Gold Miners Ate This Retro Egg Dish Back In The Day

When people suddenly strike it rich in modern society, you might expect that everything about their lifestyle would change, including what they eat. It wouldn't be shocking if the lucky winner immediately splurged on things like Japanese Wagyu beef, King crab legs, and Italian white truffles, or just ordered one of the most expensive restaurant dishes in America. But, back in the mid-19th century, when people were earning their fortunes during the California Gold Rush, many of them were flaunting their new wealth by ordering what is known as Hangtown Fry, a now-iconic California dish.

Hangtown Fry is, basically, an omelet with bacon and oysters. To understand why this dish was such an extravagant meal, you need to consider the cost of even the most basic ingredients in northern California during the time of the Gold Rush. The booming California agriculture industry had been put on hold for the time being because so many people were chasing fortune in the gold mining industry, including farmers. This made fruit and vegetables expensive because they had to be imported from other states. Even basic foods like eggs and bread were exorbitantly priced, not to mention bacon and oysters.

Many miners became accustomed to living on wild game they could hunt, beans, and sourdough bread, a San Francisco specialty. So, when they had extra money in their pockets, a meat- and seafood-stuffed omelet was a mighty fine treat.

The story of the invention of the Hangtown Fry starts with a lucky prospector and the El Dorado Hotel in a town called Hangtown (it's known as Placerville today), which is about 130 miles northeast of San Francisco. He announced that he had made a good bit of money and wanted the most expensive dish he could order. The cook relayed that the priciest ingredients he had on hand included eggs, bacon, and oysters, so the customer asked for it all to be fried up. Like all good food origin stories, other accounts hold that the Hangtown Fry was developed when a criminal requested the combination as his last meal before he was hanged.

Either way, the protein-filled dish caught on, and several restaurants in Placerville eventually put the dish on their menus. Even today, you can find the Hangtown Fry in multiple restaurants in Placerville and the surrounding northern California area, and in various other cities. Making the dish isn't terribly complicated; typically, oysters are breaded and fried until they're browned. You make an egg omelet with scrambled eggs and cooked bacon, and add the oysters to it. You can make it your own, too, by adding things like onions, fresh herbs, tomatoes, or potatoes.