Eggs Benedict Eggs Benedict Eggs Benedict, also informally known as Eggs Benny, is a traditional American breakfast or brunch dish that consists of two halves of an English muffin topped with a poached egg, bacon or ham, and hollandaise sauce. The dish was first popularized in New York City. Many variations on the basic recipe are served. There are conflicting accounts as to the origin of Eggs Benedict. Delmonico's in lower Manhattan says on its menu that "Eggs Benedict was first created in our ovens in 1860." One of its former chefs, Charles Ranhofer, also published the recipe for "Eggs à la
Hollandaise sauce One of his categories was "allemande", which was a stock-based sauce using egg and lemon juice. Escoffier replaced "allemande" with "hollandaise" in his list of the five mother sauces of haute cuisine. While many believe that a true hollandaise sauce should only contain the basic ingredients of eggs, butter and lemon, Prosper Montagne suggested using either a white wine or vinegar reduction, similar to a Béarnaise sauce, to help improve the taste. In English, the name "Dutch sauce" was common through the nineteenth century, but was largely displaced by "hollandaise" in the twentieth. As in other egg emulsion sauces, like