Egg Trivia
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
7correct to beat the crowd
156 free Egg trivia questions with answers — food & drink quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
45 free egg trivia questions with answers. An egg is one of the most ordinary things in the kitchen and one of the strangest objects in nature: a self-contained life-support system with 7,500 pores in its shell, a yolk held in place by spiral cords, and enough protein to feed a chick for three weeks. This quiz covers the science of the shell and yolk, the birds that lay the biggest and smallest eggs, and what humans have done with them, from Roman superstitions and medieval Lent to eggs Benedict, balut, century eggs and the West Point Eggnog Riot. It suits an Easter gathering, a food-themed pub quiz round, a classroom or a family game night. There are easy questions on egg colours and omelette fillings, and hard ones on Fabergé's workshop and French sauce history for anyone who wants a challenge. Every answer has been checked against a primary reference and each question carries its citation, so if a debate breaks out over whether the US really bans Kinder eggs, the source is right there.
30 of 156 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which New Zealand bird lays an egg weighing up to a quarter of its body weight?
Kiwi
A brown kiwi's single egg can weigh 450 grams; the bird's flightlessness means body weight is no obstacle to carrying it.
Q 02Which bird lays the smallest egg of any living species, weighing about half a gram?
Bee hummingbird
The bee hummingbird of Cuba, the world's smallest bird, lays pea-sized eggs about 6 millimetres long and well under a gram, the smallest of any living bird species.
Q 03The largest egg of any living animal, 30 centimetres long, came from which species?
Whale shark
A whale shark egg case 30 centimetres long, dredged from the Gulf of Mexico in 1953, is the largest egg known from a living animal; the species normally hatches its eggs internally.
Q 04What determines whether a hen lays white or brown eggs, according to a widely cited rule of thumb?
The colour of her earlobes
The brown pigment is protoporphyrin IX, a precursor of heme, and shell colour has no effect on taste or quality.
Q 05The Araucana, a chicken breed from Chile, is famous for laying eggs of what colour?
Blue
The American 'Easter egger' hybrids that lay blue and green eggs descend from it; the breed may also be rumpless, lacking a tail entirely.
Q 06Which mineral makes up 95 to 97 percent of a chicken eggshell?
Calcium carbonate
Calcium carbonate makes up about 95 percent of the shell, which is why an egg left in vinegar loses its shell: the acid dissolves the carbonate and releases carbon dioxide bubbles.
Q 07A hen's eggshell is not solid: roughly how many pores does it have for gas exchange?
About 7,500
The pores let the growing chick breathe, and the air cell at the blunt end grows as the egg ages, which is why old eggs float.
Q 08What are the spiral bands of tissue that hold the yolk in the centre of an egg white called?
Chalazae
The chalazae are twisted cords of protein that anchor the yolk in the albumen; the name comes from the Greek for hailstone, and they stand out most in a very fresh egg.
Q 09A very fresh chicken egg has a small air cell and earns which US quality rating?
Grade AA
Grade AA, the top USDA rating, requires an air cell no deeper than 1/8 inch and a thick, high white; grades fall to A and then B as the air cell grows during storage.
Q 10What is the most abundant protein in egg white?
Ovalbumin
Ovalbumin makes up about 54 percent of egg-white protein and is the protein that sets when the white is cooked, turning it from clear to opaque and firm.
Q 11The yellow of an egg yolk comes from lutein and zeaxanthin, which belong to what class of pigments?
Carotenoids
Lutein and zeaxanthin are carotenoids, the same family of yellow-orange pigments as the beta-carotene in carrots; hens cannot make them, so yolk colour tracks the pigments in their feed.
Q 12The greenish ring that forms around the yolk of an overcooked boiled egg is caused by which compound?
Iron(II) sulfide
Iron(II) sulfide forms a thin coating on the yolk with little effect on flavour; plunging eggs into cold water straight after boiling stops it.
Q 13Why do American supermarkets refrigerate their egg cartons when most European shops do not?
Q 21Balut, the Filipino fertilised duck egg, is typically incubated for how long before steaming?
14 to 21 days
Balut is incubated 14 to 21 days, well short of a duck's 28-day hatch; Filipino vendors favour about 17 days, when the embryo is still soft, while Vietnamese balut runs closer to 19 to 21.
Q 22A Chinese tea egg is also called a 'marble egg' because of what?
