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Protecting families from contaminated food and water
Posted in Food Safety,Our Blog on July 15, 2026
Can you actually cook sidewalk fried eggs?
I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase, “It’s hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk.”
In this installment of “Unsafe Viral Food Trends” we are exploring some of the food trends across the Internet. In this case, cooking sidewalk fried eggs!
Is it possible?
Is it safe?
Let’s explore!
During the heat of the summer, I often come across interesting videos. People get creative in their ways to pass the time while dealing with the heat. Arizona seems to come up quite a bit in my timeline for these crazy food trends, challenges, or whatever you want to call it.
One user from Arizona used a frying pan to cook sidewalk fried eggs in July 2024. The method didn’t quite work. At least not safely. It did appear to cook the egg. But whites and yolk were still quite runny.
An Australian user manage to achieve the task. Using a small frying pan, she appeared to fully cook sidewalk fried eggs. I guess the sidewalks are hotter down under.
There is even an annual Sidewalk Egg Fry on the 4th of July in Oatman Arizona where contestants attempt to cook sidewalk fried eggs, with no other fuel source (except the sun) on Historic Route 66. This event only has two rules.
You can only use sun power. No other form of fuel. You can, however, use additional tools. Mirrors, magnifying glasses, aluminum foil, and whatever contraption your mind dreams up to amplify the sun’s natural rays.
Second, you have “EGGzactly 15 minutes” to cook said egg, according to the contest rules.
People flock to the street to see what contestants come up with.
Overall, most people on the Internet showed videos of themselves using a frying pan. Some cracked the egg directly on the pavement. This technique was likely employed to avoid displaced heat and put the egg directly on the heat source. Personally, I would have made a small pan out of aluminum foil if I were placing it directly on the sidewalk sans pans. Because who is going to eat it with dirt and gravel.
Would I eat the egg I cooked. IF it cooked? Probably not.
What do the experts say about sidewalk fried eggs?
Scientists from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Granger College of Engineering Mechanical Science & Engineering chimed in on the subject.
Evidently, cooking a fried egg requires a good heat conductor. This is why the task is generally performed in a frying pan. According to the author, “a concrete sidewalk isn’t the most efficient heat conductor.” While a blacktop pavement location will warm up faster than a concrete sidewalk, they admit, it is likely not efficient enough either in most cases.
In fact, they suggest that the hood of a car is closer to a frying pan than pavement or concrete.
I don’t recommend this, for many reasons. Damage to your paint being only secondary to potential contaminants.
But back to the experts.
There is some science behind understanding how an egg might be cooked on a sidewalk.
According to Nenad Miljkovic, a professor in the mechanical science and engineering department at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, sunlight warms solid objects. Like our body. Or in this case, the pavement.
This heat is absorbed by these surfaces. As surfaces heat up, their temperatures rise.
This makes sense so far.
He say, it is actually air velocity that impacts how hot a surface can actually get. Windy days reduce the impact of heat. A calm day, on the other hand, could allow a good bit of heat to be absorbed onto the pavement. It is likely enough to cook sidewalk fried eggs.
In most cases, air does not usually reach above 110 or 115 °F. This changes when you involve a surface that can absorb solar light. Presumably they are talking about the surface of a car.
Eggs must reach a temperature of 158 °F to fully cook. According to Miljkovic, “on concrete, like black pavements, for example, or if you have a car sitting in a parking lot with no shade and it was painted a dark color, you could reach temperatures approaching 150 Fahrenheit.”
The higher the temperature is able to reach, the more likely you can successfully cook sidewalk fried eggs. Or something adjacent to it.
Timing is important.
According to Teresa M. Bals-Elsholz, chair in the department of geography and meteorology at Valparaiso University in Indiana, certain times of the year will likely be more successful.
The best time is around the summer solstice. June 21.
“The sun’s energy is pretty even,” she said. “That’s going to be our best direct sun in the U.S. overall.”
Bals-Elsholz explains it is akin to the sun shining a spotlight directly toward the ground.
‘When you point that flashlight straight down at the ground, that gives you the best brightness,” she said. “That’s when we get the most energy from the sun to cook something. It’s not straight down because the sun isn’t directly overhead, but it’s the best angle we’ll get in the U.S.”
The best time of day to attempt this task is close to noon, she says. Although the sidewalk will continue to absorb heat until at least 3 p.m.
We’ve explored the feasibility of cooking sidewalk fried eggs. Now we come to the part where I ask the question. Is it safe?
So, is it safe?
The most important aspect to consider, like most potentially unsafe viral food trends, is temperature. More specifically, the danger zone. That range between 40 °F and 140 °F where bacteria can rapidly multiply. In just 20 minutes, harmful germs like Salmonella can double.
Food left in the danger zone for more than two hours should be discarded. This time reduces to one hour if ambient temperature is above 90 °F. If you are attempting to cook sidewalk fried eggs, you are likely experiencing greater than 90 °F temperature outside.
If you manage to cook the eggs within the hour, you must ensure that it reaches a safe minimum internal temperature. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has a handy chart that covers this information for different food types.
For eggs, this is 160 °F. To ensure the eggs are safe to eat, I recommend using an instant read food thermometer.
If these temperatures are ignored, you leave yourself vulnerable to any number of foodborne germs.
If you’d like to know more about food safety topics in the news, like “Unsafe Viral Food Trends: Sidewalk Fried Eggs,” check out the Make Food Safe Blog. We regularly update trending topics, foodborne infections in the news, recalls, and more! Stay tuned for quality information to help keep your family safe, while The Lange Law Firm, PLLC strives to Make Food Safe!
By: Heather Van Tassell (contributing writer, non-lawyer)