Eggs Benedict facts for kids
Eggs Benedict is a popular breakfast or brunch dish. It starts with a lightly toasted English muffin. On top of the muffin, you'll find cooked bacon or Canadian bacon, and perfectly poached eggs. The dish is finished with a creamy, rich sauce called hollandaise sauce. There are many different ways to make Eggs Benedict, and several interesting stories about how it first began.
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How Eggs Benedict Started
There are a few different stories about how the famous Eggs Benedict dish came to be.
One popular story comes from Lemuel Benedict, who used to work on Wall Street. In 1894, he said he went to the Waldorf Hotel in New York City. He felt a bit unwell and ordered "buttered toast, poached eggs, crisp bacon, and a side of hollandaise sauce." The hotel's head waiter, Oscar Tschirky, was very impressed with this meal. He decided to add it to the hotel's breakfast and lunch menus. However, he made a small change: he used ham and a toasted English muffin instead of bacon and toast.
Another story suggests the dish was created at a famous restaurant called Delmonico's in New York. A woman named Mrs. Le Grand Benedict often ate there with her husband. One day, she asked the head waiter if he had anything new to suggest. She then described what she wanted: poached eggs on toasted English muffins with a thin slice of ham and hollandaise sauce. This sounds very much like the Eggs Benedict we know today!
Different Kinds of Eggs Benedict
Many chefs and home cooks have created their own versions of Eggs Benedict. Here are some popular ones:
- Eggs Benedict XVI was made to honor Pope Benedict XVI. Since he was born in Germany, this version uses German ingredients. Instead of an English muffin, it uses rye bread. It also uses sausage or sauerbraten (a German pot roast) instead of bacon.
- Eggs Blackstone is a twist where bacon is replaced with ham, and a slice of fresh tomato is added.
- Eggs Florentine is a great choice for vegetable lovers! It replaces the ham with cooked spinach.
- Eggs Hussarde uses Holland rusks (a type of dry biscuit) instead of English muffins. It also adds a special sauce called Marchand de Vin.
- Eggs Montreal is popular in places like Australia and New Zealand. It uses salmon instead of ham.
- Eggs Neptune or Crab Benedict uses delicious crabmeat in place of the ham.
- Eggs Sardou is a fancy version created at Antoine's Restaurant in New Orleans. It uses artichoke bottoms and crossed anchovy fillets instead of the muffin and ham. It's then topped with chopped ham and a slice of truffle.
- Artichoke Benedict replaces the English muffin with a hollowed-out artichoke heart.
- Country Benedict, also known as Eggs Beauregard, changes things up quite a bit! It uses a biscuit instead of an English muffin, sausage patties instead of ham, and country gravy instead of hollandaise sauce. The eggs are also fried instead of poached.
- Irish Benedict replaces the ham with savory corned beef hash.
- French Benedict uses French Toast instead of the English Muffin.
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
