Classic Hollandaise Sauce

Submitted by Rachel Merrell

• Ready In: 20mins
• Ingredients: 6
• Serves: 6

ingredients

• 3 egg yolks
• 1 tablespoon cold water
• 1 cup sweet butter
• 4 teaspoons lemon juice
• 1⁄2 teaspoon salt
• cayenne pepper

directions

1. Place egg yolks and water in the top of a double boiler and beat well with a wire whip or fork.
2. Put all but 2 tbs of the butter in a small saucepan over moderately low heat (about 225F degrees) until just melted.
3. Add 1 tbs of the cold butter to the egg and water mixture and place over hot, not boiling water.
4. Whip constantly until egg yolks thicken slightly.
5. Remove from heat and whip in the second tbs of cold butter.
6. Gradually pour the melted butter into the egg mixture, beating constantly.
7. Place over hot, not boiling, water (water below should not touch bottom of pan) cook until thickened, whipping constantly.
8. Thickened Hollandaise should hold the imprint when a fork or whip is drawn across the surface.
9. Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice, salt, and cayenne.
10. Sauce may be placed in top of double boiler over hot, not boiling, water, covered, and kept until serving time.
11. Serve with vegetables, baked or broiled fish, and shell-fish.
12. Note: if you use salted butter, omit the salt in the recipe.

Reviews

[Janie Hackathorn]

It had too much butter; never thickened. I would never recommend this recipe.<br/><br/>The best recipe I have used for Hollandaise sauce was in the Fanny Farmer Cookbook - great for basic, time tested recipes. Unfortunately, my cookbook is in a moving POD and I couldn't get to it for my Christmas Filet Oscar - ruined this year!

 

[SkinnyMinnie]

I made this recipe last night to go with some steamed artichokes and man was it good!! It was creamy and DELICIOUS!! It is also very easy to make. Thank you for this classic recipe, can't wait to make it again to impress people :)

 

[Kent Van Heerden]

Amazing! I made this recipe exactly as it is.<br/><br/>I've tried making hollandaise sauce before and never got it to taste authentic.<br/>Many recipes call for vinegar or dijon mustard, don't bother with them. This is the real thing.<br/><br/>I made this recipe for poached eggs this morning and it was DELICIOUS!<br/>My family loved it, and they are hard to please!<br/> <br/>This is the real classic hollandaise sauce, thank you for sharing, I give you 5 stars!

 

[JeanSgt]

This is frighteningly high fat, so I significantly reduced the butter to less than two tablespoons. I did need to add a bit more water, and found I needed to add more as it was cooking. So what I did isn't "classic," but it was still creamy, beautiful, and delicious! I also added a lot more lemon juice because I like a strong lemon flavor. I usually deprive myself of hollandaise sauce for health reasons, but by reducing the butter, I can enjoy it now like I used to!

 

[paulabob]

This turned out great! It wasn't very difficult, and went over great with the tilapia I cooked on the Foreman. I had limes on hand, and used those instead of lemon.