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Sauce Hollandaise

A rich, buttery sauce made by emulsifying egg yolks with reduced vinegar and butter, seasoned with salt and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Gibson, Marietta Fauntleroy Hollyday, "Mrs. C. H. Gibson." · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 24,377 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Sauce Hollandaise

Ingredients

Directions

Make the reduction

  1. Pour four tablespoons of good vinegar into a small stew-pan, add peppercorns and salt, and let boil until reduced by half.

  2. Let the vinegar reduce cool, then add well-beaten yolks of four or five eggs, four ounces of butter, more salt if necessary, and a very little nutmeg.

Cook and emulsify

  1. Set the stew-pan on a very slow fire and stir the liquid until about as thick as cream.

  2. Remove the stew-pan from heat.

  3. Place the stew-pan into another pan containing a little warm water kept at the side of the fire.

  4. Work the sauce briskly with a spoon or a little whisk to make it frothy, adding small bits of butter (about as much as half the size of an egg).

  5. When the sauce has become light and smooth, it is ready for use.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

195Calories
6 gProtein
18 gFat
2 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

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

By Gibson, Marietta Fauntleroy Hollyday, "Mrs. C. H. Gibson.". Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures. See the original page.

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.

  1. Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Egg + nutmegtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together24,744 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Butter + vinegartop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,513 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  5. Vinegar + nutmegtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,864 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

Egg and nutmeg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 24,744 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Egg yolks thicken the sauce and form its smooth, rich body as they cook gently.
Butter
Melted into the yolks, butter adds fat that gives the sauce its silky texture and richness.
Vinegar
Reduced vinegar adds the sharp acidity that balances the richness of the butter and yolks.

The step that matters

Keep the heat gentle while stirring the yolks. Egg yolks thicken at low temperatures, but too much heat scrambles them. Gentle heat and constant stirring, with butter added in small bits, keep the emulsion smooth.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, vinegar, egg):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Capersfits about as well
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, vinegar, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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