Life’s Lesson N° 2: Hollandaise Sauce Can Smell Fear.

When I was growing up in Springfield, Missouri, until the sixth grade, I could tell our family was a bit “different.” Different because we had “weird” things in our refrigerator like capers. Yes, to have capers in your refrigerator in the 70s in middle America deemed you weird. Years later, when I was in high school in Los Angeles, one of my best friends was the chef, Giada DeLaurentiis (we are not friends anymore due to the fact that I made out with her brother). Anyway, I knew Giada and I were going to be good friends because her family was “culinary weird” like my family. Case in point: One day we were sitting on the lawn of our high school having lunch. Most everyone brought their lunches from home. Giada opens her lunch sack and casually starts to eat an orange. A weird orange. All of the girls screamed, “Oh my God, Giada, what is that!” Giada looks at all of us and says, “A blood orange, you fools.” Just as my capers were weird in the 70s, her blood orange in the 80s was just as weird. I definitely knew we were destined to be friends.

So, the same with Hollandaise sauce. This sauce is as normal in my household as chicken fried steak with gravy. However, I know that not everyone knows what it is...But you should. The most common use of Hollandaise sauce is for Eggs Benedict. Yes, the yellow sauce. It is also traditionally used on asparagus, leeks and poached fish.

Hollandaise sauce has been documented since the 1500s in a Dutch cookbook and is thought to have been brought to France by the Huguenots. The basic components of a Hollandaise sauce are an emulsion of egg yolks and liquid butter seasoned with lemon juice, salt, white pepper or cayenne. The consistency is smooth, creamy, opaque and buttery.

What I find interesting about the Hollandaise sauce is that it is one of the five French haute cuisine mother sauces. It is the building block of other sauces…

Sauce Bearnaise is a variation of Hollandaise sauce replacing the lemon juice with a strained vinegar and adding shallots, fresh chevril, fresh tarragon and crushed peppercorns.
Sauce Café de Paris is béarnaise with curry powder added.
Sauce Paloise is a version of béarnaise with mint substituted for tarragon.
Sauce au Vin Blanc (for fish) is produced by adding a reduction of white wine and fish stock to hollandaise.
Sauce Bavaroise is hollandaise with added cream, horseradish, and thyme.
Sauce Crème Fleurette is hollandaise with crème fraîche added.
Sauce Dijon, also known as Sauce Moutarde or Sauce Girondine, is hollandaise with Dijon mustard.
Sauce Mousseline, also known as Sauce Chantilly, is produced by folding whipped cream into hollandaise.

See! Isn’t that totally interesting! By the way, Robert Farrar Capon suggested that Hollandaise sauce “is no less a marvel than the Gothic arch, the computer chip or a Bach Fugue.” I have to agree except for that part about Bach Fugue because I have no idea what that is.

Hollandaise sauce is not complicated… It just requires some finesse. Like they say, “It’s all in the wrist.”

Let’s take a look at some secrets of Hollandaise sauce from the experts…

Mind the temperature! Too much heat and the eggs will curdle. Too little heat and an emulsion will not form.
Use a bain marie. If you don’t know what that is click HERE.
Use clarified butter.
Use kosher salt.
Only use a metal whisk. Keep raising the whisk to incorporate air into the eggs for a fluffy emulsion.
The Barefoot Contessa uses a blender for her hollandaise sauce so if the Barefoot Contessa does it, so shall I.

Okay now for the recipes…

 

 Hollandaise Sauce by SaltedTV. Video and Recipe HERE.

 

 

Hollandaise Sauce by Julia Child. Video HERE. 

Hollandaise Sauce by the Barefoot Contessa. Video HERE.

Voilà! Hollandaise sauce. Mastered.

*Something you don’t know about me? We are still in the French Alps and yes, I am still hiding from my husband’s family. I was forced to go to the dining room today for lunch. Gracie was forced to go as well. Usually I can get away with, “I need to stay in bed because I have ALS” but that wasn’t working today. Gracie also said that if she had to go to the dining room, well then, so did I. So off we went. Gracie eats only 2% of anything served to her at David’s family’s house. She’s not exactly a fan of foie gras, frog legs, stinky cheese, strange cuts of beef, or foreign vegetables. Gracie likes American food and by American I mean burritos. Exactly 3 nights ago, Christmas evening, Gracie threw a hissy fit because we did not have my mother’s turkey for Christmas dinner. She said it was all that she wanted and all that she asked for in life and I did not deliver. Seeing as I had just overcome a respiratory illness that nearly killed me, I was not up for teaching my caregivers how to make turkey so I decided that we were going to have smoked salmon on blinis with capers, shallots, crème fraîche and a squeeze of lemon for Christmas dinner even though I know it’s basically an hors d’oeuvre. In my respiratory illness delirium, I forgot that Gracie doesn’t eat any of that so poor little Gracie had to order Domino’s pizza for Christmas dinner. Swear to God. She will never forgive me. So, today’s lunch with David’s family… It was announced that we would be having turkey. Turkey! That is exactly what Gracie wanted! Thank you God, there’s turkey for Gracie! I could see that Gracie was getting rather excited that she would be getting her Christmas turkey. David’s brother brought out the platter of sliced turkey and set it down on the table. I saw all the blood drain from Gracie’s face. Yes, it was turkey but on top of that delicious turkey was something else. I knew Gracie was too shy and too polite to ask, “What the fuck is on top of that turkey?” I was too shocked to ask, “What the fuck is on top of that turkey?” David has lived with Gracie and I long enough to know that there was a slight problem. Not a problem for him but definitely a problem for Gracie. I understand enough French to know that David asked what was on top of the turkey. I only heard one word, “agneau.” That’s lamb. As Gracie described it, “Hot pink raw baby lamb.” I thought Gracie was going to faint. She politely told everyone at the table that she was a vegetarian. Liar, Gracie, you just ate a Burger King whopper yesterday in the car. Somehow weird French horsemeat from Burger King doesn’t bother her but raw hot pink lamb on top of turkey does. I’ve been laughing for five hours. She is currently at Subway sandwich shop with David. By the way, if I hear one more time, “this is how we do it in France” I am going to burn this house down. Stay tuned…