INGREDIENTS:

4 eggs for poaching
4 thick slices baked ham or 8 strips Canadian-style bacon
2 English muffins, split
4 quarts water (for poaching eggs)
1/4 cup white vinegar (for poaching eggs)
1 teaspoon Kosher or Sea salt (for poaching eggs)
Parsley, chopped for garnish
Hollandaise Sauce, recipe below

Place a large skillet on medium heat and add the baked ham or Canadian-style bacon and cook until browned on both sides. Remove ham/bacon and drain on paper towels.

While ham and/or bacon is cooking,  add 4 quarts of water to a large saucepan and bring to a boil.  Add 1/4 cup of white vinegar and bring back to a boil and reduce heat to low and allow a light simmer.

To poach the eggs one at a time, crack an egg into a small bowl and ease the egg into the barely simmering water.  NOTE:  Prior to adding the egg to the simmering water, create a small swirl in the water by lightly stirring the water. This will help keep the egg closer together until it begins to solidify.  Once it begins to solidify, you can ease in another egg, until you have all four cooking.  Turn off the heat, cover the pan, and let sit for 4 minutes.

As soon as all the eggs are in the poaching water, begin toasting your English muffins.  If you can’t get all the muffins toasted by the time the eggs are ready, gently remove the eggs from the poaching water with a large slotted spoon and set in a bowl.

To assemble the eggs benedict, butter one side of each English muffin half.  Top with thick slice of ham or two slices of Canadian-style bacon.  You can trim the bacon to fit the muffin if you’d like.  Using a large slotted spoon, gently place a poached egg on top of the bacon, then pour some hollandaise sauce over the egg allowing to dribble onto the plate.  Sprinkle some fresh chopped parsley over it all and serve at once.

Timing is everything on this recipe and probably the reason most home cooks dine out for Eggs Benedict.  Grin if you must!

YIELD:  4 servings

Click on thumbnail sequence pixs below for a larger screen view:

Above Eggs Benedict served on 09-09-13 and used a Béarnaise sauce that I had already prepared earlier for a Chateaubriand streak which has just a little more acidic taste than the Hollandaise sauce.  My bride doesn't crave runny eggs so let the poached eggs stay in the hot simmering water long enough to firm them up.   She said they were "tasty."   I also substituted some "city" baked ham for the Canadian-style bacon and doubled up on the quantity........grin if you must!

Hollandaise Sauce Recipe Using Blender

1 cup unsalted butter, melted (8 oz. or 2 sticks)
4 egg yolks
1 tablespoon fresh squeezed lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
Dash of Cayenne pepper or Tabasco

Melt 1 cup of unsalted butter.  Put 4 egg yolks, a tablespoon of lemon juice, 1/2 teaspoon salt in a blender, blend on medium to
medium high speed for 20-30 seconds, until eggs lighten in color. Turn blender down to lowest setting, slowly dribble in the hot melted butter, while continuing to blend.  Add additional salt or lemon juice to taste, whether you want it more or less acidic.  Transfer it to a container and keep warm.

Hollandaise Sauce Recipe (optional) using double boiler

4 egg yolks
1 tablespoon fresh squeezed lemon juice
1 pinch ground white pepper
Dash of Cayenne pepper or Tabasco
1 tablespoon water
1 cup unsalted butter, melted (8 oz. or 2 sticks)
1/2 teaspoon salt

Fill the bottom of a double boiler part-way with water.  Make sure that water does not touch the top pan.  Bring water to a gentle simmer. In the top of the double boiler, whisk together egg yolks, lemon juice, white pepper, Cayenne pepper or Tabasco and 1 tablespoon water.  Add the melted butter to egg yolk mixture 1 or 2 tablespoons at a time while whisking yolks constantly.  If hollandaise sauce begins to get too thick, add a teaspoon or two of hot water.  Continue whisking until all the butter is incorporated. Whisk in salt, then remove from heat.  Place a lid on pan to keep sauce warm.  Remember to stir constantly and keep the water to a simmer, otherwise you will end up with scrambled eggs!

Historians give credit to two versions of the origin of Eggs Benedict:

1860s -Credit is given to Delmonico’s Restaurant, the very first restaurant or public dining room ever opened in the United States.  In the 1860’s, a regular patron of the restaurant, Mrs. LeGrand Benedict, finding nothing to her liking and wanting something new to eat for lunch, discussed this with Delmonico’s Chef Charles Ranhofer (1936-1899), Ranhofer came up with Eggs Benedict.  He has a recipe called Eggs a' la Benedick (Eufa a' la Benedick) in his cookbook called The Epicurean published in 1894:  Eggs à la Benedick - Cut some muffins in halves crosswise, toast them without allowing to brown, then place a round of cooked ham an eighth of an inch thick and of the same diameter as the muffins one each half.  Heat in a moderate oven and put a poached egg on each toast.  Cover the whole with Hollandaise sauce.

1894 - The following story appeared in the December 19,1942 issue of the weekly New Yorker Magazine "Talk of the Town" column and is based on an interview with Lemuel Benedict the year before he died.  In 1894, Lemuel Benedict, a Wall Street broker, who was suffering from a hangover, ordered “some buttered toast, crisp bacon, two poached eggs, and a hooker of hollandaise sauce” at the Waldorf Hotel in New York.  The Waldorf’s legendary chef, Oscar Tschirky, was so impressed that he put the dish on his breakfast and luncheon menus after substituting Canadian bacon for crisp bacon and a toasted English muffin for toasted bread.

1896 - Fannie Merritt Farmer's (1857-1915) revised, edited, and reissued Mary J. Lincoln's cookbook called The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book. In it is a recipe for Eggs à la Benedict. The recipe is as follows:  Eggs à la Benedict - Split and toast English muffins. Sauté circular pieces of cold boiled ham, place these over the halves of muffins, arrange on each a dropped egg, and pour around Hollandaise Sauce II , diluted with cream to make of such consistency to pour easily.

View my Béarnaise sauce recipe for the double boiler method.

Web published by Bill aka Mickey Porter 08-19-12 with updated pixs added on 09-09-13.

LEAVING ON A SPIRITUAL NOTE