Eggs Benedict
 |
 | This article's factual accuracy is disputed. |
Eggs Benedict is a dish consisting of two halves of an English muffin, usually topped with smoked bacon or ham (sometimes known as back bacon, which in America is called Canadian bacon), poached eggs, and the crucial ingredient, hollandaise sauce. With contemporary eating habits trending toward the heart-healthy, however, the meat is now often replaced with seafood.
Origin
The origin of the dish is not known with certainty. Two different accounts seem to have some support in the historical record.
One account claims that the dish was created in the late 1880s for financier LeGrand Benedict or his wife, by Charles Ranhofer, the chef of Delmonico's restaurant in New York City after one of the Benedicts complained there was nothing new on the menu. The Epicurean, Ranhofer's comprehensive 1894 cookbook, covering thirty years' worth of Delmonico's fare, contains a recipe for an essentially identical dish under the name of "Eggs à la Benedick."
Other sources state it was the result of an order placed by stockbroker Lemuel Benedict one morning in 1894 at the Waldorf Hotel when he had a hangover. Benedict claimed in an interview in The New Yorker shortly before his death that his order of dry toast, crisp bacon, poached eggs and a side of hollandaise sauce had been noted, usurped and warped by Oscar Tschirky, maître d'hôtel there. Oscar substituted English muffins and Canadian bacon, and added truffles.
The dish is not named after Benedict Arnold, despite the coincidence of name and that he was "English underneath".
Variations
Many variations on the traditional Eggs Benedict are available in certain restuarants, or in certain geographic locations. With the exception of the Egg McMuffin, none of these are as widely known as Eggs Benedict.
- Eggs Blackstone substitutes streaky bacon for back bacon and adds a tomato slice.
- Eggs Hussard is the standard Benedict dish topped with Marchand de Vin sauce, a New Orleans creation.
- Salmon Benedict replaces the bacon with smoked salmon.
- The McDonalds Egg McMuffin was inspired by Eggs Benedict. To launch their new breakfast service in the 1970s, they developed an "Eggs Benedict Sandwich". Since hollandaise sauce would be too runny in a sandwich, a slice of american cheese was substituted. To give the egg the appearance of being poached, it is cooked on the grill in a special ring contraption that steams the tops while frying the bottoms. Mainly due to the success of the Egg McMuffin, McDonalds had a monopoly on the fast-food breakfast market until the mid-1980s. (reference MCDONALD'S: BEHIND THE ARCHES by John F. Love - Bantam Books, 1986, 1995)
- Artichokes Benedict has been created for the South Beach Diet, substituting cooked fresh artichokes for the muffins and using a mock hollandaise sauce to create a breakfast that is lower in carbohydrates and cholesterol than the original.[citation needed]
- There is now an Eggs Benedict XVI, created to honor the German background of the recently elected pope. Sauerbraten or sausage and rye bread are the eggs' accompaniments.[citation needed]
- Slices of toast may be used instead of the traditional English muffins.
- American Southern Style is also another variation in which country gravy is substituted for hollandaise sauce, and biscuits are substituted for the English muffins. Canadian bacon, ham, or regular bacon is used along with eggs typically cooked sunny side up.[citation needed]
Trivia
The dish is the source of American actor Dirk Benedict's stage name, supposedly adopted on the suggestion of his agent whilst searching for something more suitable for Hollywood than 'Niewoehner', his family name.[citation needed]
See also
External links
- Eggs Benedict Recipe
- Who Cooked That Up? page on origin of the dish with a recipe