Why it works: Butter and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and 118,967 recipes mention both. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓
Sauce Hollandaise
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the base
Combine one-quarter pound of butter, one-quarter cup of water, one-quarter teaspoon of salt, the juice of a quarter lemon, a dash of cayenne, and the yolks of three eggs.
Beat the butter to a cream and stir in the yolks one at a time, then the lemon juice, salt, and pepper.
Cook and thicken
Set the bowl in a pan of boiling water on the fire, beating constantly with an egg beater.
When it begins to thicken, stir in gradually the boiling water.
When it is as thick as soft custard, it is done.
Great care must be taken not to let it remain too long on the fire or it will curdle.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Egg yolks emulsify with the butter and set into a thick, custard-like sauce as they heat.
- Butter
- Melted and whipped into the yolks, butter adds richness and a smooth, silky texture.
- Lemon juice (in the method)
- Adds acidity that cuts the richness of the butter and brightens the flavor.
The step that matters
Keeping the heat gentle once it thickens. Egg yolks begin to set around moderate heat and curdle if overheated or left too long, so the sauce must be removed from the heat as soon as it reaches a thick custard consistency.
“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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