- 6 weeks ago
Chef Adam Plitt of Delmonico’s, America’s first fine dining restaurant, shows how to make original Eggs Benedict in the place it was invented. Learn the history of the iconic brunch dish while mastering poached eggs, brioche toast, and a rich, made-from-scratch béarnaise sauce.
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00:04Welcome to Delmonico's. I'm executive chef Adam Plitt. Today we're here to make the perfect Eggs
00:10Benedict. There's such a rich history here at Delmonico's. This is the first fine dining
00:18restaurant in America. So many famous dishes were made here, one of them being Eggs Benedict.
00:23There's been many renditions of the Eggs Benedict. Here at Delmonico's we use brioche,
00:28pasture-raised eggs, and applewood smoked ham. We finished the Eggs Benedict with a lovely
00:34Bernays. The most important part of this dish is the sauce. Let's get started.
00:42Traditionally, Eggs Benedict has hollandaise. Your hollandaise has your lemon juice and cayenne and
00:47clarified butter. The Bernays is a rendition of hollandaise. The difference is that it has
00:53diced shallots, crushed black peppercorn, and tarragon. To make the sauce, dice this shallot
00:58like you would dice an onion. Mince it very small because when we reduce it, we want those chunks
01:04of shallot in the sauce. Eggs Benedict is notoriously a very rich dish. At Delmonico's, we like the
01:12Bernays because it just offers a little bit of contrast from the richness of the egg and the
01:16buttery brioche and the ham. I like the chunks of black pepper and the acidity from the chunks of
01:23shallots. The shallots will absorb the acidity from the wine and the vinegar. And as you eat the dish,
01:31you'll get little flavor spikes from that. And we have our tarragon here. The tarragon offers a nice
01:38floral note to the end of the dish, really brings everything together. We're going to take the leaves off
01:43the tarragon. Take the stem, put it in our reduction. Reserve these leaves for later for our finished
01:49sauce. So we're going to add our crushed black pepper. We don't want whole peppercorn, so we're
01:54biting on a whole peppercorn. It'll be softened by the reduction and by the sauce, but we want to feel
01:59the black pepper in here, which is why we don't finely grind it. Next, we'll add our white wine. This
02:04will
02:04add acidity. Some people use straight vinegar. I like the flavor of white wine reduced with the
02:10shallots. This is just regular cooking white wine. You don't want to buy the cheapest thing, but
02:14something that you like the flavor of. You're going to add a couple drops of red wine vinegar for a
02:19little extra acidity, and we're going to put it on the stove to reduce. We're going to bring this up
02:24to a boil. We don't want it to burn around the edges because that will affect the flavor of the
02:28wine.
02:29We're just going to boil it down. It's about three quarters, reserving a little liquid. This will cook
02:34the shallots, soften the black pepper, bring out the flavor of the tarragon stem, and cook out all
02:40the alcohol in the wine as well. Eggs Benedict was founded by the chef of Delmonico's at the time,
02:46Charles Ranhofer, arguably the first celebrity chef here in New York City. Chef Charles Ranhofer wrote
02:52the Epicurean, and that was the first instance in which you would see Eggs Benedict. There was a guest
02:58by the name of Mrs. Legrand Benedict. She requested something special from the kitchen,
03:04so Chef Ranhofer whipped up what we now know today as Eggs Benedict. So this has been simmering for
03:10about five minutes. As you can see, the wine and vinegar are all reduced down. The shallots are nice
03:16and soft, so this is right where we want to take it off. While we're here, I'm going to melt
03:20the butter.
03:21Some people use clarified butter in this sauce. I use unsalted whole butter. I like the flavor of it
03:27better. With this process, we're actually going to want to boil this butter and get it very, very hot.
03:32Everyone is afraid of their Bernays breaking. The reason why it breaks is either from temperature or
03:38not enough water contents for the emulsion to hold. Adding those milk solids will help hold that
03:45emulsion. The butter's at a good boil now. We're ready to move over to the blender and put our sauce
03:50together. If you're making this dish at home, I highly suggest you use the blender. You won't have to sit
03:55there and whisk over a double boiler. This is what we find. It makes the sauce super consistent,
04:01holds together per service. Chances of it breaking are less. It will make your life a lot easier.
