Sausage Fest

No, this is not a post about a party where only dudes are in attendance.  It's about our experience making Italian sausage with venison and British bangers with pork.  Jim has made a variety of types of sausage from deer and goose (no kidding), but it was Peta's first time.  Last year's three types of sausage were a bit too much work, so we cut it down to two versatile types.

We made the sausages a month ago, but our inspiration to blog about it was a viewing of River Cottage's "Pig In A Day".   It's tough to find episodes of River Cottage online and we haven't gotten around to purchasing the series from the BBC, so we were well pleased to stumble across this video.

According to these experts, we made some mistakes along the way such as not frying off a small portion of the recipe to ensure that the seasonings are correct.   But the most amazing thing was Hugh's partner in crime's ability to tie up the sausages.  Granted, he's a butcher, but we'll do the two sausage tie-up next time rather than our twist technique (fail).  On the positive side, we did pass the meat through the large-holed plate once, added the seasoning and then passed it through again.  The Kitchen-Aid grinder attachment works a treat, but it fails as a sausage stuffer.  Additionally, there was a bit of grease from the worm-gear that we saw on some of the meat.  We didn't die from it last year, so whateryagonnado?  Also, we let the sausages hang for a few days to dry off.

For both of the recipes, we used recipes from a site called 3men.com  We half expected a real "sausage-fest" to pop up, but these guys are legit and we have re-posted the recipes here.  We did not add the MSG to the Italian links and they taste great, but the bangers were not salty enough (see above: frying off).  All of the sausages were made with natural casings.

Hot-Sweet Italian

This favorite pizza topping is a coarse pork sausage, generally sold in plump links. Italian sausage is usually flavored with garlic and fennel seed or anise seed. It comes in two styles: hot (flavored with hot, red peppers) and sweet (without the added heat). It must be well cooked before serving, and is suitable for frying, grilling or braising. The recipe below is a hybrid of hot and sweet.

• 15 pounds boned pork butts
• 2 ¾ cups very cold red wine (Cabernet Sauvignon works nicely)
• 7 tablespoons kosher salt
• 7 tablespoons fennel
• 6 tablespoons ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon ground coriander
• 3 teaspoons red pepper flakes
• 2 teaspoons oregano
• 1½ teaspoons garlic powder
• 1½ teaspoons sugar
• 1½ teaspoons caraway seed
• 1 teaspoon MSG

Grind all of the pork butts through a one-quarter inch or three-eighths inch plate. Refrigerate the ground pork until well chilled - ideally 32 to 34 degrees Fahrenheit.

When the meat is chilled, thoroughly mix the remaining ingredients in a bowl. In a large bowl or lug, thoroughly mix the wine and spice mixture with the ground pork. Immediately stuff into 32mm to 35mm hog casings. Hang the stuffed sausage in a cool place until the casings are dry to the touch. Refrigerate or freeze immediately after drying.

If you do not have a sausage stuffer, you can store the sausage in patties or in bulk. Refrigerate or freeze as desired.

English Bangers

Banger Seasoning

• 5 teaspoon ground white pepper
• 2 1/2 teaspoon mace
• 2 1/4 teaspoon salt [note: this should be more]
• 2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 2 teaspoon rubbed sage
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

Sausage

• 2 1/2 lb. boneless lean pork shoulder or loin cut in cubes
• 1 lb. fresh pork fat in cubes
• 1 1/2 cup dry bread crumbs
• 1 1/4 cup chicken broth
• 3 1/2 teaspoon Banger seasoning

Grind pork and fat together using plate of meat grinder.
Add Banger Seasoning and mix well.
Grind again.
Stuff mixture into casings and tie in 4-5 inch lengths.
This mixture will be too fine to form into patties.

Bake or sauté as you prefer.

The first time we sautéed the bangers, the casings stuck to the pan, we didn't prick them and they exploded.  Then the second time, we poached them first, but didn't prick them, so half of them exploded.  The third time was the charm though!  Success.  We prick the bangers with a fork, poach them in simmering water for 10 minutes, remove the water, dry the pan and sauté until a nice brown color is achieved.

To complete the dish, Peta removes the bangers, adds onions and sautées them, adds a bit of olive oil if the pan is dry and adds a tablespoon of flour.  She cooks it to remove the raw flavor and to prevent lumps then adds whatever beer we have on hand to make the gravy.  Serve it with some mashed potatoes and some green vegetable.

