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La Belle Cuisine
Sauces
“The
French are credited with refining the sophisticated art of sauce-making.
It was the 19th-century French chef Antonin Carême who evolved
an intricate methodology by which hundreds of sauces were classified
under one of five
"mother sauces."
Those are:
Espagnole
(Brown)
(brown
stock-based)
Velouté (light
stock-based)
Béchamel (basic white
sauce)
Hollandaise and
Mayonnaise
(emulsified sauces)
Vinaigrette (oil-and-vinegar
combinations)”
(from The New Food Lover's Companion
by Sharon Tyler Herbst)
The
Hollandaise Family
 
Mastering the Art of French Cooking
Boxed Set: Volumes 1 and 2
Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle, Simone Beck,
1961, Alfred A. Knopf
(most recent edition pictured above, Knopf)
Sauce
Hollandaise
Hollandaise sauce is made of
warmed egg yolks flavored with lemon juice, into which butter is gradually
incorporated to make a thick, yellow, creamy sauce.
It is probably the
most famous of all sauces, and is often the most dreaded, as
the egg yolks
can curdle and the sauce can turn. It is extremely easy and almost
foolproof to make in the electric blender… But we feel it is of great
importance
that you learn how to make hollandaise by hand, for part of
every good cook’s general knowledge is a thorough familiarity with the
vagaries of egg yolks
under all conditions. The following recipe takes 5
minutes, and is almost as fast
as blender hollandaise.
It is only one of numerous methods for hollandaise, all
of which
accomplish the same result. That of forcing egg yolks to absorb butter
and
hold it in creamy suspension.
TWO
POINTS TO REMEMBER when making hollandaise by hand
The
heating and thickening of egg yolks
So
that the egg yolks will thicken into a smooth cream, they must be heated
slowly and gradually. Too sudden heat will make them granular. Overcooking
scrambles them. You may beat them over hot water or over low heat; it
makes
no difference as long as the process is slow and gentle.
The
butter
Egg
yolks will readily absorb a certain quantity of butter when it is fed to
them gradually, giving them time to incorporate each addition before
another
is presented. When too much is added at a time, particularly at
first, the sauce
will not thicken. And if the total amount of butter is
more than the eggs can
absorb, the sauce will curdle. About 3 ounces of
butter is the usual amount
per yolk. But if you have never made
hollandaise before, it is safer not to go
over 2 ounces or 1/4 cup.
[For the
recipe, because of its simplified procedure, we have chosen
the version in
The Way to Cook, Julia Child, 1994, Alfred A. Knopf.]
For
about 1 cup
3
egg yolks
1
1/2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice,
plus more later as needed
4
tablespoons cold unsalted butter,
half at first and half later
5
ounces (1 1/4 sticks) melted unsalted butter
Salt
and freshly ground white pepper
Special
equipment suggested: A 6-cup fairly heavy-bottomed stainless saucepan
and a wire whisk; a pan and a small ladle for the melted butter
Preliminaries: Vigorously whisk the egg yolks in the saucepan for a
good minute or
so, until they are thick and pale yellow, then whisk in
the lemon juice.
Add 2 tablespoons of cold butter, which while melting
slowly will act as a
kind of anti-curdling insurance.
The
egg-yolk sauce base: Set the pan over low heat, whisking at a
moderate
pace and watching carefully until in a minute or more the
egg
yolks have
thickened and you can see the bottom of the pan be-
tween
strokes. At once
remove from heat and beat in the remaining
[2
tablespoons] cold butter a
tablespoon at a time to stop the cooking.
Adding
the butter: By driblets, beat in the warm melted butter to
make
a
thick sauce. Whisk in the seasonings, adding a little more lemon
juice if
you feel it is needed.
Ahead-of-time
note: You can keep hollandaise for a certain amount of
time over the
faint heat of a pilot light, or near a stove top burner. If it
is
kept too
warm the egg yolks will start to scramble and force the butter
out
of
suspension – the sauce will turn, in other words. However, since
egg
yolks are a fine breeding ground for bacteria, the safest advance plan
is
to cook the sauce base, and chill it. Just before serving, whisk over very
low heat or hot water to loosen it, and then beat in the hot melted
butter.
First
Aid for Turned Sauce: If your sauce refuses to thicken or thins
out
after you’ve made it, or looks curdled, here’s how to fix it –
unless
the eggs have actually scrambled because of overheating:
Whisk up the sauce and dip out a tablespoon into a mixing bowl.
Whisk it
with a tablespoon of lemon juice for a moment until it creams
and thickens; gradually whisk in little
dribbles of the sauce, letting
each addition cream and thicken before
adding more.
