ABSTRACT
Hollandaise sauce is one of our most beloved and elegant butter sauces. It has the power to lift a piece of baked fish, asparagus or a poached egg to something luxurious. Due to the sauce’s long history, both preparation techniques and ingredient selection have somewhat changed over time, which is the case for many types of food with a long history. A hollandaise sauce is a warm egg yolk-based emulsion. Many of our most indulgent foods are made up either partly or purely of emulsions, and for other products, an emulsion has been an important step in the preparation process. Many emulsions, especially the warm ones, have a reputation for being difficult both to make and to keep stable. Warm emulsions, such as butter sauces, require a higher water percentage than cold emulsions, as the evaporation rate of water is proportional to the temperature. Gravity is a major driving force in the separation of emulsions.
