Eggs Benedict – the history bit

The jury is out as to when eggs benedict first appeared either on a menu or in a restaurant. One thing is for sure it was definitely in New York, USA. It could be as early as 1860. There are lots of stories but the one I like the best is from 1894 when “Lemuel Benedict wanted a hangover cure and ordered buttered toast, poached eggs, crispy bacon and a hooker of hollandaise”. It was Oscar Tschirky, the maître d'hôtel who subsequently put it on the breakfast and lunch menus but changed the bacon for ham and the toast for a toasted English muffin.

A “Hooker” of hollandaise? – “hollandaise” means “from Holland” and probably the Hook of Holland - a town in the south west, hence the hooker, may be?

The sauce was originally Sauce Isigny – not surprisingly French and from the Normandy region in particular. It's thought that it morphed into hollandaise when butter was imported from Holland during World War I. These days Isigny sur mer is famous for its cream, butter and cheese. Its high quality butter is still produced the old fashioned way – churning.

There are heaps of alternatives to the “Benedict”.

Here are three :

Blanchard substitutes Béchamel sauce for Hollandaise

Florentine substitutes spinach for the ham or adds it underneath.

Mornay substitutes a cheese sauce for Hollandaise

I couldn't leave out “Irish Benedict” - replaces the ham with corned beef or Irish bacon.

Hats off to Oscar Tschirky who had the idea of serving the benedict on a toasted muffin - genius – a perfectly neat shape just right for a poached egg.

You never know where this history stuff is going to take you – I hope I haven't bored you – you know what they say, “you learn something new every day”!

Now for the recipe …