I have, on occassion, had eggs benedict with salmon. Still delicious but with less heart attack.
I’ve also had it with thick fried green tomatoes (instead of meat) that was pretty tasty. That might not sit well with the purists, however.
I’ve had with lobster and it was phenomenal. (Canadian bacon is generally quite lean–usually fewer calories by weight than salmon. But it doesn’t really matter. It’s the hollandaise that will kill you.)
Smoked or pickled?
Crabcakes Benedict is very common in the South.
I often make a “ghetto” Eggs Benedict using sliced deli ham and an instant hollandaise sauce packet. The eggs are still poached and left runny though. Smoked salmon sounds like it would be real good too.
Like several posters have said above, it’s all about the hollandaise sauce. I’ve made eggs benedict several different ways, and they’ve all been amazing.
Started with the traditional, with Canadian Bacon, switched it to a good prosciutto or smoked salmon.
I’ve done the crab cake benedict, English Muffin, tomato, crab cake, egg, hollendaise, garnish with green onions.
Start changing the base or the hollendaise for an even more elegant dish.
Eggs “bene-duck” with hash browns, roasted duck breast, soft boiled egg, and truffle hollandaise. This is one of the best I’ve ever had, and it’s one of the few duck dished I do every time I get my hands on some duck breasts.
I’ve had one with sauteed spinach, baked salmon, poached egg, and a ginger-orange hollendaise.
If it’s good with hollendaise sauce, and what isn’t, it’ll make a good benedict.
One of my favorite Benedicts of all time was with a crabcake. I only got one bite, though–it was my husband’s.
hangs head I didn’t know the egg yolks were supposed to be runny & have happily eaten many restaurant EB’s with semi-to-fully solid yolks.
So, for a proper EG, HOW runny?
I’d say the yolk should be about the same consistency as that of a fried egg, over medium. The white can get away with being a bit more runny, say, over easy.
I love Eggs Benedict but only when it’s liberally smothered under hollandaise. There’s a brunch bistro in South Pasadena (Firefly, for the interested) that makes an eggs benedict with red pepper hollandaise under crab hash that is ridiculously good. They serve it with breakfast potatoes on the side.
I feel myself getting fat typing that but it never stops me from ordering it.
Crabcake is the default “non-standard” benedict component in restaurants around here.
There’s also a place that does a great vegetarian benedict with tomato, portabello, spinach, veggie sausage, egg, and hollandaise on a croissant. A very tasty meal, but it’s too busy to ever hit the ‘sublime’ level.
slackerboss, the ‘bene-duck’ sounds incredible!
I have had those at Firefly, and they are totally worth getting fat over!
Here in Houston at the Daily Review they do some Southwestern Eggs Benedict where the egg is on jalapeno cornbread instead of the English muffin, and with jalapeno bacon and a roasted tomato hollandaise. One of my favorite breakfasts here. Delish.
This was an awful, awful joke.
My favorite is with creamed spinach, there’s a name for it that escapes me (Sardou?)
mariposalabrown, here’s a recipe that looks very similar. I think I’ll try my hand at this dish one of these days.
Anybody want to explain it to the dumb guy in the room?
No. Relish your ignorance. That one was like an arrow through an eyeball. Your lack of knowledge of the subject material is your armor. Don’t take it off, I beg of you.
I love when you start drooling just reading a recipe. That just got saved, thanks!
Funny to see this thread… I just had Eggs Benedict for dinner. Took the kiddies to IHOP for Wild-N-Crazy-Breakfast-for-Dinner Night. I’m happy to report the yolks were nice and runny, and I adore the IHOP hashbrowns (or half-browns, as my 5 year old calls them) mixed with the egg yolk and hollandaise sauce. Yum!