Hangtown fry facts for kids
A "hangtown burger" made using a hangtown fry, a ⅓-pound chuck steak, sriracha sauce of roasted red peppers, and baby arugula
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| Place of origin | Placerville, California |
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| Main ingredients | Eggs, bacon and oyster |
Hangtown fry is a special kind of omelette that became very popular during the California Gold Rush in the 1850s. It's a unique dish that mixes bacon and oysters with eggs. These ingredients are all cooked together, usually by frying them. It's a tasty and historic meal!
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The Story Behind Hangtown Fry
This interesting dish was first made in Placerville, California. Back then, Placerville was known as "Hangtown." There are a couple of cool stories about how this meal came to be.
The Rich Miner's Meal
One popular story says that a gold prospector found a lot of gold. He was super excited and went to the Cary House Hotel. He wanted the most expensive meal the kitchen could make.
The hotel staff thought about the priciest ingredients they had. Eggs were very expensive because they were delicate and hard to bring to the mining town. Bacon was also costly, as it had to travel all the way from the East Coast. And oysters? They were the most expensive! They had to be kept on ice and brought over 100 miles from San Francisco.
So, the miner got a dish with all three: eggs, bacon, and oysters. This delicious and costly meal became known as Hangtown Fry.
The Clever Prisoner's Request
Another story comes from the waiters at Sam's Grill in Tiburon. This tale is a bit different. It says that a prisoner in Placerville was asked what he wanted for his last meal. He was very clever! He ordered an oyster omelet.
He knew that oysters would have to be brought from the ocean. This journey was over a hundred miles by steamship and then on rough roads. By ordering oysters, he hoped to delay his meal and his fate for at least a day.
Hangtown Fry Today
The Hangtown Fry became very famous. The Tadich Grill in San Francisco helped make it popular. It has been on their menu for over 160 years!
Over time, people started adding their own twists to the dish. Some versions include onions, bell peppers, or different spices. Sometimes, the oysters are even deep-fried before being added to the omelet.
The El Dorado County Museum says that Hangtown Fry really shows what California and the Gold Rush were all about. It was created when California was becoming a state. Like the miners and the people who came to California, the dish is a mix of local ingredients and things brought from far away.
Variations of the Dish
Chefs and food writers have created their own versions of Hangtown Fry. For example, food writer Mark Bittman made his own recipe for the dish. He shared it in one of his cooking videos for The New York Times. This shows how a classic dish can inspire new ideas!
