Eggs Benedict is the dish that tells everyone at the brunch table that you have your life together.
Why you are cooking this tonight
Eggs Benedict is the dish that tells everyone at the brunch table that you have your life together. Poached eggs, a slab of ham, a toasted muffin, and hollandaise: a butter sauce held together by egg yolks and an arm-building whisk. Cooks in twenty minutes if you get the timing right. Looks like you went to finishing school.
The hollandaise is the whole game. Do not buy it in a jar. Real hollandaise is warm butter, egg yolks, lemon juice, and a splash of hot water to steady it. Whisk hard over barely-simmering water and do not let the bowl touch the water or you will scramble your yolks.
Notes on method
Poach eggs in simmering water with a splash of white vinegar. Swirl the water before each egg goes in. The hollandaise keeps over warm (not hot) water for 15 minutes before it splits.
What to pour with it
Champagne or a Tasmanian sparkling. For breakfast boldness, a Bloody Mary. Coffee with it always.
Dal Zotto Pucino Prosecco NV
Australian prosecco with hollandaise and ham. The bubbles cut the butter.
Read more →
The recipe
Ingredients
Method
- Bring 3cm water to a simmer in a small pot. Set a heatproof bowl over it without touching the water.
- Whisk yolks and lemon juice in the bowl for 2 minutes until pale and thick.
- Slowly pour the warm melted butter in a thin stream, whisking constantly. The sauce should emulsify and thicken. Add hot water to loosen if needed.
- Season with cayenne and salt. Keep over warm water off the heat until ready.
- Toast muffins, butter them. Warm the ham in a dry pan for 30 seconds per side.
- Bring a deep pan of water with vinegar to a gentle simmer. Crack an egg into a small cup. Swirl the water and slide the egg in. Cook 3 minutes for a runny yolk. Scoop out with a slotted spoon onto paper towel. Repeat.
- Place 2 muffin halves on each plate. Top with ham, a poached egg, and generous hollandaise. Scatter chives. Serve immediately.
Nutrition
Two things that go wrong
Your hollandaise split.
The sauce is just butter and yolks held together by emulsion. Too much heat and the yolks scramble; too little and the butter separates. Keep the bowl over barely-simmering water, never boiling, and pour the butter in slowly. If it splits, whisk a teaspoon of cold water and an extra yolk into a clean bowl, then drizzle the broken sauce in slowly to rescue it.
Your poached eggs spread out into wisps.
Eggs need to be very fresh, the whites tighten around the yolk if they’re a few days old at most. Older eggs spread. Add a splash of vinegar to the water and create a vortex with a spoon before sliding the egg in. The spinning water wraps the white around the yolk.
Variations worth knowing
Eggs Florentine
Replace ham with wilted spinach and a sprinkle of nutmeg. Vegetarian, lighter, just as good.
Eggs Royale
Smoked salmon instead of ham. The salt of the fish meets the lemon-butter hollandaise beautifully.
Eggs Atlantic with crab
Lump crab meat under the egg, hollandaise on top, a sprinkle of Old Bay seasoning. The expensive Sunday move.
Leftovers and make ahead
Hollandaise doesn’t really keep, make it fresh. Spare poached eggs are useless once cold. The exception: spare hollandaise (warm) is brilliant on roasted asparagus, steamed broccoli, or a pan-grilled steak that night. Toasted leftover muffins are great for breakfast sandwiches the next morning.
You might also like
Recipe
The Proper Aussie Beetroot Burger
Why you should cook this The Aussie burger is the only burger format that openly admits to being a structural disaster. Beef pattie, melted tasty cheese, fried egg,…
Read the recipe →
Recipe
Pork & Cabbage Dim Sims (Aussie Style)
The Australian-Chinese fish-and-chip-shop dim sim. Why you should cook this Dim sims are the Australian-Chinese fish-and-chip-shop classic that nobody outside Australia has heard of and that everyone inside…
Read the recipe →
Recipe · Baking
Vegemite & Cheese Scrolls
Why you should cook this The lunchbox classic that you remember as the highlight of grade four and that, when you make them yourself as an adult, you…
Read the recipe →
Recipe
Savoury Cheese & Bacon Muffins
School lunchbox classic, grown-up version. Why you should cook this The lunchbox muffin that actually holds together. Cheddar, crispy bacon, spring onion, a fold of self-raising and a…
Read the recipe →