Why it works: Sauce and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and 15,338 recipes mention both. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Dutch Ob Hollandaise Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Make the sauce
Prepare 1 pint of white sauce as directed in the proper recipe.
While the sauce is still hot but not boiling, stir in 2 raw egg yolks.
Add 3 tablespoons of salad oil and 1 tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice.
Serve
Optionally, melt 3 tablespoons of butter into the sauce instead of using salad oil.
Serve immediately.
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.
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Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together15,338 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Vinegar + buttertop 23% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together13,513 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
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Sauce + vinegartop 26% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together3,844 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Egg + vinegartop 33% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together12,922 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Sauce and butter share little aroma chemistry, yet 15,338 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
- Egg yolks
- Emulsify with the oil and thicken the sauce as it sets gently in the heat.
- Salad oil
- Adds fat that emulsifies into the yolks, giving the sauce a rich, smooth body.
- Vinegar or lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and helps keep the emulsion stable.
- White sauce
- Forms the thickened base that the yolks and fat are stirred into.
The step that matters
Stir in the egg yolks while the sauce is hot but not boiling. Yolks thicken when gently heated, but boiling can scramble them into lumps. Keeping the sauce hot but below boiling lets the yolks thicken smoothly and hold the emulsion with the fat.
“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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