Chef Juliette
Brown Roux
Flour and clarified butter, cooked slowly to a fine hazelnut brown: the foundational roux that gives dark French sauces depth while preserving enough starch to bind them.
Culinary Explorer
A cooking platform built around craft, culture, and the stories behind what we eat.
Hollandaise Sauce
Created by Chef Juliette
Sauce hollandaise is the warm emulsion that teaches every butter-mounted sauce: cook the yolks to a pale cream, keep the heat gentle, then give the butter time to become one with them.
Sauces & Condiments
French
Dinner Party
Special Occasion
10 min
Active Time
15 min cook•25 min total
YieldAbout 1¼ cups (300 ml), enough for 4 to 6 servings
Sauce hollandaise (warm butter-and-yolk emulsion) teaches one true thing: temperature makes the sauce, and temperature can undo it. The yolks must become warm enough to hold the butter, never hot enough to scramble; the butter must flow, never arrive so hot or fast that the emulsion loses its footing. C'est la même grammaire across the whole family of warm emulsions.
The source formula made a quart and assumed a saucier stationed beside a gentle corner of the range, with a bain-marie ready and a tammy waiting for the final polish. For one cook, one stove, one evening, the formula becomes one-third its original size: two yolks, eight ounces of butter, and every other quantity reduced in the same proportion. A heatproof bowl over barely simmering water supplies the bain-marie, a warm-water bath, while a fine-mesh sieve replaces the tammy. Sieving is brigade scaffolding and may go when the sauce is already perfectly smooth; the vinegar reduction, properly cooked yolks, and gradual mounting of the butter are the dish itself and must stay.
When hollandaise is right, it falls from the whisk in pale butter-gold ribbons, glossy but not greasy, with vinegar underneath and lemon arriving at the finish. Begin the butter drop by drop. Those first few additions matter most because they establish the emulsion that carries everything afterward.
Sauce hollandaise belongs to the Parisian grand-kitchen tradition that arranged French sauces into families, despite the Dutch name. The name is commonly linked to Holland's reputation for fine butter, though its precise origin remains debated; the method itself is firmly French, joining warmed yolks and butter into an emulsion. Hollandaise became the parent pattern for béarnaise, mousseline, and a long family of sauces whose character changes through reductions and finishing ingredients.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
good wine vinegar
Quantity
1 tablespoon (15 ml / 15 g)
fresh water
Quantity
2 tablespoons (30 ml / 30 g)
divided
fine salt
Quantity
3/8 teaspoon (1.9 ml / 2.4 g)
mignonette pepper
Quantity
1 scant pinch (about 1/16 teaspoon / 0.1 g)
peppercorns coarsely crushed
large egg yolks
Quantity
2
unsalted butter
Quantity
1 cup (240 ml / 227 g)
melted and kept warm
fresh water for loosening or rescuing (optional)
Quantity
Up to 2 tablespoons (30 ml / 30 g)
fresh lemon juice
Quantity
2 to 3 drops
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| good wine vinegar | 1 tablespoon (15 ml / 15 g) |
| fresh waterdivided | 2 tablespoons (30 ml / 30 g) |
| fine salt | 3/8 teaspoon (1.9 ml / 2.4 g) |
| mignonette pepperpeppercorns coarsely crushed | 1 scant pinch (about 1/16 teaspoon / 0.1 g) |
| large egg yolks | 2 |
| unsalted buttermelted and kept warm | 1 cup (240 ml / 227 g) |
| fresh water for loosening or rescuing (optional) | Up to 2 tablespoons (30 ml / 30 g) |
| fresh lemon juice | 2 to 3 drops |
Equipment Needed
- •1-quart (1-liter) heavy-bottomed saucepan for the reduction
- •Medium saucepan and heatproof bowl for the bain-marie
- •Balloon whisk
- •Heatproof measuring jug with a pouring lip
- •Fine-mesh sieve
- •Instant-read thermometer, optional
Instructions
- 1
Prepare the warm bath
Melt the butter over the lowest heat just until liquid, then pour it into a heatproof jug and keep it pleasantly warm, not hot. Set a heatproof bowl over a saucepan holding about 1 inch (2.5 cm) of barely simmering water, making certain the bowl never touches the water. This is the bain-marie: it softens the force of the heat so the yolks thicken gradually instead of catching against a hot pan.
If the water boils hard or the bowl rattles, the bath is too fierce. Lower the heat until the surface merely trembles. - 2
Reduce the vinegar
Put the vinegar, 1 tablespoon (15 ml / 15 g) of the measured water, the salt, and the mignonette pepper in the smallest heavy saucepan you own. Bring them to a lively simmer and reduce the liquid by three-quarters, until about 1½ teaspoons remain and the pepper smells fragrant. Watch the final moments closely; this small quantity moves from reduced to scorched with very little ceremony.
