22.7 Hollandaise and butter sauces

Hollandaise

Hollandaise is clarified butter emulsified into a sabayon, egg yolks whisked over heat until fluffy. The name is French for "Dutch sauce", though the link to Holland is unclear. "Dutch sauce" appears in English as early as 1573, without a recipe. The first written recipe comes from La Varenne's Le Cuisinier François of 1651, for asparagus: butter, a little vinegar, salt, nutmeg and "an egg yolk to bind the sauce; take care that it doesn't curdle".

Egg yolks are rich in lecithin, a natural emulsifier. When the yolks are whisked hard with a little water and lemon juice or vinegar while warm butter goes in slowly, the lecithin coats each drop of fat and keeps it suspended. Each ingredient has a job:

• Yolks carry the lecithin.
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• Clarified butter gives a steadier sauce than whole butter, and is the traditional choice.
• Acid balances the flavor and cuts the fat.
• Water helps hold the emulsion together.

Emulsions last for different lengths of time. Mayonnaise is a permanent emulsion and lasts several days or longer. Hollandaise is semi-permanent and lasts a few hours. A vinaigrette with no emulsifier is temporary and lasts only moments.

A good hollandaise is smooth, buttery, pale and very rich, free of lumps and showing no sign of separating. Butter leads the flavor without hiding the egg, lemon and vinegar. It is frothy and light, not heavy like mayonnaise.

Three techniques

• Double boiler (bain-marie): a bowl set over hot water. The water cannot pass 212°F, while a pan on the burner can, so it suits food that burns or curdles easily.
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• Tempering: warming something cold, such as eggs, a little at a time by stirring in hot liquid slowly.
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• Sabayon stage: yolks whipped until they hold a ribbon when the whisk is lifted. Sabayon is really a dessert sauce of yolks, sugar and wine, and this is the texture to reach before any butter goes in.
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Making hollandaise

Six pasteurized yolks and 450 ml (1 pt) of warm clarified butter make 750 ml (24 fl oz) of classic hollandaise.

• Reduce 90 ml (3 fl oz) of white wine vinegar and 60 ml (2 fl oz) of water with ½ tsp of crushed white peppercorns by half.
• Strain the reduction onto the yolks in a stainless steel bowl, about 15 ml (½ fl oz) for each yolk.
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• Whip over a double boiler until thick enough that the whisk leaves a trail, about as thick as lightly whipped cream. Take the bowl off the heat at once. Yolks cooked even slightly too far can no longer emulsify.
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• Whip in 30 ml (1 fl oz) of lemon juice to stop the yolks cooking.
• Add the warm butter a few drops at a time, whipping all the time. Once the emulsion has formed, the butter can go in faster. The butter should be warm but not hot enough to cook the yolks further.
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• Whip in the rest of the lemon juice, season with salt, white pepper and cayenne, and strain through cheesecloth if needed.
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In the blender method, 9 pasteurized yolks, warm water, lemon juice and seasonings are blended for about 5 seconds. Then 750 g (24 oz) of whole butter, heated to about 80°C (175°F) so that it cooks the yolks, is poured in a steady stream while the blender runs, all of it within 20 to 30 seconds. Strain out any lumps.

The balance of yolk to butter matters. As a general rule one yolk can hold 8 oz of clarified butter (or of oil, for mayonnaise). Too few yolks for the butter and the sauce breaks; extra yolks make it steadier but can make it heavy. Butter added too fast breaks it, and so does butter added too slowly.

Holding hollandaise safely

Hot food is held at 60°C (140°F) or above, and 4°C to 60°C (40°F to 140°F) is the danger zone, where most harmful bacteria grow. Hollandaise cannot be held that hot: above 65°C (150°F) the yolks cook and the sauce breaks and turns grainy, and below 7°C (45°F) the butter sets. So the sauce sits inside the danger zone while it waits, and that wait has limits:

• Make it as close to service as you can, in small batches, with clean, sanitized tools.
• Hold it in a warm, not simmering, bain-marie, for no more than 1½ hours. Because it sits in the danger zone, 2 hours is the outside limit.
• Never mix an old batch with a new one.
• Anything you add to it must also be at the right temperature.

Temperature also decides whether the sauce holds together. A perfect hollandaise left somewhere too hot or too cold will break, and one made with yolks or butter that were too cold will break when it meets hot food.