04:06The first thing we're going to do is drain our reduction out. We want to reserve the liquid
04:11for the sauce itself, and we're going to leave those tarragon stems in that pot, or if they come out,
04:16we'll remove them. And we're going to set aside the shallots and the black pepper to fold into our
04:22sauce at the end so we get those chunks. We don't want to puree them in with the sauce. We
04:26want to
04:27feel the chunks in the sauce. So we're going to take our egg yolks. We're going to put them in
04:32the
04:32blender. Eggs are a natural emulsifier, which will hold the reduction and fat together in a homogenized
04:40mixture. Now we're going to add the reduction to the sauce, and we're going to add a couple teaspoons
04:47of mustard. Adds a little bit of tang and flavor to the sauce, and it also strengthens that emulsion
04:52even more. We're also going to add a little bit of salt. We don't want to finish it completely with
04:57salt. We'll adjust the seasoning towards the end. If we add too much at this stage, we can never take
05:02it out. So I'm just going to put the blender on low. We're just looking to homogenize the mixture
05:08together and get everything really well whipped up before we whip in our hot butter. So we have our
05:14boiling butter here. We're going to slowly drizzle that in. Key part to this is that the butter is hot
05:21so that we can cook the egg as we blend it. That will ensure that the emulsion stays even stronger.
05:28The whole point of this process is to make sure that your sauce does not break. As the sauce gets
05:34thicker, we're going to raise the speed of the blender just a little bit.
05:40So you can hear that strong emulsion in the blender.
05:45As you add your butter, you want to do it slowly. Listen to the sound of the blender as it
05:50thickens.
05:50If you get your sauce too thick, there will not be enough liquid in the emulsion to hold,
05:56so it will break. It's better to go thinner than thicker. You can always add a little bit more.
06:01This is exactly what we're looking for. Coat the back of the spoon. This will hold really well in
06:08a warm place. You can also heat it up slowly, being careful to whisk it the entire time,
06:12and you don't want to get it too, too hot. If it gets too hot, you can risk breaking it.
06:16At this point, we're going to mix in our shallots and black pepper. This is what we reserved from the
06:21reduction and strained out. This is a preference thing. It depends on how much you like. We like a lot
06:27here. It adds flavor to the dish. I think this is what really makes the Bernays special. You go to
06:33a lot of places and they just chop tarragon and put it in hollandaise and call it Bernays. This,
06:38to me, is what really sets it off. Here we have that nice, deep, rich color from those pasture-raised
06:44eggs.
06:47We're going to add a little bit more salt. Cover this sauce. We put it in a warm place over
06:51the stove
06:52while we prep the rest of our dish. For Eggs Benedict here at Delmonico's, we use brioche.
07:00I think this is the perfect bread. We bake this fresh here. It's from an enriched dough. We're
07:05going to take the crust off here and we're going to slice a nice thick slice right here. So the
07:12crumb of the bread is really buttery and really, really soft. As you toast it, it just gets even
07:17softer because the butter in the bread kind of softens a little bit. It is important to have
07:22enough bread to support a lot of sauce and the runny egg. A nice thick cut is what I recommend.
07:28By using brioche instead of an English muffin, it's a little bit softer of a texture. It's a little more
07:33buttery. It's just a difference of flavor. So here at Delmonico's, we're going to use a ring cutter.
07:38Not something you have to do at home. It just makes for a really nice presentation. We just want the
07:44inside. I don't want any crust. We save this for when we make our crab cakes, but you can freeze
07:48it, save it for breadcrumbs, whatever you want. So now that we have our brioche rounds cut, we're
07:53going to set them aside and we're going to get our ham ready. So this is a triple applewood smoked
07:58ham.
07:58Traditionally, it's Canadian bacon. You can use black forest, whatever your favorite ham is.
