Egg rolls are a variety of
deep-fried
Deep frying (also referred to as deep fat frying) is a cooking method in which food is submerged in hot fat, traditionally lard but today most commonly oil, as opposed to the shallow oil used in conventional frying done in a frying pan. Normal ...
appetizer
An hors d'oeuvre ( ; french: hors-d'œuvre ), appetiser or starter is a small dish served before a meal in European cuisine. Some hors d'oeuvres are served cold, others hot. Hors d'oeuvres may be served at the dinner table as a part of the ...
s served in
American Chinese restaurants. An egg roll is a cylindrical, savory roll with shredded
cabbage
Cabbage, comprising several cultivars of ''Brassica oleracea'', is a leafy green, red (purple), or white (pale green) biennial plant grown as an annual vegetable crop for its dense-leaved heads. It is descended from the wild cabbage ( ''B.&nb ...
, chopped
meat
Meat is animal flesh that is eaten as food. Humans have hunted, farmed, and scavenged animals for meat since prehistoric times. The establishment of settlements in the Neolithic Revolution allowed the domestication of animals such as chic ...
, or other fillings inside a thickly-wrapped
wheat flour
Wheat flour is a powder made from the grinding of wheat used for human consumption. Wheat varieties are called "soft" or "weak" if gluten content is low, and are called "hard" or "strong" if they have high gluten content. Hard flour, or ''bread ...
skin, which is fried in hot oil. The dish is served warm, and is usually eaten
with the fingers, dipped in
duck sauce
Duck sauce (or orange sauce) is a condiment with a sweet and sour flavor and a translucent orange appearance similar to a thin jelly. Offered at American Chinese restaurants, it is used as a dip for deep-fried dishes such as wonton strips, ...
,
soy sauce
Soy sauce (also called simply soy in American English and soya sauce in British English) is a liquid condiment of Chinese origin, traditionally made from a fermented paste of soybeans, roasted grain, brine, and '' Aspergillus oryzae'' or ''Asp ...
,
plum sauce
Plum sauce is a viscous, light-brown sweet and sour condiment. It is used in Cantonese cuisine as a dip for deep-fried dishes, such as spring rolls, noodles, and deep-fried chicken balls as well as for roast duck. It is made from sweet plums or ...
, or
hot mustard
Mustard is a condiment made from the seeds of a mustard plant (white/yellow mustard, '' Sinapis alba''; brown mustard, ''Brassica juncea''; or black mustard, ''Brassica nigra'').
The whole, ground, cracked, or bruised mustard seeds are mixed wi ...
, often from a cellophane packet. Egg rolls are a ubiquitous feature of
American Chinese cuisine
American Chinese cuisine is a cuisine derived from Chinese cuisine that was developed by Chinese Americans. The dishes served in many North American Chinese restaurants are adapted to American tastes and often differ significantly from those ...
and are often served as free additions to American Chinese combination platters throughout the United States, along with
fried rice
Fried rice is a dish of cooked rice that has been stir-fried in a wok or a frying pan and is usually mixed with other ingredients such as eggs, vegetables, seafood, or meat. It is often eaten by itself or as an accompaniment to another dish. Fr ...
and
fortune cookie
A fortune cookie is a crisp and sugary cookie wafer usually made from flour, sugar, vanilla, and sesame seed oil with a piece of paper inside, a "fortune", usually an aphorism, or a vague prophecy. The message inside may also include a Chinese ...
s.
Provenance of the dish
![A typical egg roll](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/13/A_typical_egg_roll.png)
The origins of the dish are unclear and remain disputed. Egg rolls are closely related to, but distinct from, the
spring roll
Spring rolls are rolled appetizers or dim sum commonly found in Chinese and other Southeast Asian cuisines. The kind of wrapper, fillings, and cooking technique used, as well as the name, vary considerably within this large area, depending o ...
s served in
mainland China
"Mainland China" is a geopolitical term defined as the territory governed by the People's Republic of China (including islands like Hainan or Chongming), excluding dependent territories of the PRC, and other territories within Greater China. ...
