For the biscuits: Sift the flour into a big bowl. Cut the Crisco in with your fingers or a fork until the fat is well interspersed in the flour and is the size of large peas. Add salt and sugar if you wish. Pour in the buttermilk and make a wet sticky dough.

Now you get to play with this dough and trust me it's a mess. Have some extra (plain all purpose) flour on hand. Flour your work surface generously. Mound the dough on it and scrape the wet sticky dough from your fingers. Don't play with this dough too much but mash it out into a rectangular shape about 2 inches thick. Fold it twice like an envelope. Pat it out to the desired thickness (about 2 inches) and cut rounds with a cookie cutter.

Put the biscuits in a round cake pan or on a cookie sheet and bake at 415 to 425 degrees until risen and lightly brown on the bottom.

Warm the ham slices in the oven.

Make the hollandaise while the biscuits are cooking. Whisk 3 egg YOLKS and lemon juice together, then pour into a small saucepan over medium heat.

Start whisking! You want these eggs to thicken so that as you whisk you can see the bottom of the pan. But, don't overcook the eggs or they will scramble.

Add the cold butter, pat by pat, and keep whisking! The sauce will begin to thicken.

Add a pinch of salt. Taste the sauce and add lemon juice if necessary.

Keep the Hollandaise sauce warm by pouring it in a clean Pyrex measuring cup, then set that cup down in a saucepan half-filled with warm water. This sauce is served tepid. Don't let it get too hot or it will break.

Poach the eggs. In a skillet filled with simmering water, drop your cracked eggs. Spoon hot water over the yolks and when the eggs are as done as you like, scoop them out and slide them onto a saucer until you are ready to assemble the Eggs Josephine.

To assemble: Split the hot biscuits, and place some ham on each half. Carefully place an egg on top of the ham, then spoon the Hollandaise over that. Sprinkle with chives if you have some parsley if you don't!