The Genius Hack You Can Use to Get Fresh Eggs at McDonald’s

McDonald’s breakfast menu is hiding a secret: you can get a real egg on any breakfast sandwich or with your Big Breakfast.

The Golden Arches offer five kinds of egg products for their breakfast menu: round, scrambled, folded, white, and a sausage-egg scramble for burritos.

If you order any biscuit, bagel, or McGriddle, you’ll likely get the “folded egg,” an egg sheet that’s made with eggs, nonfat milk, modified food starch, salt, and citric acid. These sheets of egg are cooked somewhere else, then frozen and shipped to the restaurant where they’re heated back up on a flat top grill with a bit of butter.

WATCH: 5 Reasons McDonald's Coke Tastes Better

Scrambled eggs are cooked fresh on the cooktop from a liquid eggs product that has just eggs and citric acid. The egg scramble for the burritos is, like the folded egg, cooked somewhere else, flash frozen, and shipped to the restaurant.

If you order the Egg McMuffin, however, you’ll get a “round egg,” an egg that is “USDA Grade A cracked into an ‘egg ring’ to get that iconic round shape for our Egg McMuffin,” McDonald’s says.

If you want a real egg with your breakfast meal, there’s your hack: just order a round egg on your sandwich or biscuit. It’s easy and free of charge.

The difference between the egg sheet and the real, round egg is in more than just the shortened ingredient list. The folded eggs, despite being made with liquid eggs, have an odd, rubbery texture and a flavor that is “egg-ish” but a bit bland. It’s not inedible, but when you can have the real deal, why wouldn't you?

If you prefer egg whites or need to skip yolks for whatever reason, ask for an egg white round for your biscuit or breakfast platter. The egg white rounds (for the Egg White Delight) are 100 percent egg whites, and they’re also cooked fresh on the restaurant’s griddle instead of being cooked and shipped frozen.