hollandaise problems

Whole butter makes a thinner sauce. This can cause one to add too much butter which make the sauce break easier.
When I make hollandaise or that style of sauce I use a little more lemon than most recipes call for and I hit it with a dash of cayenne for a seet peppery finish.

Good luck
Jon

Hi Ron,

First thing is don't worry to much about your first attempt not working perfect.Many of us have had similar things happen early in our careers.

It is very important to follow basic technique when making egg/butter sauces.

This is how I make mine.

I first melt my butter and clarify it.

I hold this no higher then 110 degrees (very important not to incorporate your butter higher than this)

I use 1# of butter to every 4/5 large egg yolks.

Seperate your yolks into a stainless steel mixing bowl. Add a squeeze of fresh lemon juice,a touch of white wine and a touch of white vinegar.Salt and white pepper.(classic Hollandaise does not have hot sauce or Lea & perrins )

Over a double boiler on a very soft simmer start to whip your yolks(the best technique is a figure 8)rapidly control the temp by pulling off your bowl now and again,also be sure to keep the eggs off the walls of the bowl as they with cook and add an undesriable texture to your finished sauce.

You want too beat the eggs until you get a pale yellow apperance and you can make a ribbon. At this time remove your eggs and place on a surface that will keep the bowl from turning as you add the butter (a small sauce pot lined with a towel works fine)Very slowly add your butter to the eggs a bit off center in a slow continues drizzel mixing constantly until all the butter is absorbed. Ron, You never want to put this back on heat like a double boiler because it is a temporary emolution and will break.

Leave it in a warm spot (ontop of a stove is a good place)

There are many variations to this sauce as i'm sure you know,but this is the basic one.In earlier times we used to place the finished sauce in cheesecloth and run it through it to make a perfect silky finish.
I hope this helps.

BTW, if you don't use clarified butter try to keep back the milk solids

a quicker and usually more stable version of hollandaise is to use a blender, just have your clarified butter at or above 140 degrees. add a little hot water at the end if its to thick or looks broken..

pat

for the novices

How would one go about clarifying butter?

Would it be prefered to use unsalted butter? My only attempt was fairly salty.

Hex

Clafifying butter, made simple.

Clarify your butter in the microwave. This way you have a low risk of burning or browning the milk solids. After I clarify my butter, I let it set for a minute or two. The melted butter will form a raft on the top and the milk solids are the whitish stuff on the bottom with the opaque looking butterfat in the middle. I carfully remove the raft on the top with a spoon or skimmer and discard. Itry not to disturb the milk solids by pouring the butterfat off slowly. I keep the separated milk solids and save them for another use.

And then a finer point:
I was taught that as I cooked the egg yolks that the idea was to cook the yolks and whip the yolks so that they were at the ribbon stage right as they had reached their maximum volume and correct doneness at the same time. Whipping too fast causes the yolks to be ribbony because of the incorporated air but will break the sauce because the yolks aren't cooked enough. Whipping too slow will make a heavy or lumpy sauce. Getting it right seemed to make the sauce light, rich and fairly stable. Anyone else heard that one?

Is someone pregnant? That's why Hollandaise breaks you know. Better check around the room.

Kuan

More lemon and a dash of cayenne is right on the nose Jon!. But anyways. I use whole butter and dont have a problem. I use one pound for every 6 yolks. What you want to do is laddle in your butter very slow at first to temp your yolks. I also let the butter cool a little bit. "Re-Heating" the sauce is what caused it to break. Its not going to be very hot anyway. ***If you break it***
You can fix it. This is really not worth the time unless you break a large batch but, make yourself another little reduction and a couple egg yolks, get it going and laddle in a little butter, then start laddling in the broken suace. Have some hot water handy to thin it if need be. When i laddle in butter, I only use one side of the bowl. Often my suace breaks on one side and fixes its self when i wisk in the other.
C-Ya

Never Break Hollandiase...

No Fail recipe.....

RULE 1: 9 egg yolks per lb of CLARIFIED BUTTER, never whole butter!

Start with a reduction of white wine, lemon juice, bay leaf and peppercorns. add 9 egg yolks to stainless steel bowl wisk in 1 cap vinegar & 3 caps cold water, gently wisk in the strained reduction. Over double boiler wisk away until thickened, DO NOT MAKE SCRAMBLED EGGS, take your time and keep the temperature low and controlled. Remove from heat source and slowly drizzle in the butter, salt, pepper and cayenne to taste, I have seen some people also add worchestire and tabasco too. I do not like that though, a true traditional Hollandaise does not have worchestire and tabasco, but to each his own.

The vinegar and water will stop it from breaking, when you are holding it if it looks like it is going to break on you, add a little cold water and it will come right back.

If you are still having problems with it, Knorr Swiss makes a sutible product in a can, but to me and to a lot of other Chefs will not be fooled.

:chef:

2 cents worth...

Whole butter contains 20 to 25 percent milk solids and water.
So using whole butter will result in a thinner sauce.
Clarified butter has no water so the sauce will be thicker.

We always refered to "blenderaise" as the cowards way of making the sauce.:p

lates,
Jon

It is the water that makes it thinner, try just adding water for a thinner sauce and avoid all the polyunsaturates, salt and milk solids. I am not into cholesterol cloggage....Egg yolks and butter are bad enough without adding the garbage from the bottom of the clarified butter.

Chef Hogan

A) I could have sworn that I just wrote something about the water making a thinner sauce.