Yours Sausagely,

Jim and Peta

Mmm... Folic Acid... (Part One)

Tricked you into clicking on to a post that is a paean to the humble beet!  You just got Beet-Rolled!  Ahahaha!

Well, since you're here, why don't you stay and read on?  We will try to make it worth your time; we promise.

We have been picking up bunches of rainbow chard (AKA five-colored silverbeet) at the farmer's market every Saturday for quite some time now as well as a bunch or two of beets.  You might not know it, but you can eat the beet greens (and the finely chopped stems if you braise them) instead of just throwing them into your composter or worm bin.  However, we've been eating so many greens that the beet roots were piling up.  [We'll save what we do with the greens for another day.]

But with chard at $1.50 a bunch and regular beets at $2.00, it's almost as though you get all of the sweet, earthy beet roots for $0.50.  Even if you don't like beets (or think that you don't), how could you pass up Such A Deal?  We've cooked Beets with Horseradish Cream, roasted beets with olive oil and thyme, Beet and Goat Cheese Salad, and many more, but we were getting bored with our beet root recipes.  There just have to be even more ways to cook them that won't remind you of vaguely metallic tasting, tinned, pickled beets, that you were forced to eat as a child, right?  Oh, yes.  Yes, there are.

But first, we've been making a lot of hummus these days.  Our "go to" recipe is from one of our cooking "bibles", the New Best Recipe book.  The ratios are so simple as to be easily memorizable.  Is "memorizable" a word?  Easily committed to memory?  Good enough.  It seems as though we've posted about hummus before, but we can't find the link so here it is again.  Let the memorizing begin!

Hummus -

adapted from The New Best Recipe: All-New Edition

• 1-15 ounce can of chickpeas or equal amount of fresh cooked/defrosted chickpeas
• 1 medium clove of garlic, minced
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• pinch of cayenne pepper
• 3 tablespoons juice from 1 large lemon
• 1/4 cup tahini
• 1/4 extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup water

Put everything in a food processor (or blender) and process until smooth. Chill at least 30 minutes in the refrigerator and serve with warm pita, on bread or crackers, with tortilla chips, as a spread on a sandwich, or any other way that seems enjoyable to you. 

 It takes seven minutes to make a large tub of hummus including cleaning the food processor.  Seven.

Wait, isn't this post about beets?  Yes, yes it is.  Just trying to get you curiouser and curiouser/lure you in.  We have also taken to adding a Moroccan/northern African spice mix called Ras el Hanout to the hummus recipe above.  We made up a batch and can't remember all of the ingredients, but it's one of those mixes like curry powder, "cajun seasoning", garam masala, et cetera that vary from place to place and house to house.  The "usual suspects" are all there but ratios and secret ingredients are up to the eater.  Have fun with it!  The Ras el Hanout really takes the hummus toward the "40 spices" store-bought version that Jim used to love so much, before we realized that it's 25% the cost and takes seven minutes to make.

The beets!!  What about the beets for goodness sake? Oh, right. 

Beet Hummus (Seriously) -

• Wrap four big beets in tin foil and roast in a ~350 oven for ~45 minutes or until they are can be easily pierced with a paring knife.  
• Let cool and peel the skins (they should really just slip off).  
• Substitute the roasted, peeled beets for the chick peas in the recipe above.

That's it.  Sorry for the big build up.  Jim added some extra cumin and is eating it all before Peta gets any.  It's so tasty and good for you and easy and cheap.  And those are a few of our favorites things..

But you said two recipes!  Gluttons for punishment, eh?  Sorry, you'll have to go to Part II (NOTE: in progress) for that recipe since this post is quite long enough (and information-packed and entertaining).  Let's just say that we we're inspired by an episode of River Cottage and the food has five consonants in a row.  (If you haven't checked out River Cottage, it could change your life.  Seriously.)

Jim and Peta

PS: Beets really are high in folic acid though.  True story.  Also," Beetroot is a rich source of potent antioxidants and nutrients, including magnesium, sodium, potassium and vitamin C, and betaine, which is important forcardiovascular health. It functions by acting with other nutrients to reduce the concentration of homocysteine, a homologue of the naturally occurring amino acid cysteine, which can be harmful to blood vessels and thus contribute to the development of heart disease, stroke, and peripheral vascular disease. Betaine functions in conjunction with S-adenosylmethionine, folic acid, and vitamins B₆ and B₁₂ to carry out this function." (from Wiki)

Disclaimer: If you haven't been a beet-eater and decide to make any beet recipes included herein, please remember that you had beets when you visit your "facilities" rather than freaking out and going to the ER and then blaming us for the bill.  Thanks!