, and were first seen in the early 20th century in the United States. An early reference to egg rolls appeared in a 1917 Chinese recipe pamphlet published in the United States, but the dish does not resemble the modern egg roll. The 1917 recipe described a meat and vegetable filling wrapped in an egg
omelette
In cuisine, an omelette (also spelled omelet) is a dish made from beaten eggs, fried with butter or oil in a frying pan (without stirring as in scrambled egg). It is quite common for the omelette to be folded around fillings such as chives, ve ...
,
pan fried
Pan frying or pan-frying is a form of frying food characterized by the use of minimal cooking oil or fat (compared to shallow frying or deep frying), typically using just enough to lubricate the pan. In the case of a greasy food such as bacon, ...
, and served in slices, similar to
Gyeran-mari
''Gyeran-mari'' (), ''Dalgyal-mari'' () or rolled omelette in Korean cuisine is a savory ''banchan'' (side dish) made with beaten eggs mixed with several finely diced ingredients.
* Common ingredients include vegetables (onion, carrot, Korean zu ...
.
Andrew Coe, author of ''Chop Suey: A Cultural History of Chinese Food in the United States'', has stated that the modern American egg roll was probably invented at a Chinese restaurant in New York City in the early 1930s, by one of two chefs who both later claimed credit for the creation: Lung Fong of Lung Fong's, or Henry Low of Port Arthur. According to Coe, Low's recipe, printed in a 1938 cookbook, ''Cook at Home in Chinese'', included "
bamboo shoots
Bamboo shoots or bamboo sprouts are the edible shoots (new bamboo culms that come out of the ground) of many bamboo species including ''Bambusa vulgaris'' and ''Phyllostachys edulis''. They are used as vegetables in numerous Asian dishes and b ...
,
roast pork
This is a list of notable pork dishes. Pork is the culinary name for meat from the domestic pig (''Sus domesticus''). It is one of the most commonly consumed meats worldwide,Raloff, JanetFood for Thought: Global Food Trends Science News Online. M ...
,
shrimp
Shrimp are crustaceans (a form of shellfish) with elongated bodies and a primarily swimming mode of locomotion – most commonly Caridea and Dendrobranchiata of the decapod order, although some crustaceans outside of this order are refer ...
,
scallions
Scallions (also known as spring onions or green onions) are vegetables derived from various species in the genus ''Allium''. Scallions generally have a milder taste than most onions and their close relatives include garlic, shallot, leek, chi ...
,
water chestnuts Water chestnut may refer to either of two plants (both sometimes used in Chinese cuisine):
* The Chinese water chestnut ('' Eleocharis dulcis''), eaten for its crisp corm
* The water caltrop
The water caltrop is any of three extant species of th ...
, salt,
MSG
Monosodium glutamate (MSG), also known as sodium glutamate, is the sodium salt of glutamic acid. MSG is found naturally in some foods including tomatoes and cheese in this glutamic acid form. MSG is used in cooking as a flavor enhancer wi ...
, sugar, palm oil, and pepper," but notably did not include cabbage, which is the main filling ingredient in modern egg rolls.
Egg rolls do not typically contain
egg
An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the a ...
in the filling. In addition to the disputed origin of the dish, it is unclear how the word "egg" appeared in the name, since the predominant flavor in American egg rolls is cabbage, not eggs. A 1979 article in ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' speculated two possible theories: 1) that the
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...
word for "egg" sounds very similar to the Chinese word for "spring", and 2) that Chinese chefs in the South relied on using actual eggs when trying to make the thin noodle skin from flour and water.
Confusion with other varieties of rolls
While there are many types of spring rolls native to East Asia and available in authentic Chinese, Thai, and Vietnamese restaurants in the United States, American egg rolls are distinctive. A typical "New York-style" egg roll measures approximately two inches in diameter by six inches in length, with a thick, chewy, crispy, bumpy exterior skin. Egg rolls, like other Americanized Chinese food specialties, may contain vegetable cultivars and flavor profiles that are not common in China, including
broccoli
Broccoli (''Brassica oleracea'' var. ''italica'') is an edible green plant in the cabbage family (family Brassicaceae, genus ''Brassica'') whose large flowering head, stalk and small associated leaves are eaten as a vegetable. Broccoli is cl ...
.
