Name: Mock Hollandaise Sauce I
Ingredients: 1½ sticks butter (170 g or ¾ cup), cut into small pieces; 2 egg yolks; 1 tbsp lemon juice; 1 tbsp water; ¼ tsp salt; ¼ tsp cayenne pepper; 1 tsp parsley

Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Mock Hollandaise Sauce I

Ingredients

Directions

Clarify the butter

Heat the butter until it melts, taking care not to burn it.
Allow the melted butter to cool until solids appear on the top.
Skim off the milk solids and keep the clarified butter warm.

Make the sauce

Put egg yolks, lemon juice, water, salt and cayenne pepper into a non-reactive saucepan, and beat until smooth.
Heat over very low heat, beating constantly with a whisk.
If the egg starts to solidify, remove from heat and do not stop whisking.
When the whisk forms streaks in the bottom of the pan, add clarified butter one teaspoon at a time, adding more as it combines.
Remove from heat when the sauce has thickened to the desired consistency.
Add parsley.

Serve

Serve.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

201Calories

7 gProtein

17 gFat

6 gCarbs

Counts 6 of 7 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 6 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Chili	1 tsp (2.7g)	8
Parsley	1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)	1
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Water	not in our table	0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Wikibooks Cookbook.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,037 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27,047 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together28,563 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,227 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Butter: Adds richness and fat, giving the sauce a smooth, silky mouthfeel.
Egg yolks: Emulsify with the butter and set with gentle heat to thicken the sauce.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and helps balance the richness.

The step that matters

Heating the egg yolks over very low heat while whisking constantly. Egg yolk proteins set at a narrow temperature range. Too much heat or too little whisking scrambles the yolks, so the sauce must be kept gentle and constantly moving.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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Mock Hollandaise Sauce I