A few years back, both Ayr and I were convinced, we would NEVER be able to pull off eggs for our breakfasts. We didn’t like the taste of eggs at fast food restaurants. They are rubbery, and don’t have good flavor. There are a few (better diners, McDonald’s) that use griddles with fresh eggs and in the case of diners lots of fake butter to make a tasty egg, but that wasn’t feasible for us. Everybody else in our industry uses eggs that are pre-made-frozen or pre-cracked-boil-in-bag, with citric acid added so they don’t turn green. Most coffee-shops use microwaves that make rubbery eggs. Other fast food places use these fancy ovens that do a quick combo cooking method – radiant (infrared), microwave and impinged air, faster rubbery eggs. So we didn’t have eggs on the breakfast menu. Then Jeremiah (one of the first Clover managers in training) got us thinking of sous vide eggs, ala Momofuku. This is a method where you use very precise temperature control to allow the white to solidify while leaving the yolk custardy. We evolved that method and landed where we are now (minus the expensive equipment).
We’re currently selling about 230 breakfast sandwiches a day (and about 400 – 500 from March through early November). We boil eggs (Chip-in or Baffoni Farms) for 6.5 minutes in batches of 6-12 eggs at all locations throughout the morning to ensure we’re always serving fresh eggs. Most of our eggs were laid yesterday or the day before. We warm our pita, add sliced tomatoes (Backyard Farms hot-house tomatoes during the Winter, Lindentree Farm field tomatoes during the Summer), a slice of Grafton cheddar, a dash of salt and pepper.
I just finished analyzing the nutritional content. Seeing these made me pretty proud. Low calories, fat, and sodium, coupled with decent protein levels. The most important factor, of course, is taste. So let us know if we’re nailing it. Read on for our nutritionals, plus some context from the others in our industry.
Clover Breakfast Sandwich Nutritionals:
Serving size: 1 sandwich
Calories: 414
Fat: 10g
Protein: 17g
Carbohydrates: 36g
Fiber: 1g
Sodium: 477mg
We thought it might be interesting to include the nutritionals for our 2 favorite breakfast competitors. Check out the Sodium!
McDonalds Sausage Egg McMuffin Nutritionals (source: McDonalds)
Serving Size: 4.9 oz
Dunkin’ Sausage Egg and Cheese Croissant Nutritionals (source: Dunkins)
Serving Size: 1 sandwich
