular, and by 1875, several bars in New Orleans were offering free lunch. Most bars had plenty of eggs on hand for a variety of egg-white-based cocktails, and when salted, a hard-boiled egg was the perfect snack for getting patrons to drink more. Frequented by the rich and poor alike, saloons across the U.S. began serving free lunch at 11 a.m. and even as early as 9 a.m. Most bar denizens were men, and they weren't particularly fussy about where they dumped the egg shells, and saloon-keepers switched to serving boiled pickled eggs instead.

The practice of pickling boiled eggs began in 17th-century France, and since they had a longer expiration date, pickled eggs became very popular in England and Germany too. With the influx of German emigres to the U.S., saloons plied their patrons with pickled eggs, which they gobbled while quaffing back beer. Sanitation doesn't seem to have been a problem, although a famous death-by-Moe's-pickled-egg episode of "The Simpsons" may have sown seeds of doubt in some modern-day minds. You can get a sense of why pickled eggs were all the rage by pickling an herby batch of eggs yourself and washing them down with German-style beers.