Mock Hollandaise Sauce I
Difficulty 3/5 Ingredients 7 Steps 7
Hollandaise sauce is a warm emulsion of clarified butter and lemon juice using egg yolk to bind them. This recipe is not exactly Hollandaise but tastes exactly the same and almost never fails. This recipe also does not require a double boiler which is often a handicap in preparing Hollandaise.
Ingredients
- 1½ sticks butter (170 g or ¾ cup), cut into small pieces
- 2 egg yolks
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tbsp water
- ¼ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp cayenne pepper
- 1 tsp parsley
Steps
- Melt butter, without burning. Cool until solids appear on top.
- Skim off milk solids. Keep clarified butter warm and liquid (in a hot cup).
- Beat egg yolks, lemon juice, water, salt and cayenne pepper in a non-reactive saucepan until smooth.
- Heat over very low heat, whisking constantly. If egg starts to solidify, remove from heat and keep whisking.
- When whisk streaks the pan bottom (around 8 minutes), add clarified butter, starting with 1 teaspoon at a time, then more as it combines. Adding butter too quickly splits the sauce.
- Remove from heat at desired thickness.
- Add optional parsley. Serve.
Notes from the original
- Never use aluminium tools. Aluminium will react with the acid in the lemon juice, discoloring the sauce and giving it an unpleasant taste,
- If any indication of burning is evident, remove pan from heat and whisk rapidly. If that is not enough, dunk the pan into cold water.
- Using clarified butter will allow for a better (easier) emulsion, although much of the flavour in butter comes from those milk solids not found in clarified butter.
- For a more traditional recipe, whisk the egg yolks over a double boiler in which the water is hot rather than boiling (i.e., start off simmering, do it off the heat). Add the butter one piece at a time, making sure each piece is fully incorporated into the sauce before adding the next. Finish off by adding lemon juice.
Source. Adapted from “Cookbook:Mock Hollandaise Sauce I” by Wikibooks contributors, revision of 2025-06-21, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Changes. Steps rewritten into short commands. Introduction shortened. Wiki formatting removed. This adapted recipe is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.