So. You’ve purchased a pack of Canadian bacon and diligently cooked it to perfect tenderness using our new Sous Vide Bacon guide. Now what? What do you even do with it?
Sure, you can simply sear up rounds and serve it alongside fried eggs and toast for breakfast. This is the simplest suggestion. But we can do better!
Canadian bacon, which apparently isn’t even called that in Canada (according to our resident Canadian it is “back bacon” or “peameal bacon”), is a key component of one of the best breakfast sandwiches in America, a.k.a. The Egg McMuffin. May we suggest making an even more perfect version using your sous vide Canadian bacon? Here are some tips:
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For the most authentic egg, use a ring mold to fry it in the shape of an English muffin. McDonald’s cooks its eggs over-hard, so do that if you want to fully replicate the original.
- If you, like me, prefer a jammier egg yolk, pull the egg from the stove before the yolk fully sets. Over-medium is the sweet spot for a little bit of runniness but not a gushing avalanche of yolk.
- For the most authentic muffin, head to Whole Foods and purchase their 365 brand of white (definitely not whole wheat) English muffins. I have done the “research” to prove that these are the exact same muffins used at McDonald’s. Very lightly toast it. You’re not looking for browning, just a bit of warmth.
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For the most authentic meat, skip browning the Canadian bacon. Just pop it directly from the sous vide bag to the warmed muffin.
Canadian bacon is ALSO a key component of the fussiest diner breakfast known to humankind, a.k.a. Eggs Benedict. If you think about it, it’s basically an Egg McMuffin that went to the Sorbonne for college and just moved back home with its parents.
The good news is that you can use a Precision
® Cooker to make eggs Benedict way less fussy. Set the cooker to 145°F (63°C) and do all of your cooking in one water bath. Start the Canadian bacon and let it hang out in the water while you prepare the hollandaise mixture. Add the eggs and set a timer for 15 minutes. When that timer dings, add the hollandaise to the water bath with the eggs and bacon, and let it all cook together for another 30 minutes.
From there, all you need to do is toast your English muffin (make sure to get the right one!), blend the sauce, brown the Canadian bacon, and crack the eggs out of the shell. Easy peasy?
Need more direction? There are plenty more (ok five) eggs Benedict recipes on our site:
Don’t want to eat Canadian bacon for breakfast? Dice it up and toss it in fried rice! Dice it up and stir it into mac and cheese! Dice it up and put it in a Chef’s salad. Dice it up and feed it to your children for a snack!