Poor Man's Sous-Vide

We asked our friend and fellow food and farming explorer, Matt Rothe, to write a guest post for our blog.  Sometimes, it's just nice to have the articles come to you!

Poor Man's Sous-Vide
I don’t actively follow food trends, but by the nature of my work (Sustainable Food Program Manager), the industry in which I’m employed (university foodservice) and the people with whom I frequently interact (chefs), I tend to stay abreast of what’s new and hip in the culinary world.  Lately it seems I’ve heard much about a style of cooking called sous-vide, which is French for “under vacuum”.

In simple terms, sous-vide cooking involves sealing food in a plastic bag, depositing the bag and its contents in a relatively low temperature water bath, and cooking it for a designated period of time at a constant temperature.  One of the primary benefits of this type of cooking is that food can be cooked perfectly evenly and to an exact “doneness”—two elusive attributes in cooking most types of meat.
One could argue that attaining an evenly cooked hamburger is not a gastronomic problem in need of a solution.  After all, humans have been ravenously consuming meat cooked over direct heat and varying degrees of doneness for millennia.  But by this logic, I can’t imagine that we’d have ever invented plumbing, made art, or built solid-state devices that put the entire accumulated knowledge of mankind in one’s hand.

To satisfy my intellectual curiosity, I turned to my own handheld solid-state device for some instruction.  I found some mostly useful and consistent information about the technique, but I was aghast at the retail price of the equipment.  Moreover, sous-vide equipment is not a commodity in the markets for used goods: Craigslist turned up zilch and the clerk at my local Goodwill said everything with an apologetic shrug.  Over a day of intermittent and mindless rumination, however, Occam finally wielded his razor.

It turns out that successfully cooking sous-vide requires equipment and miscellany that most people, including myself, already have or keep inventory of in their kitchen:  a stove, a stock pot, a re-sealable plastic bag, a thermometer, a timer, and a little time to correlate one’s stovetop settings to sustained cooking temperatures.  In this experiment, I don’t know if I was prouder of the resulting hamburgers or that I thwarted the Jedi mind tricks of the consumer electronic industry.

In a bowl, I combined:

• 1 pound of grass-fed ground beef with
• 1 heaping tablespoon of salt
• 1 teaspoon of ground pepper
• 1 packed half-cup of finely chopped fresh sage, rosemary and thyme (I prefer garlic chives to thyme but mine were crowded out by my wormwood)

I like to form 1/6 pound sliders, in part because they afford healthy portions, but also because the small brioche buns I like to put them on come 6 to a bag and I never end up with a random unused bun that has no culinary value beyond the delivery of a hamburger.

I placed the sliders in a one gallon Zip-Lock bag, sucked the air out by using the protective tube for my thermometer, and placed them in an 8 quart stock pot filled to about half with water.  I imagine every stove’s settings are unique, but to sustain a temperature of 130 degrees Fahrenheit, which will result in a perfectly medium-rare hamburger, requires a rather low setting (2 of 8 on the small burner for my stove).  I cooked the burgers for about an hour after the water returned to the desired temperature.

One negative attribute of cooking sous-vide is that you never reach temperatures that invoke the   Maillard reaction, which in the opinion of food scientists (and confirmed by those who eat), is half the sensory appeal to cooked food, including meat.  With that shortcoming in mind, I brought a cast iron skillet with a few tablespoons of canola oil to a medium-high temperature and, after removing and lightly drying the sliders with a paper towel, fried them for about a minute per side, giving them a slight brown color and the characteristic smell of cooked beef.

I served the sliders on a toasted brioche bun with a thin slice of soft goat cheese.  Primacy bias aside, I dare say they were the best hamburgers I’ve ever eaten.  At two hours in the making they were not, however, the fastest hamburgers I’ve ever made.  On the net, I’d conclude that cooking sous-vide is a worthy pursuit for any serious cook or foodie who’s interested in exploring the margins of flavor and learning new techniques in their free time.  It need not be, whatever one’s interest or means, an expensive affair.