Additions
You
may add other flavors to the finished hollandaise. If you whisk in reduced
fish-braising juice, you have officially produced a white wine
sauce,
sauce vin blanc. The addition of whipped cream makes it a
sauce mousseline.
Hollandaise Sauce Made
in the Electric Blender
Mastering the Art of French Cooking
Boxed Set: Volumes 1 and 2
Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle, Simone Beck,
1961, Alfred A. Knopf
(most recent edition pictured above, Knopf)
This very
quick method for making hollandaise cannot fail when you add your butter
in a small stream of droplets. If the sauce refuses to thicken, pour it
out,
then pour it back into the whizzing machine in a thin stream of
droplets. As the butter cools, it begins to cream and forms itself into a
thick sauce. If you are used
to handmade hollandaise, you may find the
blender variety lacks something in quality; this is perhaps due to
complete homogenization. But as the technique is well within the
capabilities of a 8-year-old child, it has much to recommend it. For about
3/4 cup
3 egg yolks
2
tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon
salt
Pinch of
pepper
4 ounces or
1 stick of butter
Place the
egg yolks, lemon juice, and seasonings in the blender jar.
Cut the butter into pieces and heat it to foaming hot in a small saucepan.
Cover the jar and blend the egg yolk mixture at top speed for 2 seconds.
Uncover, and still blending at top speed, immediately start pouring on the
hot butter in a thin stream of droplets. (If you do not have a splatterproof blender jar, you may need to protect yourself with a towel
during this operation.) By the time two thirds of the butter has gone in,
the sauce
will
be a thick cream. Omit the milky residue at the bottom of
the butter
pan.
Taste the sauce, and blend in more seasonings if
necessary.
If not used immediately, set the jar in tepid, but not warm, water.
For more
sauce
The amount
of butter you can use in a blender is only half the amount the
egg yolks
could absorb if you were making the sauce by hand, when 3 egg yolks can
take 8 to 9 ounces of butter rather than the 4 ounces in the preceding
recipe. However, if you added more butter to the blender than
the 4 ounces
specified, the sauce would become so thick that it would
clog the machine.
To double your amount of sauce, the, pour it out of
the blender jar into a
saucepan or bowl and beat into it an additional
1/2 cup of melted butter,
added in a stream of droplets.
The most
famous Hollandaise variation…
Sauce Béarnaise
Béarnaise
sauce varies from hollandaise only is taste and strength; instead
of
lemon
juice, its basic flavoring is a reduction of wine, vinegar, shallots,
pepper
and tarragon. The techniques for making the two sauces are similar.
For 1 1/2
cups
1/4 cup wine
vinegar
1/4 cup dry
white wine or dry white vermouth
1 tablespoon
minced shallots or green onions
1 tablespoon
minced fresh tarragon or
1/2 tablespoon dried tarragon
1/8 teaspoon
pepper
Pinch of
salt
3 egg yolks
2
tablespoons cold butter
1/2 to 2/3
cup melted butter
2
tablespoons fresh minced tarragon or parsley
Boil the
vinegar, wine, shallots or onions, herbs and seasonings in a small
saucepan over moderate heat until the liquid has reduced to 2 tablespoons.
Let it cool.
Then proceed
as though making a hollandaise. Beat the egg yolks until
thick. Strain in
the vinegar mixture and beat. Add 1 tablespoon of cold
butter and thicken
the egg yolks over low heat. Beat in the other
tablespoon of cold butter,
then the melted butter by droplets. Correct seasoning, and beat in the
tarragon or parsley.
For a Sauce
Choron, simply beat 2 to 4 tablespoons tomato paste or
tomato purée. by
tablespoons, into 1 1/2 cups
Béarnaise and correct seasoning.
Sauce
Maltaise (Orange-flavored Hollandaise)
For:
asparagus or broccoli
This sauce
is made like an ordinary hollandaise except
for the orange
flavoring.
Proceed as follows:
3 egg yolks
1 tablespoon
lemon juice
1 tablespoon
orange juice
Pinch of
salt
2
tablespoons cold butter
1/3 to 2/3
cup melted butter
2 to 4
tablespoons orange juice
The grated
peel [zest] of an orange
Beat the egg
yolks until thickened, then beat in the liquids and salt. Add
1 tablespoon
of cold butter, and thicken the mixture over low heat. Beat
in the other
tablespoon of cold butter, then the melted butter.
Finish the
sauce by beating in the orange juice by spoonfuls, then the
orange peel
[zest].
Egg Safety Information
Julia's Classic Beurre Blanc
A Tribute to Julia Child
Happy 90th Birthday, Julia!
Julia Child in her own words...
Index - Basic Sauces
The Basics
Classic French Recipe
Index
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