Cracks in the shell leave dark marbled lines on the white
Cracks in the shell leave dark marbled lines on the white when the boiled egg is simmered again in tea, soy sauce and spices; they are sold from street carts across China.
Q 23Lemuel Benedict claimed he invented eggs Benedict at the Waldorf in 1894 while seeking a cure for what?
US eggs are washed, stripping the cuticle
Unwashed European eggs keep their natural coating intact, so they can sit safely on a shelf, though the shells are dirtier.
Q 14A 2002 USDA analysis found roughly what proportion of eggs is contaminated with Salmonella?
One in 30,000
One in 30,000: the 2002 USDA risk analysis estimated about 2.3 million contaminated eggs among the 69 billion produced a year, far rarer than the popular fear suggests.
Q 15Which country is by far the world's largest egg producer, at over 30 million tonnes a year?
China
China produces roughly 40 percent of the world's eggs, around 30 million tonnes a year, several times the output of the next producers, the United States and India, at about 6 to 7 million tonnes each.
Q 16A hen bred for laying can produce roughly how many eggs per year?
Over 300
Over 300: a modern commercial laying hen produces more than 300 eggs a year, many times what its wild ancestor manages, thanks to millennia of selective breeding for year-round laying.
Q 17Chickens, the source of most eggs eaten today, were first domesticated in which region?
Southeast Asia
Chickens descend from the red junglefowl of Southeast Asia, where they were first domesticated; they reached Mesopotamia and Egypt by about 1500 BCE and Greece several centuries later.
Q 18Ancient Romans crushed their empty eggshells in their plates for what reason?
To stop evil spirits hiding in them
To stop evil spirits hiding in them, a habit that survives as the superstition of pushing a spoon through the bottom of a finished boiled egg.
Q 19Which of these was true of eggs during Lent in medieval Europe?
They were forbidden because of their richness
The pile-up of uneaten eggs before Easter is one reason decorated eggs became a feature of the holiday.
Q 20A century egg is cured in a mixture of clay, ash, salt, rice hulls and what?
Quicklime
Quicklime, calcium oxide, makes the curing paste strongly alkaline, pushing the egg's pH to between 9 and 12, which turns the white to dark jelly and the yolk creamy grey-green over weeks.
A hangover
He ordered toast, poached eggs, bacon and hollandaise; maître d' Oscar Tschirky swapped in ham and an English muffin, while Delmonico's insists it made the dish first in 1860.
Q 24At Southern and Midwestern church suppers, deviled eggs go by which tamer adjective?
Dressed
'Dressed eggs' avoids the word devil at church suppers; 'devilled' has meant highly seasoned food since the 1700s, the same idea behind deviled ham and fra diavolo sauce.
Q 25Which London department store claims to have invented the Scotch egg in 1738?
Fortnum & Mason
Fortnum & Mason says it devised the Scotch egg in 1738 as a traveller's snack; rival theories point to a Whitby, Yorkshire egg once wrapped in fish paste, or to the Mughlai nargisi kofta.
Q 26The Denver omelette, also called a Western omelette, is traditionally filled with ham, onions and what?
Green bell peppers
Green bell peppers, diced ham and onions are the standard, though there are many variations; in Spain 'tortilla' means a thick potato omelette.
Q 27Shakshouka, eggs poached in a spiced tomato and pepper sauce, originated in which region?
The Maghreb
The name means 'mixture' in Algerian Arabic; Maghrebi Jewish migrants brought it to Israel in the 1950s, where it was widely adopted.
Q 28The name of the confection meringue first appeared in print in 1692 in a cookbook by which French chef?
François Massialot
François Massialot's 1692 cookbook holds the first known printed use of 'meringue'; his 1691 edition carries the earliest crème brûlée recipe, and the word reached English in a 1706 translation of his work.
Q 29What alternative name honouring a Norman town famous for its butter has hollandaise been given?
Sauce Isigny
Sauce Isigny takes its name from Isigny-sur-Mer in Normandy, famed for its butter; Larousse Gastronomique records the alternative name, and a sauce close to hollandaise appears in La Varenne's 1651 cookbook.
Q 30Most food historians place the origin of mayonnaise in the port of Mahón on which Mediterranean island?
Menorca
Mahón is the capital of Menorca in the Balearics; the Duke of Richelieu's French troops took the port in 1756 during the Seven Years' War, which is when the sauce is thought to have been named.