Eggs Benedict

The fundamental formula for eggs Benedict is hollandaise-smothered Canadian bacon and a poached egg on a toasted English muffin. But that basic recipe is boundlessly malleable. There are crabcake Benedict, smoked salmon Benedict, smoked brisket Benedict, and, at Flakey Cream Do-Nuts in Healdsburg, California, Mexican Benedict of avocado, chorizo, jalapeno peppers, and pepperjack cheese, all smothered with hollandaise. In Columbus, North Carolina, The Rural Seed makes “southern Benedict” that is architecturally proper but is a complete make-over of the standard dish: The English muffin is replaced by a biscuit, the hollandaise by sausage gravy, and the Canadian bacon by pulled pork. It all began one morning in the late 1800s, when Lemuel Benedict sat down in the dining room of New York’s Waldorf Hotel hoping to eat a breakfast that would cure his hangover. He asked for poached eggs, bacon, and hollandaise on white toast. Over time, the bacon morphed into Canadian bacon and the toast into an English muffin and the dish that bears Benedict’s name was born.