Hollandaise sauce (2024)

FAQs

What is the most common mistake in hollandaise sauce? ›

The most common mistake people make with Hollandaise is adding melted butter that is too hot, or adding too much too soon. When this happens, the emulsion breaks — it becomes thin and grainy. If your butter is too hot, just stop making the Hollandaise for a minute or two to allow the butter to cool.

Hollandaise sauce (/hɒlənˈdeɪz/ or /ˈhɒləndeɪz/; French: [ɔlɑ̃dɛz]), meaning Dutch sauce in French, is a mixture of egg yolk, melted butter, and lemon juice (or a white wine or vinegar reduction). It is usually seasoned with salt, and either white pepper or cayenne pepper.

If you've never experienced the magic of hollandaise sauce, let me attempt to describe it to you. It's a very simple savory sauce made with butter, egg yolk, lemon, and salt. It has a smooth, velvety texture with just the right amount of bright lemon flavor to keep it from being too heavy.

How do you fix a runny hollandaise? Blenders tend to make runny hollandaise - it's usually because the butter was too cold and hasn't cooked the eggs enough to thicken them. To thicken a runny hollandaise, tip the mixture into a heatproof bowl set over simmering water and whisk over the heat until thickened.

Raw eggs are used in homemade versions of foods such as mayonnaise and hollandaise sauce. Unpasteurized dairy products. Unpasteurized milk and milk products — sometimes called raw milk — may be contaminated with salmonella. The pasteurization process kills harmful bacteria, including salmonella.

Tips & Techniques > Troubleshooting Hollandaise

When a sauce splits, this means that the fat has separated from the egg foam (the sauce has lost its emulsion). The result will look thin, greasy, and lumpy.

Popular theory places its origin to a town in Normandy, France called "Isigny-Sur-Mer", known for its high-quality butter. According to history, France couldn't produce its own butter during the First World War and imported it from Holland – which led to it being known as Hollandaise.

It's what happens next that sets them apart: Hollandaise gets its acidity from lemon juice (sometimes vinegar) and is usually seasoned with salt, white pepper, and cayenne pepper. Béarnaise, meanwhile, builds upon hollandaise with white wine vinegar, shallots, tarragon, and other fresh herbs.

In a small bowl, whisk together egg yolks, lemon juice, cold water, salt and pepper. Melt butter in a saucepan over low heat. Gradually whisk yolk mixture into butter. Continue whisking over low heat for 8 minutes, or until sauce is thickened.

Why Does Hollandaise Sauce Break? Over-heating or overcooking the egg yolks is one culprit. Next time, be sure to use a double boiler and heat the yolks gently to avoid overcooking them. The second cause is either adding too much butter or adding it too quickly.

Do you serve hollandaise warm or cold? ›

Hollandaise is best served warm or at room temperature, and is a pain to reheat (because you have to be so careful not to cook the eggs). Warmer yolks = warmer sauce.

Mayonnaise combines egg, acid (vinegar or citrus juice, sometimes both) and oil, while aioli combines egg, garlic and oil. Aioli's texture is a little thicker than glossy mayonnaise. Meanwhile, hollandaise is a warm sauce that uses butter in place of oil.

Tips To Ensure a Creamy Hollandaise Sauce

Don't melt the butter at a high temperature, because it'll evaporate the water in the butter. And a little extra water helps the hollandaise emulsify better. If the butter is only barely warm, it won't heat the yolks enough to thicken the sauce.

You may know béchamel sauce as the white sauce that is used in many dishes, such as chicken pot pie, macaroni and cheese, scalloped potatoes, lasagne, and gravy.

Put the yolks, butter and 2 tbsp water in a heavy-based pan and heat very gently, whisking all the time. As the butter melts, the sauce will begin to thicken; don't be tempted to hurry things along by turning the heat up, the sides of the pan should be cool enough to touch at all times.

"But there are a lot of ways things can go wrong. If you don't whisk fast enough or pour in your butter too fast it'll turn greasy and broken. Don't cook the eggs enough and it won't thicken properly. If you cook the eggs too much and you'll end up with clumpy, greasy, scrambled eggs.

If hollandaise sauce has split (broken), don't worry! You can still save it and make a delicious hollandaise. Get it hot again on the stove (just like you did when you melted the butter). Take a large bowl and add a teaspoon of warm water.