Eggs Benedict

Half a toasted English muffin, a round of Canadian bacon or ham, a poached egg and a spoonful of hollandaise: eggs Benedict is the New York brunch dish that tests three techniques on one plate and lets you see which the kitchen cannot do. Two origin stories compete, both from Manhattan in the 1890s: one credits a hungover stockbroker named Lemuel Benedict ordering the combination at the Waldorf, the other a regular at Delmonico's named Mrs LeGrand Benedict, and neither can be proved. What is certain is that the dish spread through hotel breakfast rooms in the first half of the twentieth century and became the anchor of the American brunch menu after the 1960s. Its variations follow a pattern: Florentine with spinach, Royale with smoked salmon, Chesapeake with crab cake, and so on, each swapping the meat and keeping the muffin, the egg and the sauce.