Why it works: Shallot and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and 2,523 recipes mention both. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓
Dutch or Hollandaise Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Make the base
Combine vinegar, shallot, bay leaf, and peppercorns in a saucepan.
Reduce the mixture to half the original quantity.
Add the white sauce and bring the mixture to a boil.
Remove the bay leaf.
Thicken and finish
Stir in the egg yolks until the mixture begins to thicken.
Remove from heat and strain into another saucepan.
Reheat gently, whisking in the butter gradually to avoid curdling.
Add lemon juice and salt to taste.
Serve
Serve with boiled fish, artichokes, or asparagus.
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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Shallot + lemontop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together2,523 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
-
Vinegar + shallottop 12% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together2,374 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Vinegar + winetop 12% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together3,493 recipes
Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
-
Wine + lemontop 13% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together6,157 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
-
Wine + buttertop 13% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together8,645 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Egg yolks
- Emulsify with butter and thicken the sauce as they gently cook.
- Butter
- Adds richness and, emulsified into the yolks, gives the sauce its smooth body.
- White sauce
- Provides a starch-based body that adds stability and thickness to the sauce.
- Vinegar
- Adds acidity that balances the richness of the butter and yolks.
- Lemon juice
- Adds bright acidity and fresh flavour at the end.
The step that matters
Whisking in the butter gradually over gentle heat. If the heat is too high or the butter is added too fast, the egg yolks scramble and the emulsion breaks, causing the sauce to curdle. Gentle heat and slow addition let the yolk proteins set slowly while fat disperses evenly.
Flavor stand-ins for the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, wine, shallot, sauce, egg, butter):
- Lemonthe original
- Plumabout as good a flavor fit
Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, wine, shallot, sauce, egg, butter. 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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