Breakfast Idea – Eggs Benedict

Commentary

Tomorrow is National Eggs Benedict Day! So in honor of the day…. this week’s breakfast idea is Eggs Benedict. It is a repeat… I know… I featured Eggs Benedict once before… but they’re so good… they deserve the re-run.

There are differing accounts as to the origins of Eggs Benedict. Wikipedia has an interesting article on several accounts….

In one account, a retired Wall Street stockbroker named Lemuel Benedict claimed to the New Yorker in 1942 that he had invented Eggs Benedict one morning hoping to cure his hangover… he had been at the famous Waldorf Astoria in New York and ordered “buttered toast, poached eggs, crisp bacon and a hooker of hollandaise”. The maitre d’ was so impressed with the dish he put it on the breakfast and luncheon menus but substituted ham for the bacon and English muffin for the toast.

In another account, Craig Claiborne wrote an article in September of 1967 for The New York Times Magazine about a letter he had received from Edward P. Montgomery, an American living in France, claiming that the dish was created by Commodore E. C. Benedict, a banker and yachtsman. He claimed he had been given the recipe by his mother who had received it from her brother, who was a friend of the Commodore.
Wikipedia cites two more accounts of those claiming to have originated this dish… click the link if you want to read more…

And who knows… maybe they all did… how many times do you honestly think up a variation of something only to find it somewhere in a magazine or cookbook a few months later…. it happens all the time…. I like to say… Great Minds Think Alike …. GMTA for all you chat savvy people.

In any case…. Eggs Benedict is delicious and easy to make… I will re-post the recipe for your convenience… I hope you enjoy it!