Hollandaise sauce
Hollandaise sauce served as part of eggs Benedict with a dash of paprika
TypeSauce
Place of origin France (see French cuisine)
Main ingredientsEgg yolk, liquid butter, lemon juice

Hollandaise sauce (/hɒlənˈdeɪz/ or /ˈhɒləndeɪz/; French: [ɔlɑ̃dɛz]), meaning Dutch sauce in French,[1] 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 is well known as a key ingredient of eggs Benedict, and is often served on vegetables such as steamed asparagus. [2] [3] [4]

Origins

Some variations on hollandaise sauce[5]

Sauce hollandaise is French for "Hollandic sauce".[note 1] The first documented recipe is from 1651 in La Varenne's Le Cuisinier François[7] for "asparagus with fragrant sauce":[8]

make a sauce with some good fresh butter, a little vinegar, salt, and nutmeg, and an egg yolk to bind the sauce; take care that it doesn't curdle[8]

The name was given during the Franco-Dutch war.[9][10]

La Varenne is credited with bringing sauces out of the Middle Ages with his publication and may well have invented hollandaise sauce.[11] A more recent name for it is sauce Isigny, named after Isigny-sur-Mer, which is famous for its butter.[6][12] Isigny sauce is found in recipe books starting in the 19th century.[13][14]

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 replaced allemande with egg based emulsions, specifically mayonnaise, in his list of the mother sauces of haute cuisine.[15] Hollandaise was included in the section on derivatives[16] but in the English translation, the mention of mayonnaise as a mother sauce was removed and hollandaise was moved to the section on mother sauces.[17]

While many believe that a true hollandaise sauce should only contain the basic ingredients of eggs, butter, and lemon, Prosper Montagne suggested using either a white wine or vinegar reduction, similar to a Béarnaise sauce, to help improve the taste.[18]

In English, the name "Dutch sauce" was common through the 19th century, but was largely displaced by hollandaise in the 20th.[1]

Preparation and handling

As in other egg emulsion sauces, like mayonnaise and Béarnaise,[19][20] the egg does not coagulate as in a custard;[21] rather, the lecithin in the eggs serves as an emulsifier, allowing the mixture of the normally immiscible butter and lemon juice to form a stable emulsion.[22]

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 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.[23] Temperature control is critical, as excessive temperature can curdle the sauce.[24][25] 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.[26]

Derivatives

Mayonnaise and its derivative Hollandaise are among the French mother sauces,[2][27][28] and the foundation for many derivatives created by adding or changing ingredients, including:

Notes

  1. ^ The French tended to give foreign names to their creations, hollandaise being one of them.[6]

Citations

  1. ^ a b Ayto 2012, p. 172.
  2. ^ a b Escoffier 1903.
  3. ^ Escoffier 1907, p. 2.
  4. ^ Escoffier 1912, p. 13.
  5. ^ C. Herman Senn, The book of Sauces, 1915
  6. ^ a b Alléno & Brenot 2014, p. 12.
  7. ^ Snodgrass 2004, p. 57.
  8. ^ a b Binney 2008, p. 129.
  9. ^ Attali, Jacques (17 April 2019). Histoires de l'alimentation: De quoi manger est-il le nom ? (in French). Fayard. ISBN 978-2-213-71435-6.
  10. ^ Alléno & Brenot 2014.
  11. ^ Ruhlman 2009, p. 57.
  12. ^ Gilbar 2008, p. 47.
  13. ^ Joseph Carey (9 March 2006). Chef on Fire: The Five Techniques for Using Heat Like a Pro. Taylor Trade Publishing. p. 296. ISBN 978-1-4616-2607-7.
  14. ^ Jean-Bernard Lemerre, La vie de Paris, 1898, 1899, p. 29
  15. ^ Ken Albala (15 June 2015). The SAGE Encyclopedia of Food Issues. SAGE. p. 499. ISBN 978-1-4522-4301-6.
  16. ^ Escoffier 1903, p. 150.
  17. ^ Escoffier 1907, pp. 22–23.
  18. ^ Elizabeth David (1 February 1999). French Provincial Cooking. Penguin Publishing Group. p. 136. ISBN 978-1-101-50123-8.
  19. ^ Irma S. Rombauer; Marion Rombauer Becker; Ethan Becker; Maria Guarnaschelli (5 November 1997). JOC All New Rev. - 1997. Simon and Schuster. p. 56. ISBN 978-0-684-81870-2.
  20. ^ Richard Hosking (2007). Eggs in Cookery: Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium of Food and Cookery 2006. Oxford Symposium. p. 335. ISBN 978-1-903018-54-5.
  21. ^ Wayne Gisslen (19 January 2010). Professional Cooking, College Version. John Wiley & Sons. p. 195. ISBN 978-0-470-19752-3.
  22. ^ Alexis Rickus; Bev Saunder; Yvonne Mackey (22 August 2016). AQA GCSE Food Preparation and Nutrition. Hodder Education. p. 140. ISBN 978-1-4718-6365-3.
  23. ^ Harold McGee, On Food and Cooking, 1984, p. 364
  24. ^ Amy Christine Brown (26 February 2014). Understanding Food: Principles and Preparation. Cengage Learning. p. 401. ISBN 978-1-133-60715-1.
  25. ^ S Roday (1 November 1998). Food Hygiene and Sanitation. Tata McGraw-Hill Education. p. 104. ISBN 978-0-07-463178-2.
  26. ^ Good Housekeeping (1 December 2001). The Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook: America's Bestselling Step-by-Step Cookbook, with More Than 1,400 Recipes. Hearst Books. p. 460. ISBN 978-1-58816-070-6.
  27. ^ Escoffier 1907.
  28. ^ Escoffier 1912.
  29. ^ Escoffier: 89
  30. ^ Cookwise, pp. 304–05
  31. ^ a b c d e Joy of Cooking p. 359
  32. ^ Escoffier: 90
  33. ^ Escoffier: 91
  34. ^ Escoffier: 41
  35. ^ Escoffier: 141
  36. ^ Escoffier: 163
  37. ^ Escoffier: 88
  38. ^ Escoffier: 128
  39. ^ Escoffier: 132
  40. ^ Escoffier: 138

References

External links

Wikibooks Cookbook has a recipe/module on
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hollandaise.
Mayonnaise family sauces
Mother sauces in French cuisine
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