08:03The ham is super thinly sliced. It's really nice and delicate. It's easier to cut against that soft brioche
08:10and the egg really, really coats every single piece. So we're going to take the ham and we're
08:14going to make a little rose out of it that's going to prevent the egg from sliding off. We want
08:21everything ready to go before we poach our eggs. So we have that nice rose with a little hole in
08:28the
08:28middle. We're going to put it in the 350 degree oven and get it nice and warm, get a little
08:33crispiness
08:34on the outside. So next we're going to brush the brioche with a little bit of regular unsalted butter,
08:38both sides. The nice part about this versus putting the butter in the pan is that the butter will not
08:45burn as easily. The bread absorbs the butter a little bit and then it'll crisp up nicely in the pan.
08:51So we have a nice hot pan here and we're going to toast our brioche and just get a nice
08:55golden color.
08:56And since we painted the brioche with the butter, we don't have to worry about burning only a portion
09:02of the bread and not getting it toasted. Toast it nice and evenly. Flip here, nice golden color,
09:08and then we'll toast the other side. That's it.
09:16Everything's ready to go. Now we just have to poach our eggs. This is another tricky part of this. We
09:21want to make sure we cook our eggs properly with a nice set white and a nice liquid custardy yolk.
09:28Essentially almost boil the egg without the shell. We're going to take a little bit of white vinegar
09:34and pour it in a pot. The white vinegar will help coagulate the protein of the white, which will
09:38protect the yolk and cook it more evenly. These are pasture-raised eggs. Really nice quality eggs.
09:44The yolk is beautifully orange. A lot of nutrients in these, not like the typical eggs you see at the
09:50grocery store. I crack the eggs in a separate container. It makes it easier. You make sure that
09:55the egg is completely whole. The yolk's not broken. Two to a container. I don't recommend any more than
10:00that. We're going to have the water just under boiling and that will slowly cook the egg. It's
10:06rolling too hard. It could possibly break the egg apart as it goes in. I'm going to give it a
10:11little
10:11swirl with a whisk. That's going to create a little vortex and I'm going to drop the eggs in one
10:16at a time.
10:17Give it a swirl. You want it to drop in nice and gently. The vortex will help keep the white
10:24and the yolk
10:24in the center and encapsulate that yolk in one solid piece. So now we're going to let it cook for
10:30about
10:30two or three minutes. It's a different preference for everyone on how they like their egg cooked.
10:34Here we're going to go with a nice runny egg yolk. If you like it more cooked, obviously cook it
10:40a
10:40little bit more. Another method is to pre-poach your eggs and put them in ice water and then all
10:45you need
10:45to do is dip them in hot water and they're ready to roll. So I'm testing to see if the
10:49eggs are ready.
10:50The white is firm. The yolk is soft. You can tell that it's definitely liquidated in there by feel,
10:56but it's nice and set. It's exactly what we're looking for.
11:03So we're going to assemble our dish. We'll take our nice toasted brioche. Take our ham or a nice warm
11:10ham over the top. Keep that nice rose in the middle, a nice hole for our eggs. We blotted our
11:18eggs dry.
11:20Nice and hot. Perfectly cooked. We have some freshly chopped tarragon. We're going to add that to our sauce.
11:26We kept the sauce warm this entire time. It's beautiful, velvety, nice and rich.
11:34We'll finish with a little bit of sliced chai and that's it. Eggs Benedict. A simple dish
11:40elevated the dalmonico's way. The yolk is perfectly cooked. The brioche is nice and soft underneath.
11:46Meat. Delicious. I get the acidity of the sauce, creaminess of the egg, the nice richness of the
11:55ham. This is a simple preparation of egg that's truly luxurious. There's a lot of dishes that people
12:01make and reinvent and stand the test of time. This is definitely one of them created right here at
12:07Delmonico's. It's an honor to be a part of the tradition here. A dish that was started here,
12:13founded here, and continues to live on to this day.
12:16Oh, nobody's everywhere, from here.
12:19Also, you gotta nose!
12:20You
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