One of our Christmas Eve traditions is that I make Eggs Benedict for my wife. It’s fun and fairly easy and not named after either Benedict Arnold or the Jeffersons’ British neighbor so I’m going to share the recipe here for anyone else who’d also like to give it a try. This recipe serves three, or six people if you’re serving it with a side dish, or one person if they’re really hungry and are trying to send their cholesterol level off the charts.
You will need:
- About three billion eggs, or maybe only a dozen
- A pound of butter (or two eight ounce sticks) at room temperature
- Six tablespoons of lemon juice
- Three English muffins
First halve and toast the English muffins. Classic Eggs Benedict calls for a slice of Canadian bacon, or, as the Canadians call it, “ham”, on the English muffin halves, but for some that may be too much. Tasty alternatives include slices of avocado or smoked salmon.
Poach six eggs. If you have an egg poacher you can use that. I’ve also poached the eggs by adding water and a small amount of vinegar to a shallow pan, but that’s tricky because you have to keep the water just below boiling. Place an egg on each of the English muffin halves.
You can now set this aside in a warm oven.
The Hollandaise sauce is the hard part, but it comes together quickly. First separate the yolks from the whites or, to be more accurate, from the clears. It’s okay to leave some of the clear with the yolks. Since this version of Hollandaise sauce is basically a savory lemon custard some albumen will help it hold together.
Combine the egg yolks and the lemon juice in a pan over low heat.
Add half the butter. Stir slowly.
Once the butter is melted continue stirring for about a minute then add the second half of the butter. Stir vigorously. At this point the eggs will start to cook and the sauce will thicken. This is when you have to work fast. Just after the butter is completely melted the sauce is culinary nitroglycerine. It won’t blow up but it is seriously unstable. Get it off the heat and evenly distribute it over the English muffin halves and poached eggs.
For some color sprinkle on a little paprika or some parsley or both for a seasonal red and green effect.
Well, that’s our tradition. What’s yours?
That sounds yummy. Thanks❤️.
Our Christmas eve tradition is usually going to my ex-in-laws for incredible food including shrimp and manicotti, but this year Michael is going to make Mexican lasagna for me and Aaron, establishing a brand new tradition. Speaking of traditions, Aaron ha a tradition of ordering Eggs Benedict in restaurants. Michael, even though he is a professional cook, has never made Eggs Benedict for us, even though he brags about his hollandaise sauce. Your post is inspiring me to ask Michael to consider making Eggs Benedict for Christmas day. I’ll let you know how that turns out, Chris.
Actually, we call it peameal bacon in Canada. Ham is, well ham. And bacon is just bacon.
This sounds wonderful–can I make it without the eggs? I’m not such a huge egg fan unless it’s scrambled or omelettes. Also, up here we call Canadian bacon ‘back bacon’ and it’s usually rolled in peameal which is actually cornmeal. There are too many names of things–just give me good old bacon!