Eggs Benedict
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Eggs Benedict is a dish consisting of slices of toast or halves of muffins (English muffins in American English) topped with poached eggs, smoked bacon or ham (traditionally back bacon, which in America is called Canadian bacon) and hollandaise sauce.
Stories differ as to the origins of the dish. One version is that it 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. 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 a New Yorker interview 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. Whatever its origin, it is generally agreed that Benedictine monks had nothing to do with it.
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.
Eggs Benedict may have inspired McDonalds to create the Egg McMuffin breakfast sandwich, which approximates the dish by substituting scrambled egg for the poached egg, ham for the Canadian bacon, and a piece of cheese for the hollandaise sauce. Further, the traditional Eggs Benedict is open-faced, while the Egg McMuffin has the other half of the English muffin on top.
See also
External links
- Who Cooked That Up? (http://members.cox.net/jjschnebel/eggsbene.html) page on origin of the dish with a recipe