Type Toast | Place of origin United Kingdom | |
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Similar Boiled egg, Vegemite, Creamed eggs on toast, Poached egg, Cheese on toast | ||
A soldier is a thin strip of toast; the strips that a slice is cut into are reminiscent of soldiers on parade. The toast is sliced in this manner so that it can be dipped into a soft boiled egg that has had the top of its shell removed. Many people also enjoy "marmite soldiers" in the UK or "vegemite soldiers" in Australia which follow the same principle and are spread with Marmite or Vegemite respectively.
The name soldier actually derives from an abstraction from "shoulders" and refers to the classical way of serving the egg in the centre with the toast on either side, looking much like a head with shoulders. Over the years it became linked to the nursery rhyme "Humpty Dumpty."
In 2005 The Daily Telegraph reported the invention of a device for cutting bread into soldiers. Shaped cutters to produce soldiers shaped like human soldiers are also available.
History
The specific term "eggs with soldiers" dates only from the 1960s, the earlier term "boiled egg with shoulders" appears in the 1855 cookbook Soyer's Shilling Cookery for the People. The modern phrase first appeared in print in 1966 in Nicolas Freeling's novel The Dresden Green (where it is used to eat soup). It seems likely that it was either popularised or invented in 1965 in a series of TV Commercials for eggs starring Tony Hancock and Patricia Hayes.