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Holland Sauce

A sauce made from vinegar, peppercorns, salt, egg yolks, butter, and nutmeg, thickened by cooking.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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 ↓

Holland Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Reduce the vinegar

  1. Boil vinegar, peppercorns, and salt until reduced by half. Let it cool.

Make the sauce

  1. Add the well-beaten yolks of 4 eggs, 4 ounces of butter, and a little nutmeg.

  2. Cook until thick like cream.

  3. Remove from heat and place in a kettle of boiling water at the back of the stove.

  4. Whip with an egg beater until frothy, gradually adding 3 tablespoons of butter.

Serve

  1. When the sauce is light and smooth, it is ready to serve.

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.

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. Egg + buttertop 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. Vinegar + buttertop 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

Egg yolks
Thicken and emulsify the butter into a smooth, creamy sauce when gently heated.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the sauce its smooth, silky texture.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that balances the richness of the butter and yolks.

The step that matters

Cook the yolks gently over boiling water. Egg yolks thicken as their proteins set with heat, but too much heat scrambles them. Placing the bowl over simmering water, and whipping while adding butter, keeps the heat gentle so the sauce thickens smoothly and stays emulsified.

Swap the nutmeg

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, egg, butter. 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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