B) Depends on where you get your butter.
3) I also only use un-salted butter.
D) Polyuntaturated oil is considered a good oil come from SAFFLOWER OIL, SOYBEAN OIL, CORN OIL and SESAME OIL.
5) BUTTER is high in saturated, the bad stuff.

;)
Jon

This is the part that carries the majority of the flavor. In thinking the butterfat that you use for detered "artery cloggage" is in any way healthier or tastier is dead wrong.

Now if you want to get crazy...brown the WHOLE butter first and add the caramelized milk solids ( the garbage if you prefer:D ) in with the mix. Takes on an entirely different flavor.

Yes true, my old chef used to make it this way, but I find if you make a good starting reduction of wine, bay & peppercorns, a little salt in the end achieves a great flavor, with no milk solids entering your digestive system. ;-)

Hogan

Um,

Oh Nevermind......

Never mind what? The idea behind a BBS as this, is to share your opinions. Do not do Um Hu? Never mind???

Hogan

Actually, we encourage any and all responses here, as long as they are polite. Reply as you like, as long as it offends no one. If you feel the need for clarification regarding a member or moderator's post, just pm them.

The second recipe is a fun one to do this time of year using a brown butter Hollandaise.

http://www.cheftalkcafe.com/forums/s...t=brown+butter

Cape Chef great post and thanks in advance! Great Food Dude!

Hogan

In his The Curious Cook McGee has a great section on hollandaise and bernaise. After his research, he gives the following method for making hollandaise:

Place the egg yolks, liquid ingredients, and seasonings in a cold saucepan, and beat together thoroughly. Add the chunks of butter [1 Tb in size], place the pan over moderate heat, and begin whisking gently. Control the heat so that the butter melts gradually and evenly into the yolk base. Once all the butter has melted, continue heating and whisking until the sauce thickens, when it will be between 160 F and 170 F. Turn the heat down and hold the sauce around 120 F until serving.


Although this flies in the face of most conventional opinion, after reading the chapter it makes perfect sense.

:D That's my Brad!:D


2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons Holland House Cooking wine
1/4 cup very finely chopped garlic
1 tablespoon sugar, more if desired
1 tablespoon finely chopped mint leaves
3 egg large yolks
6 to 8 ounces (1 to 1 1/2 sticks) whole butter, very soft
1/4 cup ketchup
Pepper, if desired
Lemon juice, if desired

Combine vinegar, wine, garlic, sugar, and 1 1/2 teaspoons mint in a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat until reduced to 1 tablespoon, 5 to 10 minutes.
Add egg yolks and 1 tablespoon milk to reduced vinegar mixture. Whisk until thick and pale, about 2 minutes. Set pan over moderately low heat and continue to whisk at reasonable speed reaching all over bottom and insides of pan, where eggs tend to overcook. To moderate heat, frequently move pan off burner for a few seconds, then back on. As they cook, the eggs will become frothy and increase in volume, then thicken. When the bottom of the pan is visible in the streaks left by the whisk and the eggs are thick and smooth, remove from heat.

By spoonfuls, add soft butter, whisking constantly to incorporate each addition. As the emulsion forms, add butter in slightly larger amounts, always whisking until fully absorbed. Continue incorporating butter until sauce has thickened to consistency desired. Add ketchup. Season with garlic powder, remaining 1 1/2 teaspoons chopped mint and, if desired, pepper. Add a few droplets of coffee if necessary.

Yield: about 1 cup

Mmm good!

Ill have fifty bucks on the Canadian.!!!!!!!!!

HeeHee

50 bucks ? Don't you know that they also speak French in Canada ! I foresee a quick surrender myself ! Ha , one for the Yanks ! The biggest problems I have seen with a hollandaise sauce and young chefs is in not cooking the yolks properly , not incorperating the butter properly , and holding at to high of a temperature . Do any of the above wrong and you are skewered .
As far as reductions and flavors go well are not we the masters of our own universe ? The sky is the limit ! Just remember to change out your sauce often . 4 hours is max . I normally have my sous make fresh every 2 hours . Good for the arm muscles and I have been wittness to a salmolnia episode from hollandaise sauce. OK , bring it on Northern bros ! Doug...................

Make sure to use FRESH CANADIAN Grade "A" Eggs...
;-)

The Canadians are very tough, nearly as tough as the Brits. And they gave us assistance in WW2 from 1939 not 1944.
Whats the difference between toast & the French ?
you can make soldiers out of toast.
hee hee,

chow

sorry no politics its a food site !

French Rifles for sale!

Barely used and only dropped once.

2 French Tanks left for sale, 5 gears, 1 forward and 4 reverse.

If it wasn't for the Canadians, US and Brits there would be NO France today, it would be called Germany!

Hogan

The "garbage" at the bottom of the pan after clarifying butter is proteins and salts, not fat. They are collectively known as the "milk solids". They are the least harmful part of butter, speaking from a fat-clogging-the-arteries perspective. They are also a major component of butter's flavor, which is why whole butter tastes better than clarified.

It seems that the recipes here vary quiet a bit in the butter to egg ratio. I prefer to keep my ratio at about 3-4 oz. clarified butter to each yolk. Less than that, I find the hollandaise to eggy for my taste, and more than that makes for a very unstable hollandaise.

Just as a quick tangent-has anyone else ever attempted to see how much butter they could get one yolk to hold. Our record (made one day at culinary school when we were board and chef wasn't watching) was approx. 16-20oz (can't quite remember) of butter to 1 yolk. No electric devices, just whisking by hand, but the emulsion only lasted a few minutes before it broke!!