How to Make Hollandaise Sauce

Lesson Goals

Hollandaise is one of the five main mother sauces. Made with butter and eggs, this warm emulsion sauce is thick, yet airy. A well-made hollandaise has a rich, buttery flavor with just a hint of acid (typically lemon) to balance it out. The sauce is most often paired with vegetables, meat, fish and egg dishes.

Many people think that hollandaise is too challenging to make because it has a tendency to split or curdle. Despite the fact that there are several reasons why this can happen, a good hollandaise is actually not that difficult to achieve once you understand the process.

In this lesson, you will learn about the main components of a hollandaise. You will learn how to make and season a hollandaise, how to hold it prior to serving and how to repair a split or broken sauce. You will also learn how to make a few derivative sauces from a base hollandaise, including the ever-so-popular Béarnaise.

By following just a few simple steps, you will be able to make any of these elegant and delicious sauces with ease.

At the end of this cooking school lesson, you will be able to:

• define hollandaise sauce
• identify the components of a hollandaise
• make a sabayon using water or a gastride
• determine when a sabayon is cooked
• make and season a hollandaise sauce
• hold a hollandaise for service
• fix a broken or split a hollandaise sauce
• make derivative sauces from hollandaise and Béarnaise

Prerequisites

None