User talk:MacGyverMagic/In Progress/Eggs and soldiers

eggs and soldiers

 * (discussion copied from WP:RD/M)

My 4 year old daughter would like to know where the term eggs and soldiers come from after having her eggs and soldiers for breakfast this morning. I have searched on the web to no conclusion-help,any ideas,many thanks,Denise


 * Yup, I got nowhere too, except a suggestion that it was because lines of cut toast looked like ranks of soldiers - "crispy strips of buttered toast were lined up like little soldiers"; and another that when dipped, the yolk formed a soldier-like helmet. There might, I suppose, be some connection with Humpty-Dumpty, who could not be put back together by all the kings's horses & men ... sadly just speculation, no well referenced information --Tagishsimon (talk)


 * I was completely unaware of this term until reading this question, and I feel I've been deprived lo these many years. We don't seem to have an article on Eggs and soldiers, so, the toast is cut into strips; how are the eggs prepared?  --LarryMac 18:00, 8 September 2006 (UTC)


 * Boiled eggs. And the bread isn't always (and shouldn't be, for me) toasted.  violet/riga (t) 20:51, 8 September 2006 (UTC)


 * I might be way off, but I came to think of French Toast, which is named akin to "poor knights" in several languages of Northern Europe (likely calqued); British English Poor Knights of Windsor, German Arme Ritter, Danish/Norwegian Arme riddere, Swedish Fattiga riddare, Finnish Köyhät ritarit. 惑乱 分からん 18:06, 8 September 2006 (UTC)


 * Still not an answer to the original question, but in my fascination, I found this article which has a nice picture for ignorant Yanks such as myself. --LarryMac 18:16, 8 September 2006 (UTC)


 * The OED doesn't record this colloquial usage in print until 1966, but it must have been around for some time before then.--Shantavira 19:46, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

Dipping white bread in eggs? Honestly it's revolting --Froth 20:05, 8 September 2006 (UTC)


 * There's a fan site but they use toast, bloody heathens. And just in case the soldier cutting machine in LarryMac's link was not enough there is always this. And the I've used the term since I was a kid which would put it before 1966. On the other hand there is this. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 23:46, 8 September 2006 (UTC)


 * Surely toast has a practical advantage over untoasted bread in its rigidity. With fresh bread it would get pretty messy, one would think. Then again, war is messy, so maybe thats appropriate.  Rockpock e  t  06:22, 9 September 2006 (UTC)


 * My mother used to make little deep fried bread triangles to go with pea soup. She called these 'soldaatjes' or 'little soldiers'. Too similar to be a coincidence, but Googling it doesn't give exactly this variety, although something similar also seems to go well with spinach. And I now remember a smaller variety is also served with gazpacho. That article says it's not necessarily made of tomatoes and that "bread is the ingredient that really identifies a gazpacho". So my mother unwittingly made gazpacho. DirkvdM 08:24, 9 September 2006 (UTC)