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Recipe for "hollandaise-1"

NAME

     HOLLANDAISE-1 - A quick and easy Hollandaise sauce
     Few small things seem to impress dinner guests more  than  a
     good  Hollandaise  sauce. Perhaps this is because the guests
     think it is difficult to execute. This recipe disproves that
     notion;  it  makes  it simple to produce a consistently good
     Hollandaise  sauce.   Use  it   over   asparagus,   to   dip
     artichokes,  with  steak  and  rice, or for anything you can
     imagine. The original recipe comes from Julia Child  &  Com-
     pany.

INGREDIENTS (4 dl)

     50 ml     fresh lemon juice
     50 ml     water
     2.5 ml    salt
     3         eggs
     200 g     unsalted butter

PROCEDURE

          (1)  Melt the butter in a small saucepan. It should  be
               warm, but not bubbling hot.
          (2)  Combine the lemon juice and water in a small sauce
               pan. Bring to a simmer, adding the salt.
          (3)  Meanwhile, place one egg  and  the  yolks  of  the
               other  two in a smallish saucepan. Vigorously beat
               the egg and yolks with a wire whip for a minute or
               so, until they are pale and thick.
          (4)  Set the yolk mixture over moderately low heat  and
               whisk in the hot lemon juice by driblets. Continue
               whisking, not too fast, but reaching all over  the
               bottom  and  corners  of the pan, until you have a
               foamy warm mass.  Remove from heat just as you see
               a  wisp  of  steam rising. (Do not overheat or you
               will coagulate the egg yolks.)
          (5)  Immediately start beating in the  warm  butter  by
               driblets,  to  make  a thick, creamy, light yellow
               sauce.
          (6)  Taste  carefully  for  seasoning,   adding   salt,
               pepper, and more lemon juice to taste.

NOTES

     This sauce is really so easy to make, you should leave it to
     the last minute. It doesn't keep terribly well. Any egg yolk
     and butter sauce can be kept only warm, not hot, or it  will
     curdle.   Also remember that sauces with egg yolks are prime
     breeding grounds for sick-making bacteria.
     Copper or  stainless  steel  saucepans  are  best,  as  they
     transmit  and  hold  heat better than anything else. I often
     make this solely in CorningWare pots, and  find  that  some-
     times  the  sauce  will not set after removing from heat and
     adding the butter. In this case, return the mixture to  very
     low  heat,  whisking vigorously until the sauce achieves the
     desired thickness.  Too much heat will either curdle the egg
     yolks or cause the butter to separate from the mixture.

RATING

     Difficulty: easy to moderate.  Time: 5 minutes.   Precision:
     approximate measurement OK.

CONTRIBUTOR

     Chris Kent
     DEC Western Research Laboratory, Palo Alto, California, USA
     kent@decwrl.dec.com decwrl!kent