Dish · french
Hollandaise Sauce
An emulsified sauce of egg yolks and melted butter, sharpened with lemon juice and a pinch of cayenne, served warm over eggs, asparagus, or fish.
Where it comes from
French chefs formalized hollandaise as one of five mother sauces by the turn of the twentieth century, though the butter-and-egg method behind it is older and the name may point to Dutch dairy traditions rather than a French origin.
What cooks argue about
Cooks argue over whether to add the melted butter off the heat, risking a sauce that never sets, or over gentle direct heat, risking scrambled curds if the yolks go past about 160 degrees.
Versions
Nobody has published a hollandaise sauce here yet. When somebody cooks one from a video and publishes it, their version appears in this list, with a link back to the original.
What goes in it
Each one opens everything else made with it.
egg yolk
butter
cayenne