Hollandaise sauce ( or ; ), also called Dutch sauce, is a
mixture
In chemistry, a mixture is a material made up of two or more different chemical substances which are not chemically bonded. A mixture is the physical combination of two or more substances in which the identities are retained and are mixed in the ...
of
egg yolk
Among animals which produce eggs, the yolk (; also known as the vitellus) is the nutrient-bearing portion of the egg whose primary function is to supply food for the development of the embryo. Some types of egg contain no yolk, for example bec ...
, melted
butter
Butter is a dairy product made from the fat and protein components of churned cream. It is a semi-solid emulsion at room temperature, consisting of approximately 80% butterfat. It is used at room temperature as a spread, melted as a condiment ...
, and
lemon juice
The lemon (''Citrus limon'') is a species of small evergreen trees in the flowering plant family Rutaceae, native to Asia, primarily Northeast India (Assam), Northern Myanmar or China.
The tree's ellipsoidal yellow fruit is used for culina ...
(or a white wine or vinegar reduction). It is usually seasoned with
salt
Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quantitie ...
, and either
white pepper
Black pepper (''Piper nigrum'') is a flowering vine in the family Piperaceae, cultivated for its fruit, known as a peppercorn, which is usually dried and used as a spice and seasoning. The fruit is a drupe (stonefruit) which is about in diame ...
or
cayenne pepper
The cayenne pepper is a type of ''Capsicum annuum''. It is usually a moderately hot chili pepper used to flavor dishes. Cayenne peppers are a group of tapering, 10 to 25 cm long, generally skinny, mostly red-colored peppers, often with ...
.
It is well known as a key ingredient of
eggs Benedict
Eggs Benedict is a common American breakfast or brunch dish, consisting of two halves of an English muffin, each topped with Canadian bacon, a poached egg, and hollandaise sauce. It was popularized in New York City.
Origin and history
There a ...
, and is often served on vegetables such as steamed
asparagus
Asparagus, or garden asparagus, folk name sparrow grass, scientific name ''Asparagus officinalis'', is a perennial flowering plant species in the genus ''Asparagus''. Its young shoots are used as a spring vegetable.
It was once classified in ...
.
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Origins
![Book of Sauces Hollandaise 1915B](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f0/Book_of_Sauces_Hollandaise_1915B.jpg)
''Sauce hollandaise'' is
French for "Hollandic sauce". The name implies
Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
origins, but the actual connection is unclear. The name "Dutch sauce" is documented in English as early as 1573, though without a recipe showing that it was the same thing. The first documented recipe is from 1651 in
La Varenne's ''Le Cuisinier François'' for "asparagus with fragrant sauce":
Not much later, in 1667, a similar Dutch recipe was published. There is a popular theory that the name comes from a recipe that the
French Huguenots
The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a Religious denomination, religious group of French people, French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss politica ...
brought back from their exile in Holland.
La Varenne is credited with bringing sauces out of the
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
with his publication and may well have invented hollandaise sauce. A more recent name for it is ''sauce Isigny'', named after
Isigny-sur-Mer
Isigny-sur-Mer (, literally ''Isigny on Sea'') is a commune in the Calvados department and Normandy region of north-western France.
It is part of the communauté de communes Isigny-Omaha Intercom, the 59 communes of which have a combined populat ...
, which is famous for its butter. Isigny sauce is found in recipe books starting in the 19th century.
By the 19th century, sauces had been classified into four categories by
Carême. One of his categories was ''allemande'', which was a stock-based sauce using egg and lemon juice.
Escoffier
Georges Auguste Escoffier (; 28 October 1846 – 12 February 1935) was a French chef, restaurateur and culinary writer who popularized and updated traditional French cooking methods. Much of Escoffier's technique was based on that of Marie-Antoi ...
replaced ''allemande'' with egg based emulsions, including ''hollandaise'' and mayonnaise
in his list of the five mother sauces of
haute cuisine
''Haute cuisine'' (; ) or ''grande cuisine'' is the cuisine of "high-level" establishments, gourmet restaurants, and luxury hotels. ''Haute cuisine'' is characterized by the meticulous preparation and careful presentation of food at a high pri ...
.
