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Sauce

Hollandaise Sauce I

A buttery sauce made by emulsifying egg yolks, lemon juice, and butter over a bain‑marie.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Fannie Merritt Farmer · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,227 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Hollandaise Sauce I

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the butter

  1. Put butter in a bowl, cover with cold water, and wash, using a spoon.

  2. Divide butter into three pieces.

Make the sauce

  1. Put one piece in a saucepan with yolks of eggs and lemon juice.

  2. Place saucepan in a larger one containing boiling water.

  3. Stir constantly with a wire whisk until butter is melted.

  4. Add second piece of butter, and as it thickens, add third piece.

  5. Add water, cook one minute.

  6. Season with salt and cayenne.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

198Calories
7 gProtein
17 gFat
5 gCarbs

Counts 5 of 6 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0

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

By Fannie Merritt Farmer. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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 + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

Egg and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 44,316 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

Butter
Provides fat that emulsifies with the yolks, giving the sauce its rich, smooth body.
Egg yolks
Emulsifier and thickener; they set gently with heat to bind the butter into a smooth sauce.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich butter and helps keep the emulsion stable.

The step that matters

Adding the butter gradually while whisking over the water bath. Egg yolks thicken with gentle heat but can scramble if overheated. Adding butter slowly while whisking constantly lets the fat emulsify into the yolks, so the sauce thickens smoothly instead of curdling.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Lemonthe original
  2. Vanillafits about as well
  3. Coconutfits about as well
  4. Raspberryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, 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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