Cookinman - Hollandaise sauce

[jake in jupiter]

The other night I had a Lady over and did some pan seared salmon and was making a hollandaise sauce for it but it never thickened, any ideas what might have gone wrong? The meal was great but the sauce was runny.

[agroce23]

cornstarch or flour??

[agroce23]

I add a teaspoon of flour too thicken



1/2 cup butter
1/4 teaspoon salt
Yolks 2 eggs
Few grains cayenne
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/3 cup boiling water

Put butter in a bowl, cover with cold water, and wash, using a spoon. Divide in three pieces; put one piece in a saucepan with yolks of eggs and lemon juice, place saucepan in a larger one containing boiling water, and stir constantly with a wire whisk until butter is melted; then add second piece of butter, and, as it thickens, third piece. Add water, cook one minute, and season with salt and cayenne. If mixture curdles, add two tablespoons heavy cream.

[Cookinman]

The other night I had a Lady over and did some pan seared salmon and was making a hollandaise sauce for it but it never thickened, any ideas what might have gone wrong? The meal was great but the sauce was runny.

Prolly broke it - Either too much liquid in with yolks or poured butter into emulsification too quickly inthe beginning. I usually have a cup of Ice cubes standing by just in case this happens - sometimes you can save it from breaking when you see the "Ribbons" start to form. IT means they are not getting absorbed into the yolks. I am assuming you made it from scratch right?

Books will tell you to do this over bouble boiler - Takes longer, but will make it lighter ( desireable)

I go over the flame directly lifting the stainless steel bown on and off at interval to control the temp

Start with Egg Yolks, a dash tobasco, a dash Worsteshire, lemon juice and white wine.

Put all in bowl over heat and start whipping. when it gets to pancake batter consistancy start adding Clarified butter DROP AT A TIME at first then slowly inthin stream, the whole time making sure you are absorbing ehat you are adding. IT takes a lil work to get right everytime.

I usually get some butter into the sauce then add the rest slowly to only one side of the bowl so that if I start to break, I introduce some concentrated sauce from the other side if need be to slow the break and save it - If not, I just whip it all together at the end. Also when done a neat trick it to add 1 T Water to it - for some reason it "Jumps" the flavor a bit.

Worst case scenario, if you break a sauce, get a few more egg yolks going and stream in the broken sauce to it so you do not need to throw it away. 3 egg yolks hollandaise' are tough to make - takes a real eye to know when the emulsification A - happens and B - gets too stressed to break point by adding fat ( butter ) too quickly - but it can / is done.


On the bad hangover AM's at the one of the Country Club's as a young apprentice, I have been known to boil butter in the microwave, Putt eggs and seasonings in Food processor and stream in butter when it is on high. Boiling butter cooks the yolks on the spot - Product is NOT as light and fluffy as if you whipped it, but it will pull you out of a jam if you need to find 20 minutes somewhere.

[agroce23]

Never tried adding Worsteshire.... Sounds good..

[jake in jupiter]

Wow thanks for taking the time to write that. I still have some asparagus left over so sometime this week I will blanche them and try this sauce again.

[Cookinman]

cornstarch or flour??

[Cookinman]

Wow thanks for taking the time to write that. I still have some asparagus left over so sometime this week I will blanche them and try this sauce again.

If the sauce makes the date "successful", then it was all worth it Brother !

[agroce23]

I know

[gotants?]

Cookman is pretty much dead on. I too cook directly over heat. Though I do some things differant.

Most of the time I use water instead of the wine. Especially if I`m making a bernaise sauce.

Two things to keep in mind, the temp of the whipped egg yolks before you add the butter, and butter temp.

I whip the eggs on heat until they start to stick to the sides of the stainless steel bowl, then remove from heat. No more heat is needed after this point. Then slowly add the butter which must be around 110%. I don`t use a thermometer but rather my finger. The clarified butter should feel like a warm bath. Hot to the touch and it`s too hot. Cool to the touch and it`s too cool.

2 egg yolks
dash of hot sauce
dash of worstischire
juice from half lemon
large pinch of Celtic salt
small pinch whitte pepper
2 tablespoons of water

Mix all ingredients together and whip
keep whipping and place over heat
slowly add clarified butter (1/2 cup clarifed butter)

I also have a glass of ice water just in case it looks like it`s gonna break. Even if it does, adding ice water will reconstitute the butter and egg.

[jake in jupiter]

Well with no place to fish easily up here I might as well hone my cooking skills. Thanks for the tips guys looks like I have some fun practice ahead of me. Next time I will come on here and ask for advice before I mess it up

[Dhunter55]

The other night I had a Lady over and did some pan seared salmon and was making a hollandaise sauce for it but it never thickened, any ideas what might have gone wrong? The meal was great but the sauce was runny.

Making a good Hollandaise or Bernaise sauce is an art form. I've never been able to have it come out right. I applaud your effort. You must have really liked that Lady to want to go to that trouble.

She'd a had her choice of Blackened or Grilled Salmon with this boy!