Eggs Benedict
All-Day Breakfast (The Heart of the Diner)
Three minutes. That is the precise window the short-order veteran needs to industrialize a fussy, Gilded Age hotel dish into a masterpiece of working-class efficiency, ditching the culinary student's double-boiler for diner mechanics: a blender to force a foolproof hollandaise in thirty seconds, a fine-mesh strainer for perfectly tight egg whites, and a weighted smash on a ripping-hot cast-iron skillet to fry the English muffin in butter. When the stiff metal spatula slides under the bread and scrapes against the iron, drop the thick-cut Canadian bacon, lift the eggs with a slotted spoon as the water spins, and walk through the assembly exactly in this order.
Before you start
Poach the eggs ahead of time if feeding a houseful.
Cook all the eggs for just two and a half minutes, then immediately transfer them to an ice bath to stop the cooking. When it is time to plate, drop the cold eggs into hot, but not boiling, water for 60 seconds to re-warm.
Ingredients
- egg yolks3 large
- fresh lemon juice1 tbsp
- unsalted butter1/2 cup
- kosher salt1 pinch
- cayenne pepper1 pinch
- English muffins2 large
- Canadian bacon4 slices
- eggs4 large
- distilled white vinegar1 tbsp
- unsalted butter2 tbsp
- smoked paprika1 pinch
Method
- 01
Warm the blender carafe with hot tap water for two minutes, then dry thoroughly.
Add the egg yolks, lemon juice, salt, and cayenne to the blender. Melt the half cup of butter in a saucepan until bubbling and dangerously hot, then turn the blender to medium-low and drizzle the screaming-hot butter into the spinning yolks in a capillary-thin stream until a thick, velvety emulsion forms.
- 02
Bring a wide saucepan of water and the vinegar to a rolling boil, then immediately back it down to a gentle, lazy simmer.
Crack each strained egg into a small ramekin, lower the lip to the water's surface, and gently slide the egg in. Set a timer for three minutes, then remove with a slotted spoon and let the eggs rest on a paper-towel-lined plate to drain completely.
- 03
Heat a large cast-iron skillet over medium heat and place the generously buttered, fork-split muffins cut-side down in the pan.
Apply the weighted smash by placing a bacon press or heavy pot directly on top of the muffins, forcing the bread against the iron to fry into a devastatingly crunchy crust. Toss the Canadian bacon into the open real estate of the skillet to warm through and caramelize the edges.
- 04
Use a stiff metal spatula to aggressively scrape the crispy muffins and Canadian bacon off the iron.
Stack each toasted muffin half with a slice of griddled meat and a perfectly drained poached egg. Give the blender hollandaise one last blitz to loosen it up, ladle a heavy, unapologetic blanket of it over the top, and dust with paprika.
Notes
Do not rush the paper-towel draining step.
Moisture is the enemy of a crisp muffin. Puddles of poaching water mixing with hollandaise is a rookie mistake that will instantly destroy the griddled crispness of the bread.
The cast-iron stand-in requires maximum pressure.
If a dedicated bacon press is unavailable, use a foil-wrapped brick or a heavy teapot to weigh down the English muffins. The goal is to force the bread against the flat surface of the pan.
From Cook Diner Food at Home.