a touch of lemon juice It should flow slowly off a spoon so that it naps a poached egg in a thick robe Never runny, and certainly never curdled, hollandaise has a delicate texture that’s really tough to get right At least, it used to be I’ve figured out a way to make it perfectly every single time— even with no experience Hollandaise sauce, just like mayonnaise, is an eggstabilized emulsion of fat in a water-based liquid (see “Obsessive-Emulsive,” here) It’s traditionally made by cooking egg yolks with a little water, whisking them constantly, until they’ve just begun to set, then slowly drizzling in melted clarified butter (see “Clarified Butter,” here) and seasoning the sauce with lemon juice With vigorous whisking, the butterfat gets broken up into microscopic droplets that are surrounded by the water from the lemon juice and the egg yolks Both the acid in the lemon juice and the protein lecithin in the egg yolks prevent these fat droplets from coalescing and breaking down into a greasy pool The result is a thick, creamy, delicious sauce Mayonnaise is relatively simple: it’s made from a liquid fat (oil), and it’s made and kept at room or fridge temperatures (for a foolproof recipe, see here) Hollandaise is more complicated Butterfat begins to solidify below 95°F, so if you let your hollandaise get too cool, the solid chunks of fat will break the emulsion, turning it grainy Reheat it, and it will separate into a greasy liquid (that’s why leftover hollandaise can’t be stored) On the other hand, if you let it get too hot, the egg proteins will begin to coagulate You’ll end up with a lumpy, curdled sauce with the texture of soft scrambled eggs So the keys to a perfect hollandaise are two: careful construction of an emulsion by slowly incorporating butterfat into the liquid, and temperature control Once you realize this, the solution to foolproofing hollandaise becomes quite simple Most classic recipes require you to heat both the butter and egg yolks before trying to combine the two But what if you were to just heat one of them, so that when it is combined with the other, the final temperature ends up in the correct range? I figured that if I heated my butter to a high-enough temperature, I should be able to slowly incorporate it into a mixture of raw egg yolks and lemon juice, gradually raising its temperature, so that by the time all the butter is incorporated, the yolks are cooked exactly how they need to be Because the acidity of lemon juice can minimize curdling, there’s a little bit of leeway as far as temperature is concerned: anywhere in the 160° to 180°F range for the finished sauce will work ... yolks before trying to combine the two But what if you were to just heat one of them, so that when it is combined with the other, the final temperature ends up in the correct range? I figured that... temperature, so that by the time all the butter is incorporated, the yolks are cooked exactly how they need to be Because the acidity of lemon juice can minimize curdling, there’s a little bit of... butterfat into the liquid, and temperature control Once you realize this, the solution to foolproofing hollandaise becomes quite simple Most classic recipes require you to heat both the butter and