A heavy-bottomed, 3-quart saucepan
⅓ cup finely minced yellow onions
2 Tb olive oil
Cook the onions and olive oil slowly together for about 10 minutes, until the onions are tender but not browned.
2 tsp flour
Stir in the flour and cook slowly for 3 minutes without browning.
3 lbs. ripe red tomatoes, peeled, seeded, juiced, and chopped (about 4½ cups)
⅛ tsp sugar
2 cloves mashed garlic
A medium herb bouquet: 4 parsley sprigs, ½ bay leaf, and ¼ tsp thyme tied in cheesecloth
⅛ tsp fennel
⅛ tsp basil
Small pinch of saffron
Small pinch of coriander
A 1-inch piece (¼ tsp) dried orange peel
½ tsp salt
1 to 2 Tb tomato paste, if necessary
Salt and pepper
Stir in the tomatoes, sugar, garlic, herbs, and seasonings. Cover pan and cook slowly for 10 minutes, so the tomatoes will render more of their juice. Then uncover and simmer for about half an hour, adding spoonfuls of tomato juice or water if the sauce becomes so thick it risks scorching. The purée is done when it tastes thoroughly cooked and is thick enough to form a mass in the spoon. Remove herb bouquet. If necessary, stir in 1 or 2 tablespoons of tomato paste for color, and simmer 2 minutes. Correct seasoning. Strain the sauce if you wish.
(*) May be refrigerated or frozen.
THE HOLLANDAISE FAMILY
SAUCE HOLLANDAISE
[Hollandaise Sauce: Egg Yolk and Butter Sauce flavored with Lemon Juice]
Hollandaise sauce is made of warmed egg yolks flavored with lemon juice, into which butter is gradually incorporated to make a thick, yellow, creamy sauce. It is probably the most famous of all sauces, and is often the most dreaded, as the egg yolks can curdle and the sauce can turn. It is extremely easy and almost foolproof to make in the electric blender, and we give the recipe on this page. But we feel it is of great importance that you learn how to make hollandaise by hand, for part of every good cook’s general knowledge is a thorough familiarity with the vagaries of egg yolks under all conditions. The following recipe takes about 5 minutes, and is almost as fast as blender hollandaise. It is only one of numerous methods for hollandaise, all of which accomplish the same result, that of forcing egg yolks to absorb butter and hold it in creamy suspension.
TWO POINTS TO REMEMBER when making hollandaise by hand
The heating and thickening of the egg yolks
So that the egg yolks will thicken into a smooth cream, they must be heated slowly and gradually. Too sudden heat will make them granular. Overcooking scrambles them. You may beat them over hot water or over low heat; it makes no difference as long as the process is slow and gentle.
The butter
Egg yolks will readily absorb a certain quantity of butter when it is fed to them gradually, giving them time to incorporate each addition before another is presented. When too much is added at a time, particularly at first, the sauce will not thicken. And if the total amount of butter is more than the yolks can absorb, the sauce will curdle. About 3 ounces of butter is the usual maximum amount per yolk. But if you have never made hollandaise before, it is safer not to go over 2 ounces or ¼ cup.
For 1 to 1½ cups hollandaise—serving 4 to 6 people
6 to 8 ounces of butter (¾ to 1 cup or 1½ to 2 sticks)
A small saucepan
Cut the butter into pieces and melt it in the saucepan over moderate heat. Then set it aside.
A 4- to 6-cup, medium-weight, enameled or stainless steel saucepan
A wire whip
3 egg yolks
Beat the egg yolks for about 1 minute in the saucepan, or until they become thick and sticky.
1 Tb cold water
1 Tb lemon juice
Big pinch of salt
Add the water, lemon juice, and salt, and beat for half a minute more.
