I was sitting wondering the other day, after a gossip with some friends what made Eggs Florentine so tasty and was there other possible ways to make it more wonderful then it already was. So i decided to find out and after some searching (which was rather confusing) i found just that.

So i decided to write an article to make it more easier ( and to take some of the confusing part of it out). I have tried many of the variations i’m giving you and believe me it makes Eggs Florentine much more tastier then it ever was.

So before i give you the nice and tasty part, i found that not that many people know where it actually orginates from or who actually invented it. What i found was, there is many stories about this flying about (too many to mention). But i found two that i actually found quite believeable:

• Lemuel Benedict, a retired Wall Street stock broker, claims that he had wandered into the Waldorf Hotel in 1894, hoping to find a cure for the dreadful hangover that he had achieved from a night of heavy drinking. He ordered buttered toast, poached eggs, crispy bacon and a dip of Hollandaise Sauce. The famed hotel manager of the time Oscar Tschirky was so impressed by this  that he put it on his breakfast and lunch menus. But instead of keeping it the way Lemuel ordered it he substituted ham and a toasted English muffin for the bacon and toast.

The other story i found which also proves that Eggs Florentine dates quite far back is:

• Edward P Montgomery, an American which was residing in France at the time. He states in a letter that he sent to Craig Clailbourne in Sept 1967 that Commodore E C Benedict, a banker and a keen yachtsman who died in 1920 at the ripe old age of 86. That his family passed down the recipe from generation to generation.

This dish is popular with vegetarians and people on a weight loss or calorie controlled diet ( it has only 540 calories). The recipe i found and used was a basic one that i found was also easier to use with variations. Which is:

• 25g/1oz Butter.
• 75g/2-3oz Spinach.
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper.
• 2 Eggs.
• 100ml/3-4floz Double Cream

1. Preheat oven to 200c/400F/ Gas 6.
2. Melt the butter in a frying pan over a medium heat. Add the spinach and saute for 3-4 minutes or until wilted.
3. Place the spinach in a small ovenproof dish and season well with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
4. Crack the eggs into the dish and pour over the cream. Then place in the oven and bake for 10 minutes until its golden brown and bubbling.
5. Serve in the ovenproof dish.

The tasty variations i found and tried to be the best are:

• Seafood Benedicts – Replace the ham with crab/ shrimp and/or lobster.
• Eggs Royale – Replace the bacon with smoked salmon.
• Eggs Caesar -  Replace the ham with crispy bacon and add shreddred parmesan cheese between the poached egg and Hollandaise sauce, which has finely chopped capers and raw garlic added to it ( really tasty).
• Artichoke Benedict – Replace the English muffin with hollowed artichoke ( havent tried yet ).
• Country Benedict -  Replace the English muffin, ham and the Hollandaise sauce with biscuit, sausage patties and country gravy.
• Irish Benedict – Replaces the ham with corn beef hash.
• Eggs Chesapeake – Replace the bacon with crabcakes.

I hope you find this article interesting and easy to follow. Hope you try out the delicious recipe and the variations and have as fun as i did enjoying them. ENJOY!!!!