Hollandaise Sauce

This recipe for Hollandaise is a light, frothy version – not overly tight and heavy with a cloying “OMG, so much butter!” taste.  It’s the recipe my grandmother taught me, and the one I have made for holidays and special occasions for decades. Hollandaise is a  Mother Sauce of French Cuisine,  which once mastered will give you the wonderful knowledge that you can tackle any butter-egg sauce because you will have what I can only describe as a “feel memory”.  Like when you look at something and know it’s done, or smell something and know the same. Sometimes you can even hear when food is finished (as when you deep fry).  This one will leave you with such a feel sense through your whisk, you could do it blindfolded..and it’s not too difficult!

One key to Hollandaise is to have everything ready to go before you begin. In this case, it is:

Ingredients for Hollandaise Sauce:

• 4 egg yolks
• 3 tbsp fresh lemon juice
• 1 stick unsalted butter, melted
• Dash of cayenne pepper
• Salt to taste
• Simmering water

How to make the Hollandaise:

• You’ll need to have either a double boiler, or something akin to it.  A large glass mixing bowl over a medium saucepan of simmering water can be used and is my preference.  I like the glass bowl method because there are no defined edges where the egg yolks can elude the tip of the whisk and end up curdling. The simmering water should not touch the bottom of the bowl or pan!
• When you have the hot water ready, put your egg yolks into the bowl and begin to whisk vigourously, off the heat.
• The egg yolks will get frothy, at which point scoop a tablesppon of hot water from the pan, and whisking all the while, add to the egg yolks. You’re still off the heat, just tempering the eggs to avoid the greatest pitfall of the process ….. too much heat too soon = curdling.

• When thickened slightly,  put it over the water for awhile, whisking continually, just to begin cooking gently.
• After a minute or so of this,  take it off the pan and add the remaining  lemon juice. All of it.
• Back over the simmering water it goes and  whisk for another minute or two.
• Back off the pan!  Do this on and off again for a few minutes, hot mitt in the left hand, whisk in the right, heating things up and cooking very  slowly. If steam starts to pop up out of the sides of the pan get it off the water right away and continue to whisk.
• Once the egg yolks are full of bubbles but slightly thicker and a shade darker,  begin to add the melted butter, approximately a quarter at a time.
• Continue to whisk, only putting the bowl on the pan for short periods of time (like 15 seconds at a time ). Once a portion of the butter is added and absorbed by the egg yolks,  add more butter.
•  In just a couple of minutes, all the butter is in, it’s whisked and smooth, and just do the on again off again for brief 15 second intervals until it is as thick as you’d like it. Once it is thickened,  add a dash of cayenne, and a small pinch at a time of kosher salt. The salt really brings out the lemon flavor, but can overpower very quickly!

The whole process is quick – and though I’ve never timed it, I don’t think it is more than five minutes total. I’ve been interrupted in the making many times, at which point I just get it off the simmering water and whisk it enough to cool things down. Even after a few minutes sitting on a trivet unfinished it has bounced back to life and resulted in a perfect sauce!

Tip:  If you are very new to sauce making, you may wish to have a bowl or pan of ice water close by to cool things down quickly but briefly if you feel the sauce is getting away from you.