- 3
Whisk yolks to cream
Scrape the reduction into the bowl over the bain-marie, add the remaining 1 tablespoon (15 ml / 15 g) measured water and the yolks, then whisk without stopping. Lift the bowl off the heat every few seconds if necessary, whisking until the yolks turn pale, swell slightly, and become a smooth cream that holds the whisk's trace for a moment. If they tighten abruptly or show tiny curds, remove the bowl immediately and whisk in 1 teaspoon cool water. A few remaining specks can be removed by the final sieve, but fully scrambled yolks must be replaced. Gentle heat prevents the loss.
- 4
Mount with butter
Set the bowl on a folded towel away from direct heat. Whisk in the warm butter drop by drop for the first 2 tablespoons, allowing each addition to disappear before the next. Once the sauce looks thick, glossy, and secure, continue in a slender stream while whisking steadily. If an oily rim appears or the sauce separates, stop pouring. Ça se rattrape: put 1 teaspoon cool water in a clean bowl, whisk in 1 tablespoon of the broken sauce until smooth, then rebuild the remainder spoonful by spoonful before returning to a thin stream.
If the sauce becomes very thick but remains smooth, it hasn't broken. Whisk in a teaspoon of warm water and continue with the butter more slowly. - 5
Finish and strain
When all the butter is absorbed, the hollandaise should be thick and firm yet still fall from the whisk in a soft ribbon. If it stands too stiffly, whisk in warm water 1 teaspoon at a time until it flows. Add the lemon juice, taste, and pass the sauce through a warm fine-mesh sieve into a warm bowl. The sieve supplies the source recipe's tammy finish, removing the mignonette and any flecks without changing the sauce.
- 6
Hold and serve
Serve the hollandaise promptly, or hold it for no more than 30 minutes over the bain-marie with the heat turned off. Stir occasionally and keep the sauce warm rather than hot. If it thickens while waiting, whisk in a teaspoon of warm water; never return it to direct heat. Spoon it generously over poached fish, asparagus, artichokes, or eggs. À table!
Chef Tips
- •Mignonette pepper means peppercorns crushed coarsely enough to perfume the vinegar without turning it muddy. The final sieve removes the grains, leaving their warmth behind.
- •Use real unsalted butter, fresh and sweet. Whole melted butter preserves the source formula's character; clarified butter would make a slightly firmer, less milky sauce. Margarine cannot build the same flavour or finish.
- •Keep every element in the same gentle range: warm yolks, warm butter, warm bowl. Cold butter stiffens the emulsion, while hot butter loosens and splits it.
- •For pregnant guests, older diners, young children, or anyone with reduced immunity, use pasteurized egg yolks. The sauce is warmed gently, not cooked with the certainty of a hard boil.
- •Hollandaise suits poached or grilled fish, asparagus, artichokes, eggs, and plainly boiled new potatoes. It needs no decorative garnish; its butter-gold gloss is the finish.
Advance Preparation
- •The vinegar, water, salt, and mignonette reduction can be prepared a day ahead, covered, and chilled. Bring it back to room temperature before adding the yolks.
- •Measure the butter, separate the eggs, and arrange the bain-marie before guests sit down. Once whisking begins, the sauce wants your full attention for about ten minutes.
- •Finished hollandaise is not a long make-ahead sauce. Prepare it within 30 minutes of serving and hold it over an off-heat warm-water bath, loosening it with a teaspoon of warm water if necessary.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 60g)
Calories
350 calories
Total Fat
39 g
Saturated Fat
24 g
Trans Fat
2 g
Unsaturated Fat
12 g
Cholesterol
170 mg
Sodium
200 mg
Total Carbohydrates
0 g
Dietary Fiber
0 g
Sugars
0 g
Protein
1 g
Where cooking meets culture.
Culinary guides, cultural storytelling, and the editorial depth that makes cooking meaningful.
Discover Culinary ExplorerMore from The Leading Warm Sauces
Browse the full collection
Chef Juliette
Pale Roux
Roux blond is flour and clarified butter cooked to the edge of colour, then stopped cold: the ivory foundation of velouté, and a lesson in cooking starch without browning it.
Chef Juliette
White Roux
Roux blanc is the pale foundation beneath béchamel and velouté: butter and flour cooked just long enough to lose rawness, never long enough to colour. Trust your eyes and nose, not the clock alone.
Chef Juliette
Brown Sauce or Espagnole
Espagnole (brown sauce) is the grand lesson in roux, stock, and patient skimming: deep mahogany, clear rather than muddy, and ready to carry the whole family of classical brown sauces.