While many believe that a true hollandaise sauce should only contain the basic ingredients of eggs, butter, and lemon,
Prosper Montagne {{wiktionary, prosper
Prosper may refer to:
__NOTOC__ Places in the United States
* Prosper, Minnesota, an unincorporated community
* Prosper, North Dakota, an unincorporated community
* Prosper, Oregon, an unincorporated community
* Prosper, ...
suggested using either a white wine or vinegar
reduction, similar to a
Béarnaise sauce
Béarnaise sauce (; ) is a sauce made of clarified butter emulsified in egg yolks and white wine vinegar and flavored with herbs. It is widely regarded as the "child" of the Hollandaise sauce. The difference is only in the flavoring: Béarnaise ...
, to help improve the taste.
In English, the name "Dutch sauce" was common through the 19th century, but was largely displaced by ''hollandaise'' in the 20th.
Preparation and handling
As in other egg emulsion sauces, like
mayonnaise
Mayonnaise (; ), colloquially referred to as "mayo" , is a thick, cold, and creamy sauce or dressing commonly used on sandwiches, hamburgers, composed salads, and French fries. It also forms the base for various other sauces, such as tartar ...
and
Béarnaise,
the egg does not
coagulate
Coagulation, also known as clotting, is the process by which blood changes from a liquid to a gel, forming a blood clot. It potentially results in hemostasis, the cessation of blood loss from a damaged vessel, followed by repair. The mechanism o ...
as in a
custard
Custard is a variety of culinary preparations based on sweetened milk, cheese, or cream cooked with egg or egg yolk to thicken it, and sometimes also flour, corn starch, or gelatin. Depending on the recipe, custard may vary in consistency fro ...
;
rather, the
lecithin
Lecithin (, from the Greek ''lekithos'' "yolk") is a generic term to designate any group of yellow-brownish fatty substances occurring in animal and plant tissues which are amphiphilic – they attract both water and fatty substances (and so ar ...
in the eggs serves as an
emulsifier
An emulsion is a mixture of two or more liquids that are normally immiscible (unmixable or unblendable) owing to liquid-liquid phase separation. Emulsions are part of a more general class of two-phase systems of matter called colloids. Altho ...
, allowing the mixture of the normally immiscible butter and lemon juice to form a stable
emulsion
An emulsion is a mixture of two or more liquids that are normally immiscible (unmixable or unblendable) owing to liquid-liquid phase separation. Emulsions are part of a more general class of two-phase systems of matter called colloids. Althoug ...
.
To make hollandaise sauce, beaten egg yolks are combined with butter, lemon juice, salt, and water, and heated gently while being mixed. Some cooks use a
double boiler
A bain-marie (; also known as a water bath or double boiler), a type of heated bath, is a piece of equipment used in science, industry, and cooking to heat materials gently or to keep materials warm over a period of time. A bain-marie is also us ...
to control the temperature. Some recipes add melted butter to warmed yolks; others call for unmelted butter and the yolks to be heated together; still others combine warm butter and eggs in a blender or food processor.
[Harold McGee, ''On Food and Cooking'', 1984, p. 364] Temperature control is critical, as excessive temperature can curdle the sauce.
Some chefs start with a reduction. The reduction consists of vinegar, water and cracked peppercorns. These ingredients are reduced to "au sec" or almost dry, strained, and added to the egg yolk mixture.
Hollandaise can be frozen.
Derivatives
Mayonnaise and its derivative Hollandaise are among the
French mother sauces
In French cuisine, the mother sauces (french: sauces mères), also known as in French, are a group of sauces upon which many other sauces"daughter sauces" or are based. Different sets and classifications of mother sauces have been proposed sinc ...
,
[ and the foundation for many derivatives created by adding or changing ingredients, including:
*The most common derivative is sauce Béarnaise. It can be produced by replacing the acidifying agent (vinegar reduction or lemon juice) in a preparation with a strained reduction of vinegar, ]shallots
The shallot is a botanical variety (a cultivar) of the onion. Until 2010, the (French red) shallot was classified as a separate species, ''Allium ascalonicum''. The taxon was synonymized with ''Allium cepa'' (the common onion) in 2010, as the d ...
, fresh chervil
Chervil (; ''Anthriscus cerefolium''), sometimes called French parsley or garden chervil (to distinguish it from similar plants also called chervil), is a delicate annual herb related to parsley. It was formerly called myrhis due to its volat ...
, fresh tarragon
Tarragon (''Artemisia dracunculus''), also known as estragon, is a species of perennial herb in the family Asteraceae. It is widespread in the wild across much of Eurasia and North America and is cultivated for culinary and medicinal purposes.
...
