Hollandaise sauce is a must-have for the perfect eggs Benedict, and it’s delicious on asparagus and fish, too. This is the easiest recipe for making the classic sauce at home, with no fuss or mess!
What is hollandaise sauce?
Hollandaise is one of the five basic mother sauces, sharing the spotlight with bechamel, veloute, tomato, and Espagnole sauces. It’s a rich, creamy sauce made by emulsifying egg yolks, melted butter, lemon juice or vinegar, and spices. The ingredients for the sauce are whisked together in a bowl, set over a pot of simmering water, until the eggs are cooked and a thick sauce forms.
There is no doubt that learning how to make hollandaise sauce will help you impress everyone sitting at your weekend brunch table. For whatever the reason, people tend to feel fancy when eating eggs Benedict. Aside from that, the rich, velvety smooth sauce is incredibly delicious over vegetables, especially asparagus and broccoli!
Is it safe to eat raw eggs?
Although some people eat raw eggs for the high protein value, there is a risk of Salmonella bacteria being present in uncooked eggs. According to the CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention), Salmonella is responsible for 23,000 hospitalizations and 400 deaths a year. For that reason, some people have concerns about the fact that the eggs in Hollandaise sauce are only partially cooked.
The real question is, can you get Salmonella from eating hollandaise sauce? While the possibility of it does exist, it is not likely to happen. Here are some facts to consider:
According to the FDA, eggs qualify as “safe” to eat once they reach an internal temperature of 160 degrees Fahrenheit. At that temperature, the heat will kill any Salmonella bacteria.
The classic hollandaise sauce recipe, originating in France, called for raw eggs, straight from the farm. To prevent the risk of foodborne illness, many chefs and cooks nowadays use pasteurized eggs to make hollandaise. The pasteurization process uses very high heat, so any bacteria present will be killed off.
When you make a hollandaise sauce recipe, simply use common sense and proper food handling and you should be just fine.
The perfect hollandaise sauce is smooth, slightly glossy looking, and pourable. If you notice a grainy appearance, it’s a sign that your sauce is “broken”, meaning, the ingredients have separated. If this happens, know that it happens to just about everyone at one point or another. The good news is, you may not need to toss the sauce – broken hollandaise sauce can sometimes be fixed!
To fix the broken sauce, you can try one of two things:
Whisk a teaspoon of boiling water, one drop at a time, into the broken sauce, OR
Place one egg yolk into a large bowl and very slowly whisk the broken hollandaise into the bowl.
Hollandaise sauce is a must-have for the perfect eggs Benedict, and it's delicious on asparagus and fish, too. We have the easiest recipe for making the classic sauce at home, with no fuss or mess!
Print Recipe
Ingredients
1/2cupbutter, melted - 1 stick, 113g
1tspdijon mustard
1Tbsplemon juice
2egg yolks
salt/pepper - optional
Instructions
Melt the butter over low heat until almost all liquid. Remove from heat right before it's all melted and stir until completely melted. Transfer into a container with a spout.
Separate eggs and put egg yolks in a bowl that fits over a small pot without touching the pot's bottom.
Add dijon mustard and lemon juice to egg yolks and salt (pepper) if using unsalted butter and whisk until smooth.
Bring 1 cup of water to a low simmer in a small pot and once simmering add bowl with egg yolk-mustard-lemon mixture on top and whisk constantly until slightly warm.
Pour butter in a very thin steady stream to the yolk mix while continuously whisking. NEVER STOP WHISKING.
Depending on how liquid and pourable or thick you want your hollandaise you either remove the sauce from the heat right away or keep whisking for a couple more minutes. When you ALMOST reached the consistency you like, remove from the heat and still continue whisking, it will thicken up still a little bit more. See video.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Hollandaise sauce can be stored in the refrigerator for up to two days. To store hollandaise, place it in an airtight container and make sure that the hollandaise is cooled down before you put it away.
One common hollandaise mistake is overcooking the egg yolks, and there's no coming back from that. But the most common problem is that the emulsion breaks, and you see streaks of liquid butter instead of a uniformly creamy sauce.
Hollandaise should be held between 120F to 145F (49 to 63C) so it does not split or curdle. If the sauce is heated above 150F, the eggs can overcook, become grainy and the sauce can potentially split.
Traditional hollandaise, made by emulsifying melted clarified butter into egg yolks and lemon juice, is notoriously difficult to make. You not only have to take the same care in its construction as you take for oil-in-egg-yolk mayonnaise, but you also have to deal with the fickle nature of hot eggs and butter.
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.
What is Hollandaise Sauce? 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.
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.
If the heat is too high, the egg yolks will curdle and the sauce will become grainy. 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.
Although its French name means “from Holland,” hollandaise sauce probably traces its origins to the northern French region of Normandy, where it was first called sauce Isigny, named after the dairy-producing Calvados town of Isigny-sur-Mer.
The butter breaks into minute droplets, while the egg yolk acts as an emulsifier, helping to keep those droplets dispersed, as well as thickening the sauce. What you get is a creamy, smooth sauce with a rich texture and mild flavor, perfect for topping eggs, fish, or vegetables.
In the Hollandaise sauce, egg proteins should not coagulate. Therefore, temperature control is crucial. As a rule of thumb, it is good to stay below 61 ˚C, the temperature at which the egg proteins start coagulating. An insufficient amount of water brings the hydrophobic and hydrophilic phase to separate.
Introduction: My name is Neely Ledner, I am a bright, determined, beautiful, adventurous, adventurous, spotless, calm person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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