1 Tb cold butter
A pan of cold water (to cool off the bottom of the saucepan if necessary)
Add the tablespoon of cold butter, but do not beat it in. Then place the saucepan over very low heat or barely simmering water and stir the egg yolks with a wire whip until they slowly thicken into a smooth cream. This will take 1 to 2 minutes. If they seem to be thickening too quickly, or even suggest a lumpy quality, immediately plunge the bottom of the pan in cold water, beating the yolks to cool them. Then continue beating over heat. The egg yolks have thickened enough when you can begin to see the bottom of the pan between strokes, and the mixture forms a light cream on the wires of the whip.
1 Tb cold butter
Immediately remove from heat and beat in the cold butter, which will cool the egg yolks and stop their cooking.
The melted butter
Then beating the egg yolks with a wire whip, pour on the melted butter by droplets or quarter-teaspoonfuls until the sauce begins to thicken into a very heavy cream. Then pour the butter a little more rapidly. Omit the milky residue at the bottom of the butter pan.
Salt and white pepper
Drops of lemon juice
Season the sauce to taste with salt, pepper, and lemon juice.
Keeping the sauce warm
Hollandaise is served warm, not hot. If it is kept too warm, it will thin out or curdle. It can be held perfectly for an hour or more near the very faint heat of a gas pilot light on the stove, or in a pan of lukewarm water. As hollandaise made with the maximum amount of butter is difficult to hold, use the minimum suggested in the recipe, then beat softened or tepid butter into the sauce just before serving.
A restaurant technique
A tablespoon or two of béchamel or velouté sauce, beaten into the hollandaise, or a teaspoon of cornstarch beaten into the egg yolks at the beginning, will help to hold a sauce that is to be kept warm for a long period of time.
If the sauce is too thick
Beat in 1 to 2 tablespoons of hot water, vegetable cooking liquid, stock, milk, or cream.
If the sauce refuses to thicken
If you have beaten in your butter too quickly, and the sauce refuses to thicken, it is easily remedied. Rinse out a mixing bowl with hot water. Put in a teaspoon of lemon juice and a tablespoon of the sauce. Beat with a wire whip for a moment until the sauce creams and thickens. Then beat in the rest of the sauce half a tablespoon at a time, beating until each addition has thickened in the sauce before adding the next. This always works.
If the sauce curdles or separates—“turned sauce”
If a finished sauce starts to separate, a tablespoon of cold water beaten into it will often bring it back. If not, use the preceding technique.
Leftover hollandaise
Leftover hollandaise may be refrigerated for a day or two, or may be frozen. It is fine as an enrichment for veloutés and béchamels; beat it into the hot white sauce off heat and a tablespoon at a time just before serving.
If the leftover sauce is to be used again as a hollandaise, beat 2 tablespoons of it in a saucepan over very low heat or hot water. Gradually beat in the rest of the sauce by spoonfuls.
Hollandaise Sauce Made in the Electric Blender
This very quick method for making hollandaise cannot fail when you add your butter in a small stream of droplets. If the sauce refuses to thicken, pour it out, then pour it back into the whizzing machine in a thin stream of droplets. As the butter cools, it begins to cream and forms itself into a thick sauce. If you are used to handmade hollandaise, you may find the blender variety lacks something in quality; this is perhaps due to complete homogenization. But as the technique is well within the capabilities of an 8-year-old child, it has much to recommend it.
For about ¾ cup
3 egg yolks
¼ tsp salt
Pinch of pepper
1 to 2 Tb lemon juice
Place egg yolks, seasonings, and 1 tablespoon lemon juice in the blender jar. You can beat in more when sauce is done and will know what proportion
s you like for the next time.
4 ounces or 1 stick of butter
Cut the butter into pieces and heat it to foaming hot in a small saucepan.
A towel, if you do not have a splatterproof blender jar
Cover the jar and blend the egg yolk mixture at top speed for 2 seconds. Uncover, and still blending at top speed, immediately start pouring on the hot butter in a thin stream of droplets. (You may need to protect yourself with a towel during this operation.) By the time two thirds of the butter has gone in, the sauce will be a thick cream. Omit the milky residue at the bottom of the butter pan. Taste the sauce, and blend in more seasonings if necessary.
