Eggs Benedict is a common American breakfast or brunch dish, consisting of two halves of an English muffin, each topped with Canadian bacon or sliced ham, a poached egg, and hollandaise sauce. The dish is believed to have originated in New York City, although a number of different origin stories exist.
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Origin and history
There are multiple conflicting accounts as to the origin of eggs Benedict.
Delmonico's in Lower Manhattan says on its menu that "Eggs Benedict was first created in our ovens in 1860." One of its former chefs, Charles Ranhofer, also published the recipe for Eggs à la Benedick in 1920.
In an interview recorded in the "Talk of the Town" column of The New Yorker in 1942, the year before his death, Lemuel Benedict, a retired Wall Street stock broker, said that he had wandered into the Waldorf Hotel in 1894 and, hoping to find a cure for his morning hangover, ordered "buttered toast, poached eggs, crisp bacon, and a hooker of hollandaise". Oscar Tschirky, the 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.
A later claim to the creation of eggs Benedict was circuitously made by Edward P. Montgomery on behalf of Commodore E. C. Benedict. In 1967 Montgomery wrote a letter to then The New York Times food columnist Craig Claiborne, which included a recipe he said he had received through his uncle, a friend of the commodore. Commodore Benedict's recipe—by way of Montgomery—varies greatly from Ranhofer's version, particularly in the hollandaise sauce preparation—calling for the addition of a "hot, hard-cooked egg and ham mixture".
The modern version differs slightly from these early versions and has a split English muffin, topped with Canadian bacon or ham, lightly poached egg, and covered in hollandaise sauce, which is made from eggs, lemon, and melted butter.
Variations
It is popular to make variations on eggs Benedict, and some of the most popular are eggs florentine (spinach replaces bacon), eggs royale (smoked salmon replaces bacon), eggs Sardou (spinach and artichoke replaces bacon and muffin), eggs neptune (crab replaces bacon), and eggs cochon (pulled pork replaces bacon and buttermilk biscuit replaces the muffin). In many cases it has become popular to simply replace the word eggs with the meat that replaces the bacon, for example, rather than eggs neptune, crab benedict, even though the recipe still has two poached eggs. Examples of this are steak benedict or salmon benedict, and replacements include corned beef, fried chicken, or shrimp.
Many variations of eggs Benedict exist, the most common involve replacing the bacon or English muffin, or both:
Avocado toast eggs Benedict – substitutes toast in place of the muffin and adds sliced avocado.
California eggs Benedict – adds sliced Hass avocado. Variations may include sliced tomato instead of Canadian bacon.
Eggs Balmoral – substitutes haggis in place of Canadian bacon.
Eggs Blackstone – substitutes streaky bacon in place of Canadian bacon and adds a tomato slice.
Eggs Blanchard – substitutes béchamel sauce in place of Hollandaise.
Canadiana Eggs Benedict - substitutes Montreal smoked meat in place of Canadian bacon and mixes maple syrup in the Hollandaise sauce.
Eggs Chesapeake (crab eggs Benedict, crab cakes Benedict) – substitutes a Maryland blue crab cake in place of Canadian bacon.
Eggs Cochon (eggs cochon de lait) – substitutes pork "debris" (slow roasted pork shredded in its own juices) in place of Canadian bacon, buttermilk biscuit in place of the English muffin. Served in New Orleans restaurants.