Restaurants that serve egg rolls occasionally also offer spring rolls as a separate menu option, and these spring rolls may be served with a cold filling wrapped in
Banh trang rice paper wrappers (particularly at Vietnamese restaurants that serve both egg rolls and spring rolls as appetizers), or fried, as seen in some Thai and Chinese eateries. When fried, spring rolls served in Asian restaurants in the United States usually have a smaller diameter and a lighter, crispier skin made out of thinner sheets of wheat or rice dough.
See also
*
Brik
Brik ( ; ) or ''burek'' is the north African version of borek, a stuffed filo pastry which is commonly deep fried. The best-known version is the egg brik, a whole egg in a triangular pastry pocket with chopped onion, tuna, harissa and parsley. ...
*
Chả giò
Chả giò (), or nem rán (see also egg rolls), also known as fried spring roll, is a popular dish in Vietnamese cuisine and usually served as an appetizer in Europe and North America, where there are large Vietnamese diaspora. It is ground mea ...
*
Chiko Roll
The Chiko Roll is an Australian savoury snack invented by Frank McEncroe, inspired by the Chinese spring roll and first sold in 1951 as the "Chicken Roll" despite not actually containing chicken. The snack was designed to be easily eaten on the ...
*
Chop suey
Chop suey () is a dish in American Chinese cuisine and other forms of overseas Chinese cuisine, consisting of meat (usually chicken, pork, beef, shrimp or fish) and eggs, cooked quickly with vegetables such as bean sprouts, cabbage, and celery ...
*
Gyeran-mari
''Gyeran-mari'' (), ''Dalgyal-mari'' () or rolled omelette in Korean cuisine is a savory ''banchan'' (side dish) made with beaten eggs mixed with several finely diced ingredients.
* Common ingredients include vegetables (onion, carrot, Korean zu ...
*
List of deep fried foods
This is a list of deep fried foods and dishes. Deep frying is a cooking method in which food is submerged in hot fat, such as cooking oil. This is normally performed with a deep fryer or chip pan, and industrially, a pressure fryer or vacuum frye ...
*
List of stuffed dishes
This is a list of stuffed dishes, comprising dishes and foods that are prepared with various fillings and stuffings. Some dishes are not actually stuffed; the added ingredients are simply spread atop the base food, as one cannot truly stuff an oy ...
*
Lumpia
''Lumpia'' are various types of spring rolls commonly found in the Philippines and Indonesia. Lumpia are made of thin paper-like or crepe-like pastry skin called "lumpia wrapper" enveloping savory or sweet fillings. It is often served as an ap ...
*
Pastel
A pastel () is an art medium in a variety of forms including a stick, a square a pebble or a pan of color; though other forms are possible; they consist of powdered pigment and a binder. The pigments used in pastels are similar to those use ...
*
Pizza Rolls
Pizza snack rolls (also called pizza rolls, pizza bites, pizza snacks, or pizza poppers) are a frozen food product consisting of bite-sized breaded pizza pockets with an interior of tomato sauce, imitation cheese and various pizza toppings. They ...
*
Popiah
Popiah () is a Fujianese/ Teochew-style fresh spring roll filled with an assortment of fresh, dried, and cooked ingredients, eaten during the Qingming Festival and other celebratory occasions. ''The dish is'' made by the people and diaspora of ...
*
Sambousa
A samosa () or singara is a fried Indian pastry with a savory filling, including ingredients such as spiced potatoes, onions, and peas. It may take different forms, including triangular, cone, or half-moon shapes, depending on the region. Samo ...
*
Spring roll
Spring rolls are rolled appetizers or dim sum commonly found in Chinese and other Southeast Asian cuisines. The kind of wrapper, fillings, and cooking technique used, as well as the name, vary considerably within this large area, depending o ...
*
Summer roll
Summer is the hottest of the four temperate seasons, occurring after spring and before autumn. At or centred on the summer solstice, the earliest sunrise and latest sunset occurs, daylight hours are longest and dark hours are shortest, with ...
*
Yaka mein
Yaka mein is a type of beef noodle soup () found in many Creole restaurants in New Orleans. It is also a type of Chinese wheat noodle.
The soup consists of stewed beef (such as brisket) in beef-based broth served on top of noodles and garni ...
References
{{Deep frying foods, state=collapsed
Appetizers
American Chinese cuisine
Deep fried foods
Stuffed dishes