Tojás (“TOY-ASH”) are used as a primary or secondary ingredient in a wide range of traditional Hungarian dishes, and with an average of 300 tojás consumed by every Hungarian annually, the country is one of the world’s largest per-capita consumers of eggs.

In addition to eggs from the tyúk (hen), a common delicacy in Hungary is fürjtojás, i.e. tojás from the fürj, or quail. Hen eggs in Hungary are almost always brown, and are usually not refrigerated when sold. It is increasingly common to see “salmonella-free” tojás being sold in markets.

Every October an “egg festival” is held in the Lake Balaton town of Siófok, where in 2006 a mammoth tojáspörkölt (egg stew) was made for 3,500 people.

The importance of tojás in Hungary was underscored in late 2006 by a high-profile move by the authorities to break up a so-called “egg mafia,” and by the fact that a unit of measurement some Hungarian cookbooks is the tojásnyi, or a piece the “size of an egg.”