Don't tell your granny how to suck eggs.

[clydeserani]

What is that all about. Neither of my grannys sucked eggs as far as i know and my mum don't either now she is a granny..x

[jno]

the phrase is a lot older than either of your grannies, and dates back to the days when grannies knew perfectly well how to suck eggs without dumb grandchildren trying to tell them stuff they've known for decades.

[Quizmonster]

Click here for some historical detail on the saying.

[wired]

But why would they suck eggs??

[Quizmonster]

Wired, I watched a TV programme the other day abour Bear Grylls doing his usual survival thing, this time in a desert in the USA. He has to find food, water and shelter with just a knife and a flint. On this occasion, he climbed up the wall of a ravine to find a bird's nest. There were two eggs in it and - for immediate sustenance - he rapped the shell of one on his lower teeth to open the shell and then sucked out the contents. Presumably in past times, grannies did much the same thing...though without scaling a cliff first!
So, maybe the saying nowadays should be, "Don't teach an ex-SAS man to suck eggs!"

[wired]

Quizmonster, thanks, it's one of those sayings which has bothered me for some time-do you think I don't have enough to think about?