(*) If not used immediately, set the jar in tepid, but not warm, water.
For More Sauce
The amount of butter you can use in a blender is only half the amount the egg yolks could absorb if you were making the sauce by hand, when 3 egg yolks can take 8 to 9 ounces of butter rather than the 4 ounces in the preceding recipe. However, if you added more butter to the blender than the 4 ounces specified, the sauce would become so thick that it would clog the machine. To double your amount of sauce, then, pour it out of the blender jar into a saucepan or bowl and beat into it an additional ½ cup of melted butter, added in a stream of droplets.
OTHER MEMBERS OF THE HOLLANDAISE FAMILY
Except for the mousseline sabayon mentioned at the end of this section, all the other members of the family are made in exactly the same way as hollandaise sauce. The basic flavorings may be vinegar and herbs instead of lemon juice, or concentrated white-wine fish stock, but the technique does not vary.
Stirred-in Trimmings
A plain hollandaise may have a number of trimmings such as the following stirred into it:
HERBS
For poached eggs or boiled fish, stir in a mixture of minced parsley, chives, and tarragon.
PURÉES AND MINCES
From 2 to 3 tablespoons of puréed artichoke hearts, asparagus tips, or cooked shellfish stirred into a hollandaise make it a good sauce for egg dishes. Or use finely minced sautéed mushrooms—see the recipe for mushroom duxelles.
Hollandaise avec Blancs d’Oeufs
[Hollandaise with Beaten Egg Whites]
For: fish, soufflés, asparagus, egg dishes
Stiffly beaten egg whites folded into hollandaise swell and lighten the sauce so that it may serve more people.
2 or 3 stiffly beaten egg whites
1½ cups sauce hollandaise
Just before serving, fold the egg whites into the hollandaise.
Sauce Mousseline
Sauce Chantilly
[Hollandaise with Whipped Cream]
For: fish, soufflés, asparagus
½ cup chilled whipping cream
Beat the chilled cream in a chilled bowl with a chilled beater as described on this page.
1½ cups sauce hollandaise
Fold it into the hollandaise just before serving.
Sauce Maltaise
[Orange-flavored Hollandaise]
For: asparagus or broccoli
This sauce is made like an ordinary hollandaise except for the orange flavoring. Proceed as follows:
3 egg yolks
1 Tb lemon juice
1 Tb orange juice
Pinch of salt
2 Tb cold butter
⅓ to ⅔ cup melted butter
Beat the egg yolks until thickened, then beat in the liquids and salt. Add 1 tablespoon of cold butter, and thicken the mixture over low heat. Beat in the other tablespoon of cold butter, then the melted butter.
2 to 4 Tb orange juice
The grated peel of an orange
Finish the sauce by beating in the orange juice by spoonfuls, then the orange peel.
HOLLANDAISE SAUCES FOR FISH
When a hollandaise type of sauce is to accompany filets of fish poached in white wine, or a fish soufflé, the fish-poaching liquid is boiled down to a concentrated essence, or fumet, and is used in place of lemon juice as a flavoring for the sauce.
Sauce Vin Blanc
[Hollandaise with White-wine Fish Fumet]
1 cup white-wine fish stock
Boil down the fish stock until it has reduced to 3 tablespoons. This is now a fumet de poisson. Allow it to cool.
Ingredients for the sauce hollandaise, omitting lemon juice and water
Proceed with the hollandaise as usual, substituting the fish fumet for the lemon juice and water.
Sauce Mousseline Sabayon
[Hollandaise with Cream and White-wine Fish Fumet]
The recipe for this extremely good sauce, in which the egg yolks are thickened with cream and fish fumet, is under soufflé de poisson.
Sauce Béarnaise
[Béarnaise Sauce]
For: steaks, boiled or fried fish, broiled chicken, egg dishes, timbales Béarnaise sauce differs from hollandaise only in taste and strength; instead of lemon juice, its basic flavoring is a reduction of wine, vinegar, shallots, pepper, and tarragon. The techniques for making the two sauces are similar.
