The Egg McMuffin was McDonald’s first nationally advertised breakfast menu item in the United States.
Herb Peterson, a McDonald’s franchisee in Santa Barbara, California, created the sandwich in 1971. It used an English muffin, a round egg, Canadian bacon, and cheese, presenting breakfast in a portable form suited to McDonald’s quick-service model.
The Egg McMuffin was initially tested regionally before McDonald’s expanded breakfast nationally. Its success helped establish breakfast as a major daypart for the chain and gave McDonald’s a product with a distinctive name and recognizable visual identity.
The sandwich is sometimes confused with the broader McDonald’s breakfast menu or with later products such as the Sausage McMuffin and McGriddles. Those items came after the Egg McMuffin helped define the category.