How do I make hollandaise sauce?

Hollandaise is a warm emulsion of butter in egg yolk, and it is fragile for two reasons at once: it relies on an emulsion that heat destabilises, and it relies on egg protein that heat coagulates. Everything about the method is about staying inside a narrow temperature band — hot enough that the yolks thicken, cool enough that they do not scramble.

Safety

What you'll need

• Egg yolks
• Unsalted butter
• Lemon or white wine vinegar
• Heatproof bowl that sits over a pan without touching the water
• Balloon whisk
• Probe thermometer (optional)

Step by step

1. Melt the butter gently and let it stand.175–200g per three yolks. Warm, not hot — butter poured in at 90°C will cook the yolks on contact. Clarifying it by pouring off the clear fat and leaving the milky solids gives a thicker, more stable sauce; whole melted butter gives a lighter one.
2. Set up a pan with an inch of water at a bare steam, and a bowl that sits above it.The base of the bowl must not touch the water. That gap is what stops the bowl overshooting. A bowl sitting in boiling water passes straight through the working window while your back is turned.
3. Whisk the yolks with a tablespoon of water and the acid off the heat first.Three yolks, a tablespoon of cold water, a tablespoon of lemon juice or of a reduction of white wine vinegar with shallot and peppercorns. The water is not optional — it gives the sauce a water phase and buffers the yolks against the heat.
4. Whisk over the steam until the mixture thickens and ribbons.Three to five minutes of continuous whisking, reaching into the corners of the bowl. It goes from thin and translucent to pale, thick and foamy, and a line drawn through it with the whisk holds for a second before closing. That is the signal, at roughly 70–75°C.
5. Take the bowl off the heat and add the butter in a slow stream, whisking constantly.Off the heat for the first third at least. The residual heat in the bowl is enough. Add it as slowly as you would add oil to a mayonnaise at the start, and speed up once the sauce is visibly thick.
6. Season and slacken to the consistency you want.Salt, a pinch of cayenne, more lemon than you think. If it is too thick, whisk in a teaspoon of warm water. Hollandaise should pour slowly, not sit in a mound.
7. Serve within about half an hour, held just warm.It is at its best straight away. If you need to hold it, see the guide on holding hollandaise warm — a vacuum flask is the most reliable domestic method.

Tips

• A probe thermometer removes almost all the difficulty. Aim for 72–75°C in the bowl and take it off the heat at 78°C.
• Keep a splash of cold water beside you. If the sauce looks like it is tightening or graining at the edges, take it off the heat and whisk in a teaspoon immediately.
• Whisk in a figure of eight and get into the corner where the side of the bowl meets the base. That corner is where a hollandaise scrambles first.
• Three yolks will carry up to about 250g of butter. More than that and it thins and then breaks.
• Unsalted butter, then season at the end. Salted butter makes the sauce impossible to judge, especially if you then reduce a vinegar for it.

Common mistakes

• Letting the bowl touch the simmering water — The bowl base runs far hotter than the sauce and the yolks scramble against it. The gap is a functional part of the setup, not a nicety.
• Adding the butter before the yolks have thickened — The sauce never gains body, and the usual response — adding more butter — guarantees a split.
• Pouring in very hot butter by hand — Butter straight off the heat is well above the scrambling point. Let it cool to warm, or use the blender method where the speed of the blades protects the yolks.

Alternatives

• Blender hollandaise: Blitz three yolks with lemon, salt and a splash of water, then pour in 175g of hot melted butter in a thin stream with the blender running. The heat of the butter cooks the yolks. Very reliable, takes two minutes, and gives a slightly lighter, foamier sauce than the classic method.
• Béarnaise: The same sauce with the acid replaced by a reduction of white wine vinegar, shallot, tarragon stalks and crushed peppercorns, boiled down to a couple of tablespoons and strained, with chopped tarragon and chervil folded in at the end. The classic steak sauce.
• Mousseline: Finished hollandaise with lightly whipped double cream folded through it, for poached fish and asparagus. Lighter and more forgiving to hold, because the cream stabilises it.
• Beurre blanc: If what you want is a warm butter sauce without eggs, beurre blanc is a butter-in-wine emulsion made without yolks. Different flavour, different fragility, no raw egg question.

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