, and (if to taste) crushed peppercorns
Black pepper (''Piper nigrum'') is a flowering vine in the family Piperaceae, cultivated for its fruit, known as a peppercorn, which is usually dried and used as a spice and seasoning. The fruit is a drupe (stonefruit) which is about in diame ...
.Joy of Cooking
''Joy of Cooking'', often known as "''The Joy of Cooking''", is one of the United States' most-published cookbooks. It has been in print continuously since 1936 and has sold more than 20 million copies. It was published privately during 1931 by ...
p. 359 Alternatively, the flavorings may be added to a standard hollandaise. Béarnaise and its children are often used on steak or other "assertive" grilled meats and fish.
**Sauce Choron is a variation of Béarnaise without tarragon or chervil, plus tomato purée.
**Sauce Foyot (or Valois) is Béarnaise with meat glaze Meat glaze, French: ''glace de viande'', is a dark brown, gelatinous flavouring agent used in food preparation. It is obtained by reducing brown stock through evaporation by slow heating. Its high viscosity and salt content gives it an unusually lo ...
.
**Sauce Colbert is sauce Foyot with reduced white wine.
**Sauce Paloise is Béarnaise with mint
MiNT is Now TOS (MiNT) is a free software alternative operating system kernel for the Atari ST system and its successors. It is a multi-tasking alternative to TOS and MagiC. Together with the free system components fVDI device drivers, XaA ...
substituted for tarragon.
*Sauce au vin blanc (for fish) is hollandaise with a reduction of white wine and fish stock.
*Sauce Bavaroise is hollandaise with cream, horseradish
Horseradish (''Armoracia rusticana'', syn. ''Cochlearia armoracia'') is a perennial plant of the family Brassicaceae (which also includes mustard, wasabi, broccoli, cabbage, and radish). It is a root vegetable, cultivated and used worldwide ...
, and thyme
Thyme () is the herb (dried aerial parts) of some members of the genus ''Thymus'' of aromatic perennial evergreen herbs in the mint family Lamiaceae. Thymes are relatives of the oregano genus ''Origanum'', with both plants being mostly indigenou ...
.
*Sauce crème fleurette is hollandaise with ''crème fraîche
Crème fraîche (English pronunciation: , , lit. "fresh cream") is a dairy product, a soured cream containing 10–45% butterfat, with a pH of approximately 4.5., p. 181''f'' It is soured with a bacterial culture. European labeling regulations ...
''.
*Sauce Dijon, also known as sauce moutarde or sauce Girondine, is hollandaise with Dijon mustard
Dijon mustard (french: Moutarde de Dijon) is a traditional mustard of France, named after the town of Dijon in Burgundy, France, which was the center of mustard making in the late Middle Ages and was granted exclusive rights in France in the 17t ...
.
*Sauce Maltaise is hollandaise with blanched orange zest and the juice of blood orange
The blood orange is a variety of orange ( ''Citrus'' × ''sinensis'') (also referred to as raspberry orange) with crimson, almost blood-colored flesh.
The distinctive dark flesh color is due to the presence of anthocyanins, a family of polyp ...
.
*Sauce Mousseline, also known as sauce Chantilly, is hollandaise with whipped cream folded in.
**Sauce divine is sauce Mousseline with reduced sherry
Sherry ( es, jerez ) is a fortified wine made from white grapes that are grown near the city of Jerez de la Frontera in Andalusia, Spain. Sherry is produced in a variety of styles made primarily from the Palomino grape, ranging from light versi ...
in the whipped cream.
** Madame Benoît's recipe for Mousseline uses whipped egg whites instead of whipped cream.
*Sauce noisette is hollandaise made with browned butter.Escoffier
Georges Auguste Escoffier (; 28 October 1846 – 12 February 1935) was a French chef, restaurateur and culinary writer who popularized and updated traditional French cooking methods. Much of Escoffier's technique was based on that of Marie-Antoi ...
: 138
Notes
Citations
References
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*
External links
Mrs. Beeton, ''The book of household Management,'' 1861
Project Gutenberg e-text
Step-by-step tutorial from About.com (generally good, but a glass or ceramic bowl is not recommended as they make it too difficult to control the heat)
Free Culinary School Podcast Episode 8
A podcast (audio) episode that talks about the proper classical technique for making Hollandaise and the science behind the method.
Ina Garten's Blender Hollandaise
{{French mother sauces
French sauces
Egg-based sauces