Weekend Economists' Bad Boys' Review: Benedict Arnold July 18-20, 2014 [View all]

[Demeter]

So, what was the story with the Egg Man? (Eggs Benedict is my favorite breakfast, with the exception of chocolate waffles...)

Benedict Arnold (January 14, 1741 {O.S. January 3, 1740} – June 14, 1801) was a general during the American Revolutionary War who originally fought for the American Continental Army but defected to the British Army. While a general on the American side, he obtained command of the fortifications at West Point, New York (future site of the U.S. Military Academy after 1802), overlooking the cliffs at the Hudson River (upriver from British-occupied New York City), and planned to surrender it to the British forces. After the plan was exposed in September 1780, he was commissioned into the British Army as a brigadier general.

Born in Connecticut, Arnold was a merchant operating ships on the Atlantic Ocean when the war broke out in 1775. After joining the growing army outside Boston, he distinguished himself through acts of intelligence and bravery. His actions included the Capture of Fort Ticonderoga in 1775, defensive and delaying tactics despite losing the Battle of Valcour Island on Lake Champlain in 1776, the Battle of Ridgefield, Connecticut (after which he was promoted to major general), operations in relief of the Siege of Fort Stanwix, and key actions during the pivotal Battles of Saratoga in 1777, in which he suffered leg injuries that ended his combat career for several years.

Despite Arnold's successes, he was passed over for promotion by the Continental Congress while other officers claimed credit for some of his accomplishments. Adversaries in military and political circles brought charges of corruption or other malfeasance, but most often he was acquitted in formal inquiries. Congress investigated his accounts and found he was indebted to Congress after spending much of his own money on the war effort. Frustrated and bitter at this, as well the alliance with France and failure of Congress to accept Britain's 1778 proposal to grant full self-governance in the colonies, Arnold decided to change sides and opened secret negotiations with the British. In July 1780, he was offered, continued to pursue and was awarded command of West Point. Arnold's scheme to surrender the fort to the British was exposed when American forces captured British Major John André carrying papers that revealed the plot. Upon learning of André's capture, Arnold fled down the Hudson River to the British sloop-of-war Vulture, narrowly avoiding capture by the forces of George Washington, who had been alerted to the plot.

Arnold received a commission as a brigadier general in the British Army, an annual pension of £360, and a lump sum of over £6,000. He led British forces on raids in Virginia, and against New London and Groton, Connecticut, before the war effectively ended with the American victory at Yorktown. In the winter of 1782, Arnold moved to London with his second wife, Margaret "Peggy" Shippen Arnold. He was well received by King George III and the Tories, but frowned upon by the Whigs. In 1787, he returned to the merchant business with his sons Richard and Henry in Saint John, New Brunswick. He returned to London to settle permanently in 1791, where he died ten years later.

Because of the way he changed sides, his name quickly became a byword in the United States for treason or betrayal. His conflicting legacy is recalled in the ambiguous nature of some of the memorials that have been placed in his honor....
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benedict_Arnold

And as for the egg dish:

There are conflicting accounts as to the origin of eggs Benedict, including: In an interview recorded in the "Talk of the Town" column of The New Yorker in 1942, the year before his death, Lemuel Benedict, a retired Wall Street stock broker, claimed that he had wandered into the Waldorf Hotel in 1894 and, hoping to find a cure for his morning hangover, ordered "buttered toast, poached eggs, crisp bacon, and a hooker of Hollandaise." Oscar Tschirky, the famed maître d'hôtel, was so impressed with the dish that he put it on the breakfast and luncheon menus but substituted ham for the bacon and a toasted English muffin for the toast.

Refuting the claims of Oscar Tschirky/Lemuel Benedict, prior to serving as Maitre d’hotel (1893 to 1943) at the Waldorf, Tschirky was "on the staff of the old and famous Delmonico’s," along with the renowned Chef Charles Ranhofer.

This reflects an earlier claim to eggs Benedict as evidenced in Chef Ranhofer's 1894 cookbook, The Epicurean which includes "a selection of interesting bills of fare of Delmonico's from 1862-1894", in particular a recipe for eggs Benedict (Eggs à la—Benedick / Eufa à la Benedick):

Cut some muffins in halves crosswise, toast them without allowing to brown, then place a round of cooked ham an eighth of an inch thick and of the same diameter as the muffins on each half. Heat in a moderate oven and put a poached egg on each toast. Cover the whole with Hollandaise sauce (No. 501).

During Chef Ranhofer's Delmonico years (1862-1899), Captain and Mrs. Le Grand Benedict (born 1843, Emma Frances Gardner) were frequent diners. Five generations of Benedict family history, including Mabel C. Butler (descended through Mrs. LeGrand Benedict's daughter Florence), author of a 1967 letter to the NY Times, and great-great-granddaughter Emily Benedict (born 1962, descended through Mrs. LeGrand Benedict's son Harold) independently cite similar stories from the late 1860s, that frequent patron Mrs. Benedict became uninterested in the usual Delmonico menu offerings and inquired for the Chef to create "something new". He replied asking if she had any ideas, to which she suggested what is now known as eggs Benedict (although her original version included a truffle on top.) Thereafter the creation made its way into Chef Ranhofer’s The Epicurean.

Oscar Tschirky quite possibly learned of eggs Benedict from Chef Ranhofer during their crossover Delmonico years together. While Lemuel Benedict may indeed have requested the egg concoction from Tschirky at the Waldorf in 1894 as a hangover cure, in that same year, the recipe was already printed in Chef Ranhofer's The Epicurean.

Further reading in line with Mrs. Le Grand Benedict's story - as retold by her descendents - can be found in "More New York Stories: The Best of the City Section of The New York Times".

A third claim to the eggs Benedict fame was circuitously made by Edward P. Montgomery on behalf of Commodore E.C. Benedict. In 1967 Montgomery wrote a letter to then NY Times columnist Craig Claiborne and included a recipe he claimed to have received through his Uncle, a friend of the Commodore. Commodore Benedict's recipe - by way of Montgomery - varies greatly from Chef Ranhofer's version, particularly in the hollandaise sauce preparation - calling for the addition of "hot, hard-cooked egg and ham mixture."

I like to use hash browns instead of English muffin, and a shot of lemon juice in the hollandaise...and now, I'm hungry....National Eggs Benedict Day is celebrated on April 16!


Was He the Eggman?
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/08/nyregion/thecity/08eggs.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0