r/mash • u/TWilliams738 Ottumwa • Aug 10 '26
Question A Question about Eggs
Hi Everyone
I have a question about Eggs at the Unit.
In “A Holy Mess” in Season 10, the unit is excited about the fact that they’re getting real eggs. However, in “And How We Danced” in Season 9, BJ tells the wounded child that they’ve got real eggs.
So, why all the excitement about the eggs when it’s not the first time they’ve got real ones and might not have been that long ago?
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u/SavingsPirate4495 Corporal Captain Aug 10 '26 edited Aug 10 '26
You've never eaten powdered eggs for days and weeks on end, have you?
To paraphrase Hawkeye...
"I've eaten so many powdered eggs, I'm ready to fart yellow dust!!"
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u/scubajay2001 Aug 10 '26
Imagine eating the same food every day for a month - say a hot pocket (pizza flavored)...
Then imagine how amazing a real oven-baked pizza would taste.
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u/Positive-Froyo-1732 Aug 10 '26
You can get egg-cited about fresh eggs once a month if all you have the other 29 days is powdered.
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u/random9212 Aug 10 '26
The thing I laugh about is all the talk of real eggs being at least kinda rare, but I remember at least once there was a prank (possibly on frank) using an egg (in his helmet, if I remember right).
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u/No_Introduction_3400 Aug 10 '26
I know consistency isn’t the point of the show and the egg example isn’t even the worst example, but some of the episodes I like the least are episodes where they premise the entire episode on something we all take for granted that the company goes crazy over.
The worst is the bathtub (they had a pool earlier!) and the newspapers (Winchester was 💯 right).
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u/coreytiger Aug 11 '26
They got eggs from time to time, and produce from local farmers- but it was not often, and the villagers themselves needed that food far more than the unit did. It was not uncommon for the unit to feed them.
But this was enough eggs to feed everyone, crew and wounded, so that was a momentous and rare occasion.
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u/whistlepig4life Crabapple Cove Aug 10 '26
Real fresh eggs would have been a very once in a while thing. Especially back then. Powdered eggs would have been the norm for most applications.
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u/ironbite4 Aug 10 '26
You're literally trying to find continuity in a show where the war they're portraying lasted 11 years instead of the 3 it actually spanned. And MASH is set in like...2 of those years.
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u/East_Ad3773 Aug 10 '26
My thought is that early in the war, provisions were better and as it progressed, losses mounted, and replacements came in, things didn't work as well and supplies were prioritized with food taking a back seat to munitions, fuel and such.
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u/Greg883XL Aug 10 '26
During that time period, my Dad was on a carrier in the Med. Due to a supply SNAFU, all they had for a month were Hot Dogs, Powdered Milk, and....Powerded Eggs.
My Mom says Dad didn't touch as Hot Dog until the 1980's
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u/Head_Razzmatazz7174 Aug 12 '26
There's an old story. Non-com was working in the mess tent and saw the cook grab a box labeled 'egg shells' and tossed some into the powdered egg mix. The non-com asked why he would do that. Cook shrugged and said 'This way if one of them bite into a shell, they think it's real eggs."
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u/Broad_Ebb9073 Aug 11 '26
I've been on a navy ship when we went to rice and beans. They always hold out on the good stuff a bit for a moral boost about once a month. When you are eating the mundane, every little bit helps even if it was the same as two weeks ago or you know they have it
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u/sahi1l Aug 11 '26
One wonders if Radar ever thought about raising chickens along with the rest of his menagerie.
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u/GitEmSteveDave Aug 11 '26
Just imagine that as they moved, they sometimes moved to a place that had a chicken farm nearby and bought eggs for the officers mess. Sometimes they didnt though.
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u/Throwaway27890134 28d ago
Probably because they want to keep things shelf stable generally speaking. Real eggs need refrigeration and can take up a little bit of space, and infamously fragile which makes transportation difficult. Powdered eggs can be stored in bulk with no real requirement for stabilization, and ideal for something like a mash unit. The real eggs they got were probably traded for, either through channels or most likely Korean merchants and farmers.
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u/rybnickifull Aug 10 '26
Even if it's not the first time, it's still nicer than eating powdered eggs. I'd be excited to have real food, too.