Eggs Benedict

Today, we were cooking breakfast meals and experimenting with different ways to cook eggs. On the list were fried eggs, scrambled eggs and poached eggs. Our group chose to work on poached eggs because it was the only kind that we weren’t completely familiar with. One of Anna’s favorite meals that incorporated poached eggs is Eggs Benedict, for which we found a recipe on http://www.allrecipes.com. The meal is well known, but many of our class hadn’t had it before, so it was a good new experience. the Hollandaise sauce can sometimes be an acquired taste and some people do not like it.

Amory, mixing together the components for Hollandaise Sauce.

Since we had to premeditate our list of ingredients, we had completely ignored the fact that we needed English muffins. Amory had to run down to the school kitchen to grab an emergency  package. Otherwise, the preparation went well. Although we were a little hesitant about poaching the eggs (we hadn’t considered in our grocery list that we might mess up the first few times and we may need extra eggs), but we triumphantly poached all six eggs without any major mistakes. Success!

English muffins with some of the poached eggs before they are coated with Hollandaise sauce.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

Amory stirring the Hollandaise sauce on the stovetop.

Hollandaise Sauce

• 4 egg yolks
• 3 1/2 T lemon juice
• A pinch ground pepper
• 1/8 t Worcestershire sauce
• 1 T water
• 1 c melted butter
• 1/4 t salt
  

  The finished Hollandaise sauce.

Egg Preparation

• 5 c water
• 1 t cider vinegar
• 8 eggs
  

  Pulling out a successfully poached egg.

English Muffins

• 4 split English muffins
• About 2 T  butter, softened

Directions:

1. Over heat, combine egg yolks and the tablespoon of water. Add the lemon juice, pepper, Worcestershire sauce and salt. Constantly whisk until it starts to thicken
2. Melt the butter in a small bowl and slowly pour the butter into the mixture. Stir the mixture  until the butter and the lemon and egg sauce is well-integrated. Put aside on very low heat to keep warm while preparing the English muffins and eggs.
3. To poach the eggs, put the 5 cups of water into a medium pot. Add the cider vinegar. The vinegar helps the eggs stay together when putting them into the water. Bring the water to a gentle boil.
4. While waiting for the water to boil, toast the English muffin halves and butter them. Cover with a paper towel.
5. Carefully break an egg into a small bowl and then pour the egg gently into the boiling water.
6. Take a large slotted spoon and check the eggs. When the eggs are done, the yolks will be soft, but the whites will be solid. Carefully scoop up the egg with the slotted spoon and place on the English muffin. Each muffin half gets a poached egg.
7. After all of the English muffin halves have an egg on top, generously drizzle the Hollandaise sauce on top and serve.
   

   All done! English muffins with poached eggs, drizzled with Hollandaise sauce.

After making Eggs Benedict, since we had an excess of Hollandaise sauce leftover, we should have altered the recipe. We were only making three serving sizes, rather than the recipe’s intended four. We only made six eggs and six English muffin halves, and, on top of that, after the sauce had settled, we decided that we should have put more on top. Otherwise, the recipe tasted great, and there was nothing wrong.

The only thing we learned was to stick to the recipe proportions that were given if we wanted to use all of the components of the meal.