How To : Make Hollandaise Sauce

Here's one method of making hollandaise sauce. This is how Chef taught us to make it in class. You either like hollandaise sauce or you don't. There's really no in-between. I personally like it especially on top of Eggs Benedict!

There are 3 things you should taste when eating hollandaise sauce: 1) Lemon 2) Salt and 3) Butter.

Hollandaise Sauce
Source: Chef C.

3 egg yolks
Juice of 1/2 a lemon
2 oz. warm water

In medium or large metal bowl, beat egg yolks with whisk, then add lemon juice and warm water. Whisk again.

Bring a saucepan that is 1/3 of the way full of water to a boil. Place metal bowl on top of boiling water. (Have a towel on hand because the bowl will get hot!) Continuously whisk the egg mixture paying special attention to the edges of the bowl. You don't want any solid egg pieces to cook/scramble. If you need to, you can always remove the bowl from the heat to whisk for a couple seconds. Continue whisking until the eggs yolks are a bit thicker but still runny.

Next you will remove the metal bowl from the heat and add 8 oz. warm butter. To do this, you MUST whisk constantly while SLOWLY pouring in a continuous stream of the butter. (This is extremely important!) Season with a generous amount of salt and add more lemon juice if needed. Taste to make sure the amount of salt and lemon juice is correct and then serve immediately.


That's hollandaise sauce in a nutshell! Tomorrow I'll post a picture and recipe for Eggs Benedict! Yum!!!