About the author: Matt was raised on a large conventional corn farm on the plains of Colorado. After graduating from Dartmouth College with a degree in Environmental Earth Science, he took a position with Niman Ranch (in the Bill Niman days) as their Director of Operations. While there, Matt played an instrumental role in growing its network of sustainable family farmers and gained an acute appreciation for the challenges and opportunities of today’s food system. Matt left Niman Ranch to pursue an MBA at Stanford, during which time he co-founded the Climate Conservancy with the owner of this blog, Jim Sweeney, and their mutual friend, Steve Davis.  To support his habit of saving the world, Matt worked briefly as the Director of Operations & Sustainability with the venture-backed functional food start-up Attune Foods.  After the markets crashed and the dream of labeling consumer products with their carbon footprint drifted away, Matt retuned to Stanford to pursue his other passion, real food, by directing the Sustainable Food Program for Stanford Dining.  Matt has spent his entire life working within the food system and he has accumulated first-hand experiences that span from the knock box to the corporate boardroom.  Taken together, it’s all made for some interesting observations and insights about our food, which he shares on this blog and through guest lectures and other speaking engagements.

Chicken Scratch

We'd like to talk a bit about eggs.  We had some guests coming over last weekend (Chris and Monica, Sara (Chris' sister) and Jeff and their daughter Roxy) and we decided to do Eggs Blackstone.  We are all getting more and more heavily into local, organic and homemade food so Jim took a ride to the Zen Hen Hut on the Mesa in Arroyo Grande (AG).  That hill is a killer.  Without the gearing on the touring bike, he never would have made it.  He claims that he's "going over the grade" to Pozo to check out the Nick Ranch which provides the grass-fed beef to Grande Markets in AG.  Peta suspects that he wants her to come pick him up at the Pozo Saloon where they can enjoy a beer and a burger.  She may be on to something there.

Long story short (too late), Jim met the egg lady, Peri, who was chopping up slightly over-ripe tomatoes and bananas(?) for her 37 girls and one banty cock.  Yeah, I could have said rooster.  Jim talked to her for too long and then bought two dozen eggs.  At $4/doz, they aren't cheap, but pastured eggs have been shown to have  

• 1⁄3 less cholesterol 
• 1⁄4 less saturated fat
• 2⁄3 more vitamin A
• 2 times more omega-3 fatty acids 
• 3 times more vitamin E
• 7 times more beta carotene and 
• 4-6 times more vitamin D

 That's good news especially if you have cholesterol issues but love eggs.  However, Jim had an ulterior motive in addition to merely purchasing the eggs.  He and Peta purchased a chicken coop off of Craigslist the week before and were going to get some laying hens (Asutralian: chooks) over the weekend and he wanted to check out her operation.  He got some pointers, but crazy things have happened since the birds arrived.  We were supposed to get three 4 month old chickens, but one died before we picked it up, so another Craigslist guy gave us a 6 month old for the same price ($12).  We got them home in cardboard boxes in the Mini Cooper along with supplies from the hardware store.  We put them in the coop and Une (we know that 'poulet' is maculine, but this chook is a Sheila!  Crikie!) a Black sex link started really whaling on Trois, another fellow Black sex-link and giving Deux, a Delaware, a few nasty pecks in between.  Not knowing what to do other than debeak them and not knowing how to do that or separate them, Jim got Une out of the coop/tractor and put her into the yard.  She walked around contentedly until Jim heard a hawk and then spied three of them circling.  So he put some temporary chicken-wire around the coop so that she'd be contained in an emergency and everything seemed hunky dory.  She got out a few times be would always return to the safety of the temporary enclosure.

It was only when the night began to fall and we'd had an adult beverage that she refused to go back in to the temporary pen.  Have you see the Rocky films?  Can you hear Burgess Meredith as Rocky's trainer Mick as he exhorts the Italian Stallion to catch the chickens?  "They're like greased lightening, Rocky!"  That was us, except for the boxing angle and that our new neighbors laughing at us.  Finally, we got her into the temporary enclosure and it was time to put her into the run for safety, but not the coop/roost so that she wouldn't kill the little gals.

