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What is Hollandaise Sauce?
"Hollandaise sauce is an emulsion of butter and lemon juice using egg yolks as the emulsifying agent, usually seasoned with salt and a little black pepper or cayenne pepper. It is a French sauce, so named because it was believed to have mimicked a Dutch sauce. Hollandaise sauce is well known as a key ingredient in Eggs Benedict. The sauce is one of the five sauces in the French haute cuisine mother sauce repertoire."
"Hollandaise requires some skill and knowledge to prepare; care must also be taken to store it properly after preparation. Properly made, the sauce should be smooth and creamy. The flavor should be rich and buttery, with a mild tang added by the lemon juice and seasonings. It must be made and served warm, not hot. If the ingredients are emulsified improperly by over- or under-heating them they will separate, resulting in the sauce "breaking" from the emulsion and the yolks coagulating from excessive heat."
History
"As early as 1651, François Pierre La Varenne describes a sauce similar to Hollandaise sauce in his groundbreaking cookbook Le Cusinier François: "avec du bon beurre frais, un peu de vinaigre, sel et muscade, et un jaune d’œuf pour lier la sauce" ("make a sauce with good fresh butter, a little vinegar, salt, and nutmeg, and an egg yolk to bind the sauce")."
"Alan Davidson notes a "sauce à la hollandoise" from François Marin's Les Dons de Comus (1758), but since that sauce included butter, flour, bouillon, and herbs, and omitted egg yolks, it may not be related to the modern hollandaise. However, Larousse Gastronomique states that, in former times fish 'à la hollandaise' was served with melted butter (implying that at one time egg yolks were not a part of the designation). Davidson also quotes from Harold McGee (1990), who explains that eggs are not needed at all and proper emulsification can simply be done with butter. He also states that if one does wish to use eggs they are not needed in as great quantities as normally called for in traditional recipes."
"The sauce using egg yolks and butter appeared in the 19th century. Though various sources say it was first known as "sauce Isigny" (a town in Normandy said to have been renowned for the quality of its butter), Mrs. Isabella Beeton's Household Management had recipes in the first edition (1861) for "Dutch sauce, for benedict" (p. 405) and its variant on the following page, "Green sauce, or Hollandaise verte". Her directions for hollandaise seem somewhat fearless:"
""Put all the ingredients, except the lemon-juice, into a stew-pan; set it over the fire, and keep continually stirring. When it is sufficiently thick, take it off, as it should not boil...""
One preparation method
"A wire whisk and a thin-bottomed bowl work fine. The egg yolks must be beaten thoroughly first, then the lemon juice beaten into them. Then the butter (preferably clarified butter; clarified, meaning it has been melted and the milk solids removed) is added very slowly, while the mixture is being continually beaten and held over a pot of simmering water (known as the bain marie method). (Room temperature is too low; most stovetop burners and even double boilers are too hot, and will overcook the egg causing it to scramble, though skilled sauciers are able to prepare their mixtures over an open burner.) The mixing bowl should be over, but not in contact with, the simmering water. Eventually it will thicken palpably, enough to resist the wrist. The butter can then be added more quickly, the sauce is seasoned, and it can be "held" in this state by being kept warm for some time. A normal ratio of ingredients is 1 egg yolk:1 teaspoon lemon juice:4-6 Tbs. butter."
"The same method -- with no heat, replacing the butter with oil, and adding some ground mustard -- is used to make mayonnaise."
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