Eggs Benedict

American Entree

EGGS BENEDICT

INGREDIENTS

16 tablespoons or 2 sticks butter
6 egg yolks
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon thyme

8 slices Canadian bacon
8 eggs
2 teaspoons white vinegar
2 teaspoons rice vinegar
4 English muffins
2 sticks butter

Note: this recipe is made for people allergic to undercooked eggs. If you prefer runnier eggs, please halve the times below.

PREPARATION

Melt two sticks of butter in sauce pan. Add 6 egg yolks, lemon juice, salt, cayenne, Worcestershire sauce, and thyme. Mix thoroughly with whisk. Cook on medium high for 6 minutes or until sauce thickens. Stir frequently.

While sauce is cooking, put bacon in frying pan. Cook on medium heat for about 8 minutes flipping the bacon (BACON!) occasionally until both sides turn brown.

While you are cooking the sauce and frying the bacon, (BACON!) start poaching the eggs. Fill a large sauce pan 2/3 to the top with water. Add rice vinegar and white vinegar. Lower the heat until low and wait until the surface of the water is smooth. (You most certainly do not want to be burnt with bubbling water when you add the eggs.) Crack the shells and slide the eggs in the water. Raise the heat to medium and cook for 8 minutes.

In the spare seconds between attending to the sauce, bacon, and poached eggs, toast 4 English muffins or 8 half muffins. (As you can see this is not a dish where you can safely read Moby Dick.)

Butter the cranny-filled side of a muffin half. Add a slice of Canadian bacon, then a poached egg. (Use a spoon with holes in it to retrieve the egg.) Top with Hollandaise sauce.

Be sure to thank vigorously anyone who helps you clean up after this one. If your date cooks you this dish and has everything completely cleaned up by serving time, consider proposing.

TIDBITS

1) Canadian Bacon comes from Canada. Canada has lot of “a”s in it.

2) So does the Mexican city of Guadalajara.

3) America went to war with Mexico in 1846. As a result, America won the entire southwest part of the modern U.S.

4) America never went to war with Canada. Oh sure, we invaded it in 1812, but it was still part of Britain. That war ended in a tie. We got nothing.

5) Maybe it’s because Guadalajara has one more “a” in it than Canada.

6) But everything’s okay now between America and Canada.

7) But who is Benedict and why did he get eggs named after him? Seems like a great idea for product placement.

– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef

My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.