Eggs Benedict

Ingredients

For the eggs Benedict:

• 2 quarts water
• 1 tbsp white vinegar
• 8 eggs
• 4 well-toasted Thomas’s English muffins, generously buttered
• 8 slices Canadian bacon
• Hollandaise sauce

For the hollandaise sauce:

• ½ pound butter, melted just before use
• 3 egg yolks
• 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• ¼ tsp cayenne pepper

Instructions

1. 1
   Bring water to a boil in wide, high-sided sauteuse.
2. 2
   Add white vinegar; reduce heat to a healthy simmer.
3. 3
   Crack each egg into a ramekin, then tip the ramekin into the simmering water. Swirl the water gently with your spoon to create motion. For grade A, large eggs right out of the refrigerator, poach for 2 minutes and 30 seconds. Arrange the English muffins in matched pairs (one top, one bottom) on the plate.
4. 4
   Warm the Canadian bacon on the griddle and set on each English muffin.
5. 5
   Retrieve the eggs with a slotted spoon, rest your spoon briefly on a folded dish towel to drain, then set the eggs on the muffins.
6. 6
   Drape each egg with a generous spoonful of the hollandaise sauce.
7. 7
   For the hollandaise sauce: Put the yolks in stainless steel bowl. Whisk in the lemon juice. Secure the bowl on a damp kitchen towel, and pour the hot melted butter into the yolk mixture in a steady stream, whisking constantly, always keeping the emulsion.
8. 8
   As it thickens up, it will feel thick and heading toward pasty, but at the very end, whisk in all the watery and separated milk solids from the bottom of the melted butter and it will think out to a ribbony and silken sauce. Please don’t deviate from this method by clarifying the butter or by whisking it over a double boiler or by melting the butter in a microwave.
9. 9
   When seasoning, please keep in mind that the sauce will be dulled significantly by the runny egg yolks of the poached eggs as well as the buttered English muffin in the finished dish, so be sure to season high and bright with lemon and salt and cayenne. The cayenne, however, should only provide “warmth,” not heat.