Jim began to decrease the size of the enclosure and that's when it happened.  The wire formed a ramp up to the roof of the roost and she scrambled/flapped up it to the peak to gain height (and domination on Jim).  Now, you might be thinking, "Hey city-boy/girl, dontcha know that chickens can fly?"  Yes.  Yes we do.  They can fly and not too badly.  Well, better than emus anyway.  But we thought that the wings had been clipped although we hadn't actually researched what a clipped wing actually looks like.

So she's up on the roof about eye-level with Jim and he makes a grab for her.  "Up, up and away.  On my beautiful balloon..."  Over the fence she goes to the neighbors that we have not yet met.  Sweet.  Jim has heard that the lady next-door is super fussy about her flowers so he goes next door and leaves a note hoping that they won't call the cops because chicken might not even be legal.  The next day, neighbor Steve knocks on the door for our first meeting.  He invites Jim over and they spend the intervals when CJ is asleep chasing Une around his yard with bedsheets, food enticements and finally the whole roll of chicken wire.  Then it starts raining.  Then she hides under the thorny blackberry bushes.  Jim said to Steve, "Ah, the heck with this" while in his mind he was thinking, "Fuck off, chicken.  Next time you see me I'll have my pellet gun."

Two hours later as it's getting to dark, Steve informs us that Une has climbed up an apricot tree and flown back into our yard.  Hooray!   She's still loose, but to make a really long story slightly shorter, she was near the coop so Jim just opened the door and walked around the coop until she went in.  Case closed.  No eggs yet, but no bird deaths either.  We'll be clipping her primary flight wings (propulsion) this weekend but leaving the secondary wings (lift). 

They are eating a ton of weeds and CJ loves them.  Once the eggs start flowing we'll let you know how it goes.

Jim & Peta

PS: if nothing else, we now have a much better understanding of the sayings: pecking order, hen-pecked, she rules the roost, flew the coop and chickens coming home to roost.

One wingie-dingie... two wingie-dingie

So the Patriots came up short against the Giants again.  Bummer.  So let's talk Superbowl food instead.  We went over to Chris and Monica's house for the game and we over-catered, as usual. 

There were:

• Hummus and Crudites
• Cal-Poly Smoked Gouda
• Parmesan and Dried Apricots
• Mushrooms on Toast
• Asian Wings
• Hot Wings
• Caesar Salad
• Lamb Meatballs with Pine Nuts and Pomegranate Molasses Glaze

We can't speak for anything but the Hot Wings and the Caesar Salad about which we have posted previously.  Oh wait, no we haven't.  Here's the recipe that Peta used from the Reluctant Gourmet.  Jim cannot vouch for its quality since he couldn't focus on anything but the wings and the game.  However, the other party-goers were happy with the flavor and we'll probably use that recipe again.

As for the Hot Wings, Jim used this recipe to satisfy his desire for those wings that come out of the kitchen that blow apart your sinuses.  Unfortunately, this recipe was not that one.  Here are the ingredients:

• 4 to 5 pounds chicken wings
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Salt (if desired)
• 4 cups vegetable oil
• 4 Tablespoons butter (1/2 stick)
• 5 Tablespoons Louisiana-brand hot sauce or Tabasco sauce
• 1 Tablespoon white wine vinegar 

Jim did take heed of a comment on the page to coat the wings in butter first and then add the hot sauce and vinegar.  It made sense and this technique did indeed create a crispy wing.  However, the wings were not nearly hot enough and the bleu cheese dressing was not even needed to cool things down.  [At this point, Jim doesn't follow a recipe for the dressing anymore.  He added varying amounts of mayonnaise, crème fraîche (one part buttermilk to seven parts cream, shake well, leave on the counter covered with a paper towel then refrigerate), Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, black pepper and crumbled bleu cheese and checked with Peta to make sure that it was good enough.]

The fault of the lack of heat was probably using a store brand "Louisiana" hot sauce without even checking the heat level.  Just inexcusable laziness.  Adding cayenne and a bit more vinegar for the added tang could have done the trick.  Maybe?  We'll find out next season...

