Eggs Benedict

Below is an article about the breakfast dish known as Eggs Benedict: 



EGGS BENEDICT

I have known about the American breakfast dish, Eggs Benedict, since I was a child. However, I have yet to experience it. After learning about the origins and ingredients for Eggs Benedict, I believe it is time to remedy my lack of experience. 

Eggs Benedict is a traditional American breakfast or brunch dish that consists of the following - two halves of an English muffin, topped with a poached egg, bacon or ham, and Hollandaise sauce. Many variations of Eggs Benedict have been created over the years. Among the most popular are:

*Eggs Florentine - which substitutes spinach for the ham or adds it underneath. Older versions of eggs Florentine add spinach to poached or shirred eggs.

*Eggs Chesapeake - substitutes a Maryland blue crab cake in place of the ham.

*Eggs Mornay - substitutes Mornay cheese sauce for the Hollandaise sauce.

*Irish Benedict - which replaces the ham/bacon with corned beef or Irish bacon.

*Eggs Cochon - a variation from New Orleans restaurants which replaces the ham with pork "debris" (slow roasted pork shredded in its own juices) and the English muffin with a large buttermilk biscuit.

The following are conflicting accounts to the origins of Eggs Benedict:




One of those accounts claimed that Delmonico's, the famous restaurant in lower Manhattan claimed on its menu that the dish was first created in one of its ovens in 1860. The restaurant also claimed that one of its former chefs, Charles Ranhofer, had published the recipe for Eggs à la Benedick in 1894, naming it in honor of two of the restaurant's patrons, Mr. and Mrs. LeGrand Benedict.




A retired Wall Street stockbroker named Lemuel Benedict claimed in an interview recorded in the "Talk of the Town"column of The New Yorker in 1942, the year before his death, that he had wandered into the Waldorf Hotel in 1894 ordered "buttered toast, poached eggs, crisp bacon, and a hooker of hollandaise" in the hopes to find a cure for his morning hangover. Oscar Tschirky, Waldorf's maître d'hôtel, was so impressed with the dish that he put it on the breakfast and luncheon menus, but substituted ham for the bacon and a toasted English muffin for the toast.




The third account to the dish's origin came from Edward P. Montgomery on behalf of Commodore E. C. Benedict. In 1967, Montgomery wrote a letter to then food columnist Craig Claiborne that included a recipe he claimed he had received through his uncle, a friend of the commodore. Commodore Benedict's recipe, via Montgomery, varies greatly from Ranhofer's version. The recipe called for the addition of a "hot, hard-cooked egg and ham mixture" in the Hollandaise Sauce.

Below is a classic recipe for Eggs Benedict from the Betty Crocker website:


Eggs Benedict

Ingredients - Hollandaise Sauce

3 egg yolks
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 cup firm butter


Ingredients - Eggs Benedict

3 English muffins
3 tablespoons butter, softened
1 teaspoon butter
6 thin slices Canadian-style bacon or fully cooked ham 
6 eggs
4 teaspoons distilled white vinegar
Paprika, if desired


Preparation

1. In 1-quart saucepan, vigorously stir egg yolks and lemon juice with wire whisk. Add 1/4 cup of the butter. Heat over very low heat, stirring constantly with wire whisk, until butter is melted.

2. Add remaining 1/4 cup butter. Continue stirring vigorously until butter is melted and sauce is thickened. (Be sure butter melts slowly so eggs have time to cook and thicken sauce without curdling.) If the sauce curdles (mixture begins to separate and melted butter starts to appear around the edge of the pan and on top of the sauce), add about 1 tablespoon boiling water and beat vigorously with wire whisk or egg beater until smooth. Keep warm.

3. Split English muffins; toast. Spread each muffin half with some of the 3 tablespoons butter; keep warm.


4. In 10-inch skillet, melt 1 teaspoon butter over medium heat. Cook bacon in butter until light brown on both sides; keep warm.


5. Wipe out skillet to clean; fill with 2 to 3 inches water. Add vinegar to water. Heat to boiling; reduce to simmering. Break cold eggs, one at a time, into custard cup or saucer. Holding dish close to water’s surface, carefully slip eggs into water. Cook 3 to 5 minutes or until whites and yolks are firm, not runny (water should be gently simmering and not boiling). Remove with slotted spoon.


6. Place 1 slice bacon on each muffin half. Top with egg. Spoon warm sauce over eggs. Sprinkle with paprika.