The internet abounds with “easy” hollandaise recipes.
Emulsion in cooking how to#
The five ingredients of Hollandaise How to make Hollandaise Sauce: The acid, typically lemon juice or vinegar, offers a piquant counterpoint to the fat, and salt opens the taste buds to enhance all the flavors. The fat, be it butter or oil, gives a rich texture to the sauce. There is always have a jar of this in our refrigerator.Īlmost all emulsified sauces share three things that make them the perfect complement to the main dish fat, acid, and salt. My personal “house dressing” is a pesto vinaigrette. Without any artificial thickeners, a vinaigrette will combine when whisked or shaken and then once it settles it will separate into oil and water. Other emulsified sauces are a “temporary emulsion” like the vinaigrette. Once blended, the sauce stays that way unless it breaks due to an outside force such as high temperature or an inaccurate ratio of the two main ingredients (fat and liquid). They are what is considered permanent emulsions. The best known emulsified sauces are hollandaise or mayonnaise. However, when it comes to emulsified sauces, there are other forces at play (heat and/or movement) that will cause one part to incorporate into the other. The scientific term for this refusal to mix is “immiscible” which is defined as two liquids that are incapable of being mixed, caused by surface tension between two molecules. Combine them together with heat, centrifugal force, or just a vigorous whisk and you suddenly have one sauce where there were once two separate ingredients which typically do not play well together. Take two ingredients which, “ like oil and water”, should not blend together, and with a little effort, they become one delicious whole.Īn emulsified sauce is literally the blending of fat (butter or oil) and water (wine, vinegar, or egg yolk- which is more than 50% water). Jump to Recipe Print Recipe Asparagus HollandaiseĮmulsified sauces are one part chemistry, one part culinary magic.