Hollandaise Sauce
This rich yet airy, velvety sauce is made by enriching an acidic liquid with egg yolks and then thickening with butter. Here, we used a wine reduction, but you can skip that step and simply whisk eggs with 1 teaspoon lemon juice and 1/4 cup boiling water. As one of the French “mother sauces,” its preparation is a basic culinary technique that can be varied to create other sauces in the same family (often referred to as “warm emulsions”). By changing the acidic liquid to blood orange juice and zest, you get sauce Maltaise, typically served over steamed asparagus; tangerine juice and zest flavor Mikado sauce. Perhaps the best-known variation is Béarnaise, a traditional accompaniment for steak. To make it, prepare the hollandaise as directed, adding tarragon (the defining flavor of Béarnaise) to the reduction mixture. As it is designed to demonstrate, the method is the key to making the sauce, not the specific ingredients used to give it flavor. When making hollandaise or any of its variations, using gentle heat is critical to achieving the right consistency. The best—and classic—way to do this is to “cook” it in a bain marie, or hot-water bath, instead of directly over a burner.
Recipe information
Yield
Makes about 1 1/2 cups
Ingredients
Preparation
Step 1
Make reduction Combine wine, vinegar, shallot, and peppercorns in a small skillet over medium-high heat; cook until reduced to 1 tablespoon, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the boiling water and strain through a fine sieve into a heatproof nonreactive (stainless-steel or glass) bowl.
Step 2
Prepare bain marie (hot-water bath) Fill a medium saucepan with 2 inches of water and bring to a boil, then reduce heat so water is barely simmering.
Step 3
Heat egg yolks Add egg yolks to strained reduction and whisk, off the heat, until they become pale. Place bowl over the bain-marie. Whisking constantly, cook until the mixture is thick enough to hold a trail from the whisk and begins to hold its shape when drizzled from the whisk. Remove from heat. Wipe off any mixture that may have cooked onto the side of the pot with a damp paper towel to prevent any lumps from forming.
Step 4
Incorporate butter Whisking constantly, add butter 1 tablespoon at a time, whisking until each addition is incorporated completely before adding the next. When all the butter has been added, season with lemon juice, salt, and cayenne. The sauce should be thick but still able to drizzle from a spoon (and it should form a pool, not a mound). If it is too thick, thin it with a little water.
Ingredients
Step 5
Although traditionally made with melted clarified butter (page 88), softened butter emulsifies more readily with the egg yolks and produces a lighter texture.
Hollandaise Tips
Step 6
Do not overheat the egg yolks; “temper” them instead by mixing with a bit of boiling water before placing in the hot-water bath to keep them from scorching.
Step 7
Simmer over very low heat. If the egg mixture is heated too quickly, it turns grainy; if cooked too long over too high a temperature, it will scramble.
Step 8
Add butter gradually to allow the mixture to emulsify. Adding too quickly will cause the emulsion to “break” or separate, preventing the liquid and butter from combining.
Step 9
Adjust the finished sauce with water to thin, and add lemon juice, salt, and cayenne pepper to flavor.
Step 10
If not serving immediately, cover with plastic wrap, pressing it directly on the surface of the sauce to prevent a skin from forming, and set over a pot of water that has been brought to a simmer and then removed from heat, or in a warm spot on the stove for up to 1 hour. Alternatively, store in a clean thermos warmed with hot but not boiling water, holding it for 2 or 3 hours at most.