For 1½ cups
¼ cup wine vinegar
¼ cup dry white wine or dry white vermouth
1 Tb minced shallots or green onions
1 Tb minced fresh tarragon or ½ Tb dried tarragon
⅛ tsp pepper
Pinch of salt
A small saucepan
Boil the vinegar, wine, shallots or onions, herbs, and seasonings over moderate heat until the liquid has reduced to 2 tablespoons. Let it cool.
3 egg yolks
2 Tb cold butter
½ to ⅔ cup melted butter
2 Tb fresh minced tarragon or parsley
Then proceed as though making a hollandaise. Beat the egg yolks until thick. Strain in the vinegar mixture and beat. Add 1 tablespoon of cold butter and thicken the egg yolks over low heat. Beat in the other tablespoon of cold butter, then the melted butter by droplets. Correct seasoning, and beat in the tarragon or parsley.
VARIATIONS
The two following sauces are also for steaks, fish, chicken, and eggs.
Sauce Choron
[Tomato-flavored Béarnaise]
2 to 4 Tb tomato paste or purée
1½ cups sauce béarnaise
Beat the tomato by tablespoons into the sauce béarnaise and correct seasoning.
Sauce Colbert
[Béarnaise with Meat Glaze]
1 to 1½ Tb meat glaze, melted in 1 Tb white wine
1½ cups sauce béarnaise
Stir the melted meat glaze into the sauce béarnaise.
THE MAYONNAISE FAMILY
MAYONNAISE
[Mayonnaise: Egg Yolk and Oil Sauce]
Mayonnaise like hollandaise is a process of forcing egg yolks to absorb a fatty substance, oil in this case, and to hold it in thick and creamy suspension. But as the egg yolks do not have to be warmed, the sauce is that much simpler to make than hollandaise. You can make it by machine in a blender, although the processor produces a larger and better sauce. Either way it is almost automatic, and takes no skill whatsoever. Mayonnaise done by hand or with an electric beater requires familiarity with egg yolks. And again, as with hollandaise, you should be able to make it by hand as part of your general mastery of the egg yolk. It is certainly far from difficult once you understand the process, and after you have done it a few times, you should easily and confidently be able to whip together a quart of sauce in less than 10 minutes.
POINTS TO REMEMBER when making mayonnaise by hand
Temperature
Mayonnaise is easiest to make when all ingredients are at normal room temperature. Warm the mixing bowl in hot water to take the chill off the egg yolks. Heat the oil to tepid if it is cold.
Egg Yolks
Always beat the egg yolks for a minute or two before adding anything to them. As soon as they are thick and sticky, they are ready to absorb the oil.
Adding the Oil
The oil must be added very slowly at first, in droplets, until the em
ulsion process begins and the sauce thickens into a heavy cream. After this, the oil may be incorporated more rapidly.
Proportions
The maximum amount of oil one U.S. Large egg yolk will absorb is 6 ounces or ¾ cup. When this maximum is exceeded, the binding properties of the egg yolks break down, and the sauce thins out or curdles. If you have never made mayonnaise before, it is safest not to exceed ½ cup of oil per egg yolk. Here is a table giving proportions for varying amounts of sauce:
For 2 to 2¾ Cups of Hand-beaten Mayonnaise
NOTE: The following directions are for a hand-beaten sauce. Exactly the same system is followed for an electric beater. Use the large bowl, and the moderately fast speed for whipping cream. Continually push the sauce into the beater blades with a rubber scraper.
A round-bottomed, 2½- to 3-quart glazed pottery, glass, or stainless-steel mixing bowl. Set it in a heavy casserole or saucepan to keep it from slipping.
3 egg yolks
A large wire whip
Warm the bowl in hot water. Dry it. Add the egg yolks and beat for 1 to 2 minutes until they are thick and sticky.