When hollandaise breaks

A broken hollandaise looks thin, grainy or lumpy: the emulsion never formed, or the butter, eggs and liquid have come apart. The causes:

• eggs or butter too hot or too cold
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• butter added too quickly
• yolks overcooked
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• too much butter
• not enough whisking

Some cooks rescue a broken sauce and some start again; it depends on how much time you have. To rescue it:

• Decide whether it is too hot (let it cool) or too cold (warm it over a double boiler).
• Put 15 ml (1 tbsp) of water in a clean stainless steel bowl for each liter of sauce. If the yolks were overcooked or there was too much butter, add a fresh yolk to the water first.
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• Slowly beat the broken sauce into it.

Small hollandaise sauces

Each starts from 1 L (1 qt) of hollandaise and ends with salt and pepper to taste. Some chefs count béarnaise as a mother sauce in its own right.

The hollandaise family.

Beurre blanc and beurre rouge

Beurre blanc (white butter) and beurre rouge (red butter) are butter sauces emulsified with no egg at all. The small amount of lecithin and other emulsifiers in butter itself holds the fat in the water. They are like hollandaise in idea but are not counted as leading or small sauces. They are thinner and lighter than hollandaise, smooth and just thicker than heavy cream.

There are three main ingredients: shallots, wine (white for blanc, red for rouge) and butter, used whole rather than clarified. Shallots and wine bring flavor; the butter is the sauce. A good one is rich and buttery but neutral enough to take herbs, spices or vegetable purées. It is pale, light and airy, yet liquid and able to cling.

• Choose the pan. Aluminum discolors the sauce, a thin pan heats unevenly, and a nonstick pan makes the emulsion hard to set.
• Boil down the wine with the shallots and any seasonings over medium heat au sec, meaning until nearly dry. Some chefs add a little heavy cream and reduce again; it is not needed, but it steadies the sauce.
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• Whisk in well-chilled butter a little at a time. Cold butter lets the fat, water and milk solids join the sauce slowly as it melts.
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• Strain and hold in a bain-marie.

For 1 L (1 qt), reduce 30 ml (1 fl oz) of white wine, 120 ml (4 fl oz) of white wine vinegar, salt, white pepper and 30 g (1 oz) of minced shallot to about 30 ml (2 tbsp). More liquid left in the pan gives too thin a sauce; reduce au sec for a thicker one. Then whisk in 1 kg (2 lb) of chilled butter, cut in 30 g (1 oz) pieces, a few pieces at a time over low heat. The cold butter keeps the sauce between 38°C and 49°C (100°F and 120°F).

Heat is the enemy here too. At 58°C (136°F) some of the emulsifying proteins start to break down and let go of their fat, and a long time above that splits the sauce. A split sauce can be saved by cooling it to about 43–49°C (110–120°F) and whisking. Below 30°C (85°F) the butterfat sets, and if that sauce is warmed again it separates for good. Cold beurre blanc can still be whisked at room temperature into a soft flavored butter.

Beurre blanc is held for service at 38–54°C (100–130°F). That whole range lies inside the danger zone of 4°C to 60°C (40°F to 140°F), and most of it inside the super danger zone of 20–49°C (70–120°F), where pathogens grow very fast.

Variations on the same base:

• Beurre rouge: dry red wine and red wine vinegar in place of white.
• Lemon-dill: warm lemon juice and chopped fresh dill whisked in.
• Pink peppercorn: crushed pink peppercorns in the shallot and wine reduction of a beurre rouge, with whole ones to garnish.

Compound butters

A compound butter (beurre composé) is softened whole butter with flavorings worked in. It colors and flavors small sauces, or is a sauce in itself: a slice of maître d'hôtel (parsley) butter set on a grilled steak or fish melts into a sauce as it is served. Mix the butter and flavorings in a blender, food processor or mixer. Roll it into a log in parchment or plastic wrap, chill it and slice as needed, or pipe rosettes and chill them. Most last two or three days chilled, and longer in the freezer.

Each of these starts from 500 g (1 lb) of softened unsalted butter, seasoned with salt and pepper:

• Basil: minced basil and shallot with lemon juice.
• Herb: as much as 250 ml (1 cup) of fresh herbs, chopped: dill, parsley, chives, chervil or tarragon.
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• Lobster or crayfish: cooked meat, shells or coral ground with the butter, clarified, strained through cheesecloth, chilled, and the firm fat lifted off.
• Maître d'hôtel: chopped parsley, lemon juice and white pepper.
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• Montpellier: blanched parsley, chervil, watercress and tarragon, with minced hard-boiled yolk, garlic and gherkin.
• Red pepper: roasted, peeled red peppers puréed until liquid. Shallot: blanched, dried, finely diced shallots.