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Sauce

Original Hollandaise Sauce

A sauce made from butter, egg yolks, salt, and vinegar, thickened gently over heat.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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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 ↓

Original Hollandaise Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the simple sauce

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat.

  2. Mix in salt according to the amount of butter.

  3. Beat lightly with a fork.

  4. Serve immediately with boiled fish.

Make the elaborate version

  1. For the more elaborate version, combine butter, egg yolks, salt, and vinegar in a bowl.

  2. Place the bowl in a saucepan of boiling water or use a double boiler, ensuring no water enters the sauce.

  3. Heat gently without boiling.

  4. Stir until thickened.

  5. Serve immediately.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  2. Butter + macetop 22% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together11,405 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  3. Butter + vinegartop 23% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together13,513 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  4. Vinegar + macetop 25% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together4,415 recipes
  5. Egg + vinegartop 33% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together12,922 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Butter and mace share little aroma chemistry, yet 11,405 recipes mention both: they likely 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 gives the sauce a rich flavor and smooth, creamy body.
Egg yolks
Emulsify the butter and set as they heat, thickening the sauce.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavor and cuts the richness of the butter.

The step that matters

Heat gently without boiling. Egg yolk proteins set and curdle when they get too hot. Overheating turns the sauce grainy and separated instead of smooth and thick, so low, indirect heat is needed.

Flavor stand-ins for the mace

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

  1. Tarragonbetter flavor fit
  2. Parsleybetter flavor fit
  3. Capersbetter flavor fit
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, vinegar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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