Eggs Benedict facts for kids
Eggs Benedict is a dish usually served at breakfast. It starts with a lightly toasted English muffin. The muffin is topped with cooked bacon or Canadian bacon, and poached eggs. The dish is completed with a small amount of hollandaise sauce. Many variations on the dish exist. There are several stories about the origin of Eggs Benedict.
Contents
Origin
There are several stories about how Eggs Benedict started.
There have been many “Benedicts” who have tried to claim credit for the invention of the dish, but they are all frauds. A “benedict” was slang for a newly married gent who had been single for a very long time.
In an interview in The New Yorker magazine in 1942, Lemuel Benedict, a retired Wall Street stock broker, said that he had wandered into the Waldorf Hotel in 1894 and 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 and a toasted English muffin for the bacon and toast.
Craig Claiborne, in September 1967, wrote a column in The New York Times Magazine about a letter he had received from Edward P. Montgomery, an American living in France. In it, Montgomery related that the dish was created by Commodore E.C. Benedict, a banker and yachtsman, who died in 1920 at the age of 86. Montgomery also included a recipe for eggs Benedict, stating that the recipe had been given to him by his mother, who had received it from her brother, who was a friend of the Commodore.
Mabel C. Butler of Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts in a November 1967 letter printed in The New York Times Magazine responded to Montgomery's claim by correcting that the "true story, well known to the relations of Mrs. Le Grand Benedict", of whom she was one, was:
Mr. and Mrs. Benedict, when they lived in New York around the turn of the century, dined every Saturday at Delmonico's. One day Mrs. Benedict said to the maitre d'hotel, "Haven't you anything new or different to suggest?" On his reply that he would like to hear something from her, she suggested poached eggs on toasted English muffins with a thin slice of ham, hollandaise sauce and a truffle on top.
Variations
- Eggs Benedict XVI was created in honour of Pope Benedict XVI by food historian Mary Gunderson in 2005. Benedict XVI was born in Germany, so this variation uses traditional German ingredients. Most importantly the English muffin is replaced by rye bread, while sausage or sauerbraten is used instead of bacon.
- Eggs Florentine substitutes spinach for the ham.
- Eggs Hussarde substitutes Holland rusks for the English muffin and adds Marchand de Vin sauce.
- Eggs Montreal substitutes salmon for the ham. This is a common variation in Australia and New Zealand.
- Eggs Neptune or Crab Benedict substitutes crabmeat for the ham.
- Eggs Sardou substitutes artichoke bottoms and crossed anchovy fillets for the English muffin and ham, then tops the hollandaise sauce with chopped ham and a truffle slice. The dish was created at Antoine's Restaurant in New Orleans in honor of the French playwright Victorien Sardou.
- Artichoke Benedict replaces the English muffin with a hollowed artichoke.
- Country Benedict, sometimes known as Eggs Beauregard, replaces the English muffin, ham and hollandaise sauce with a biscuit, sausage patties, and country gravy. The poached eggs are replaced with eggs fried to choice.
- Irish Benedict replaces the ham with corned beef hash
- French Benedict replaces the English Muffin with French Toast.
Related pages
Images for kids
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Eggs Florentine with spinach in place of Canadian bacon.
See also
In Spanish: Huevos Benedict para niños
