Hollandaise Sauce

How to make Hollandaise Sauce Recipe - One of the five grand sauces, hollandaise sauce is a rich, hot emulsion sauce made from egg yolks and butter flavored with vinegar and lemon juice. A variety of small sauces are made from hollandaise sauce, the most common being béarnaise sauce.An example of hollandaise sauce used in American regional cuisine is demonstrated in the recipe for Braised Leeks, featured in Cajun and Creole Cuisines

For the reduction:
1 teaspoon Black peppercorns
4 tablespoons Water, cold
2 tablespoons Distilled vinegar
1/2 teaspoon Salt

For the sauce:
5 Egg yolks
2 1/2 cups Butter, clarified, warm (not hot)
to taste Lemon juice
to taste Salt

Method:
Crack the peppercorns in the bottom of a saucepan.

Add the water, vinegar, and salt. Bring to a boil and reduce the volume of liquid by twothirds. Remove from the heat and reserve until needed.

Place the egg yolks in a stainless-steel bowl. Strain the liquid from the reduction into the bowl with the egg yolks.

Cook over a double boiler, whisking constantly and vigorously. Cook the egg yolks until the mixture reaches a minimum of 150°F (65°C). This process takes only 3 to 5 minutes. Typically, the egg mixture thins, then starts to thicken. At 160°F (71°C), the egg mixture should have a nappé consistency. Be careful to stir constantly so the eggs do not congeal.

Once the egg yolks are cooked, immediately remove the bowl from the double boiler.

Whisk in the warm clarified butter, 1 ounce (28 ml) at a time, with a vigorous back- and-forth motion, in order to incorporate as much air as possible. Make sure the clarified butter is warm, as hot butter will cause the emulsion to break down.

Season the sauce to taste with lemon juice and salt. If the sauce is too thick, adjust the consistency with a little warm water. If the sauce appears to have small pieces of congealed egg in it, strain it through a chinois before using.

Chef Tips:
A well-made hollandaise sauce is smooth and free of lumps.The flavor is primarily of butter, but not so much that the butter overpowers the egg and lemon flavors. The consistency of hollandaise should not be heavy but rather light and fluffy. Many professionals choose to use softened whole butter instead of clarified butter in their hollandaise sauce because whole butter has much more flavor. If using whole butter, make sure that the initial reduction is cooked until almost dry because whole butter contains a lot of natural moisture, which can lead to a thinner sauce.This problem is countered by cooking the reduction longer to decrease liquid. Hollandaise sauce is an emulsion sauce, which means the fat molecules of the butter are temporarily suspended in the eggs.This emulsion is not permanent and is subject to breaking down.A hollandaise may break for a variety of reasons, including exposure to heat, exposure to cold, the technique used to prepare the sauce, or simply because the sauce was not stirred from time to time.