Egg-ceptional: Washington once cooked up the world’s largest omelet

Easter weekend is here and if you think the idea of a bunny hiding eggs in a yard is odd, just wait until you hear what Washingtonians once did. In 1931, our fine state cooked up the world’s largest omelet in the world’s largest frying pan. Yep, we did that.

In 1931, 10,000 people showed up to check out the Lewis County Farmers and Merchants Picnic at Alexander Park on July 24th.

If you think about what was happening in the early 30’s, the great depression was in full swing. For that reason, our local farmers needed all the help they could get. Because Lewis County (Chehalis, Washington) had so many chicken farmers, the logical choice was to showcase the poultry industry. Originally, picnic organizers wanted to boil 10,000 eggs but that’s not super impressive.

So they decided to make an omelet instead, enlisting the help of F. S. Lang Stove Works in Seattle to create the massive frying pan they needed. It weighed almost half a ton and had to be trucked across the state.

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Now because the pan was so big, greasing it was a bit of a task. So much so that they asked local Thora Yeager to skate around the pan with giant pieces of bacon on her feet. Yep, she did that and even used one of the giant spatulas to help her keep her balance.

In the end, only 7,200 eggs actually fit in the pan but the resulting omelet still fed thousands of people so no one really minded. Not only that but the impressive stunt gave national coverage to Western Washington’s poultry and egg industry. So it was really a win-win for everyone involved.

We’d love to see Washington try to break that record once again in 2031. Might as well make it a new tradition every century. In the meantime, you can learn more at HistoryLink.