Any cook who prepares Eggs Benedict from scratch will tell you that it’s no easy task. Because we like a challenge, we set out to create the perfect Benedict recipeand because we’re from the Pacific Northwest, we added Dungeness crabmeat instead of ham. Yum.
Mastering the art of the elevated breakfast classic involves a few modernist methods that allow you to control temperature and timing with superhuman precision. Creating a textbook poached egg, for example, is simple with a sous vide water bath set to 167 °F / 75 °C for 14 minutes. Here, we cook the eggs at a high temperature for a short amount of time (instead of at equilibrium temp for longer) to create a firm egg white that’s very similar to a traditionally poached egg. We found that cooking the eggs at a lower temp for longer left us with overly runny whitesnot ideal for Benedict. (With sous vide, you can play with different times and temperatures for any ingredient to discover best possible outcomes.) Likewise, notoriously tricky Hollandaise comes out creamy and velvety every single time when cooked sous vide and reserved in a whipping siphon on the day of service.
Handmade English Muffins (it’s worth the effort, trust us) soak up the egg and Hollandaise but remain firm. Extra-flavorful steamed crab finishes the dish with a touch of briny NW elegance.
Some elements can be prepared in advance (English muffins and crab meat), making it ever easier to create an impressive Benedict without all the fuss.
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