160 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 160 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01An ostrich egg weighs about 1.4 kilograms. Roughly how many chicken eggs is that equivalent to?
Over 20
Despite the size, ostrich eggs are actually the smallest of any bird relative to the mother, at 1 to 4 percent of her body weight.
Q 02Which 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 03Which bird lays the smallest egg of any living species, weighing about half a gram?
Bee hummingbird
At the other extreme sits the ostrich's 1.5-kilogram egg, and the shape and size across species tracks the size of the adult bird.
Q 04The largest egg ever recorded, at 30 by 14 by 9 centimetres, came from which animal?
Whale shark
They usually hatch inside the mother; the ostrich still holds the record among living birds, though extinct elephant birds and some dinosaurs beat it.
Q 05What 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 06The 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 07Which mineral makes up 95 to 97 percent of a chicken eggshell?
Calcium carbonate
Because of this the shell dissolves in vinegar, which is the basis of the classic 'naked egg' science experiment.
Q 08A 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 09What are the spiral bands of tissue that hold the yolk in the centre of an egg white called?
Chalazae
The name comes from the Greek for 'hailstone'; the bands are most obvious in a very fresh egg cracked into a bowl.
Q 10A very fresh chicken egg has a small air cell and earns which US quality rating?
Grade AA
Grades are measured during candling, when the egg is held up to a light; as the air cell grows the grade drops through A to B.
Q 11What is the most abundant protein in egg white?
Ovalbumin
Egg white is about 90 percent water and 10 percent protein, and cooking almost doubles how much of that protein the body can absorb.
Q 12The yellow of an egg yolk comes from lutein and zeaxanthin, which belong to what class of pigments?
Carotenoids
The yolk also holds all the egg's fat and cholesterol and every one of its fat-soluble vitamins.
Q 13The greenish ring that forms around the yolk of an overcooked boiled egg is caused by which compound?
Iron(II) sulfide
It has little effect on flavour, and plunging the eggs into cold water straight after boiling stops it forming.
Q 21A century egg is cured in a mixture of clay, ash, salt, rice hulls and what?
Quicklime
The alkaline paste pushes the egg's pH to between 9 and 12, turning the white to dark jelly and the yolk creamy grey-green.
Q 22Balut, the Filipino fertilised duck egg, is typically incubated for how long before steaming?
14 to 21 days
Some eaters prefer it while the embryo is still mostly liquid; others want a chewier, more developed duckling.
Q 23A tea egg is also called a 'marble egg' because of what?
Cracks in the shell leave dark marbled lines on the white
Q 14Why do American supermarkets refrigerate their egg cartons when most European shops do not?
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 15A 2002 USDA analysis found roughly what proportion of eggs is contaminated with Salmonella?
One in 30,000
That works out to about 2.3 million of the 69 billion eggs produced a year, far rarer than the popular fear suggests.
Q 16Which country is by far the world's largest egg producer, at over 30 million tonnes a year?
China
Asia produces about 59 percent of the world's eggs; the United States is a distant second at around 6 million tonnes.
Q 17A hen bred for laying can produce roughly how many eggs per year?
Over 300
Wild junglefowl, the chicken's ancestor, lay only a small clutch or two a season; humans probably domesticated them for eggs before 7500 BCE.
Q 18Where did people first begin harvesting chicken eggs for food, around 1500 BCE?
Southeast Asia
Chickens reached Greece around 800 BCE, where until then the quail had been the main source of eggs.
Q 19Ancient Romans crushed their empty eggshells in their plates for what reason?
To stop evil spirits hiding in them
The habit survives as the superstition of pushing a spoon through the bottom of a finished boiled egg.
Q 20Which 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.
The boiled egg is cracked, then simmered again in tea, soy sauce and spices, and sold from street carts across China.
Q 24Lemuel Benedict claimed he invented eggs Benedict at the Waldorf in 1894 while seeking a cure for what?
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 25At Southern and Midwestern church suppers, deviled eggs go by which tamer adjective?
Dressed
'Devilled' has meant highly seasoned food since the 1700s; the same idea gives us deviled ham and fra diavolo sauce.
Q 26Which London department store claims to have invented the Scotch egg in 1738?
Fortnum & Mason
Rival theories point to a Whitby, Yorkshire snack once wrapped in fish paste, or to the Mughlai nargisi kofta.
Q 27The Denver omelette, also called a Western omelette, is traditionally filled with ham, onions and what?
Green bell peppers
In Spain the word tortilla means a thick potato omelette, while in Mexico it means the flatbread.
Q 28Shakshouka, 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 29The name of the confection meringue first appeared in print in 1692 in a cookbook by which French chef?
François Massialot
The same author published the earliest known crème brûlée recipe a year earlier; the word reached English in a 1706 translation.
Q 30What alternative name honouring a Norman town famous for its butter has hollandaise been given?
Sauce Isigny
The 'Dutch' name is thought to have stuck during the Franco-Dutch War; a recipe close to it appears in La Varenne's 1651 cookbook.