Jim & Peta

Porcetta: Pork Wrapped Pork

Ever since the halcyon days in Marin, we have been hunting it: the elusive Porcetta.  One day, at the Corte Madera mall, we were ravenous and had not packed a lunch.  We stopped by A.G. Ferrari Foods, which specializes in Italian food.  There's a fuzzy memory of wanting to make Bucatini All'Amatriciana and we needed the bucatini (spaghetti straws) and guanciale (unsmoked, cured pig jowls).  This isn't the recipe that we used, but it's a standard dish out of Amatrice, Lazio, Italy and it'squick meal, even if two of the ingredients won't be found at the mega-mart.  Ferrari's had them both, but what really got us was the sandwich that we devoured made of Porcetta thinly-sliced on foccacia with arugula and a garlic aioli.  Out of this world and we've been looking for Porcetta ever since.

Because we didn't really know what it was, we kept looking in the pancetta/prosciutto section of the markets.  Once we came to understand that Porcetta is a loin wrapped in pig belly, we figured that we'd just have to make it ourselves.  We chose this Porcetta recipe and only cut back on the red pepper flakes by half.  It turned out plenty hot enough (almost too hot) and the taste was beautiful.  Peta didn't care for the skin, perhaps because it was not crispy enough?  Next time (yes, next time), we'll pull the meat at 130 and crank the heat back up to 500 F to re-crisp the skin.  The first 40 minutes at 500F might not have done it.  Oh, the first knot that Jim made was a slip knot that he had learned how to make for the guy wires for the tent while camping in Western Australia.  Cool!

We chose to make the roast for Jim's dad Jim Sr.'s 65th birthday.  Although not a "foodie", he is usually pretty game to try new things after some brown likker.  We plied him with Makers Mark and paired the Porcetta with buttermilk mashed potatoes and skillet greens (a mixture of beet greens, chard and mustard greens) and finished with a crummy cherry pie from Albertsons and decent Breyers vanilla ice-cream.  Happy 65th to dad!

Eggs Cole

The other day we visited with our friends Chris and Monica.  They made

• Bloody Marys with fresh tomato and celery with pepper vodka
• Mimosas with fresh squeezed orange juice
• Damned good coffee
• A dish that Monica dubbed "Eggs Cole" after our little guy

and they knocked it out of the park!

Eggs Cole is a mish-mash of different Eggs Benedict versions.  If you had Eggs Florentine but replaced the spinach with arugula and Eggs Blackstone but you replaced the "streaky bacon" with pancetta and 86'd the tomato you would have Eggs Cole.  We used San Luis Obispo sourdough wheat for the English muffins, so the lineage to the Eggs Benedict is pretty tenuous, but they you go.  It's not as far as our invention, Eggs Merci, is from its progenitor.  So, to recap:

Eggs Cole

• San Luis Obispo sourdough wheat
• Pancetta
• Wilted Arugula
• Poached (or over-easy) Eggs
• Hollandaise sauce [we will get Monica's recipe since it is better than ours and seems easier]

More please!

Jim and Peta

PS: We've had to look up the variations so much that we're just going to list them below

• Eggs Blackstone substitutes ham for the bacon and adds a tomato slice.^[5][6][7]

• Eggs Florentine substitutes spinach for the ham.^[8][9][10] Older versions of eggs Florentine add spinach to poached or shirred eggs Mornay – eggs covered in Mornay sauce.^[11]

• Eggs Royal includes chicken livers 
•  
• Eggs Hemingway (also known as Eggs Royale, Eggs Pacifica, Eggs Montreal) substitutes salmon for the ham. This is a common variation found in Australia and New Zealand.

• Eggs Neptune or Crab Benedict or Eggs Chesapeake substitutes crabmeat for the ham.

• Eggs Hussarde substitutes Holland rusks for the English muffin and adds Marchand de Vin sauce.^[13][14][15]

• Eggs Sardou substitutes artichoke bottoms and crossed anchovy fillets for the English muffin and ham, then tops the hollandaise sauce with chopped ham and a truffle slice. The dish was created at Antoine's Restaurant in New Orleans in honor of the French playwright Victorien Sardou.^[16][17][18] A more widespread version of the dish starts with a base of creamed spinach, substitutes artichoke bottoms for the English muffin, and drops the ham.^[13][19][20]

• Artichoke Benedict replaces the English muffin with a hollowed artichoke.^[21][22][23]

• Country Benedict, sometimes known as Eggs Beauregard, replaces the English muffin, ham and hollandaise sauce with a biscuit, sausage patties, and country gravy. The poached eggs are replaced with eggs fried to choice.^[24][25][26]

• Irish Benedict replaces the ham with corned beef hash^[27] or Irish bacon.^[28][29][30]