What Does Hollandaise Taste Like? [Is It Eggy??]
Hollandaise is an egg yolks-based sauce that has become an integral part of a range of morning dishes for countless people. It’s a rich, buttery, and creamy sauce that provides the eggs benedict recipe with its signature taste.
Hollandaise is one of the five French mother sauces and it offers a mouthwatering appearance and feels delicious. If you’re wondering what Hollandaise sauce tastes like, then you’ve come to the right place. Let’s discuss everything you need to know about this sauce in detail.
How Would You Describe Hollandaise Sauce?
Hollandaise is a classic French mother sauce that’s usually served on breakfast with eggs benedict or asparagus. This delicious sauce is made by beating raw egg yolks along with a squeeze of lemon juice/lime juice and a pinch of salt.
Then melted butter is added to the egg yolks over a hot water bath and the mixture is beaten till you get a creamy and rich sauce. It originated in Normandy, France, and back in the day it was known as “Sauce Isigny”.
The town that first made hollandaise sauce was pretty popular for making top-quality heavy cream and butter. This delicious sauce is pretty similar to mayonnaise because both of the recipes are made with similar ingredients. However, hollandaise offers a tangier and thicker flavor.
What Does Hollandaise Sauce Taste Like?
Hollandaise tastes like creamy, tangy, thick, and lemony butter and it has become an essential dip to be served with many breakfast dishes. The creamy decadent egg-based sauce comes with a buttery flavor that can also be sometimes sweeter depending upon your making style.
Additionally, its taste can also vary depending upon the ingredients you use. For instance, you’ll end up with a spicy hollandaise sauce if you add paprika. But regardless of your style and ingredients, you’ll need to use salt and pepper to adjust the taste.
Some people also don’t like to add lemon juice or lime juice to hollandaise. You can also use both salted and unsalted butter according to your preferences.
What Does Hollandaise Sauce Taste Good With?
You can use hollandaise sauce with a range of dishes to enjoy a more flavorful and tastier meal. Along with Espagnole and bechamel sauce, hollandaise sauce is what derived the name of French cuisine. You can use this sauce with any dish that needs some additional zing, including recipes cooked with fish, vegetables, and eggs.
Eggs Benedict
One of the most popular recipes where hollandaise sauce works its magic is eggs benedict. It offers poached eggs with an English muffin that is topped with ham or Canadian bacon and it’s served with hollandaise sauce.
Salad Niçoise
Hollandaise sauce also works well with a range of French salads including salad niçoise. In this salad, this magical sauce is used as a dressing for boiled potatoes and green beans. The salad also contains tomatoes, roasted pepper, hard-boiled eggs, and tuna.
Meats
You will find hollandaise sauce being served with chicken or steak in restaurants because of its versatility. You can also use it as a dip to enjoy shrimps, prawns, and lobsters.
Fish Tacos
This creamy sauce goes perfectly well with fish tacos. It’s used as a topping for grilled fish. The fish tacos become heavenly if they are made with halibut that is sprinkled with crema Mexicana and cilantro leaves and wrapped in tortillas.
How to Make Hollandaise Sauce?
You can easily make hollandaise sauce at home if you want to enjoy the taste of this creamy sauce on a daily basis. First, you’ll need to add raw egg yolks in a bowl along with some vinegar or a little lemon juice/lime juice. Then you’ll need to whisk the mixture until it becomes thick and fluffy.
After that, you’ll need to place the mixture on your stove and let it cook over medium heat. You’ll need to make sure that you continuously stir the mixture to keep it from burning. Then you’ll need to add warm butter to the mixture over low heat so that it gets mixed evenly.
After adding the butter, the mixture will need to simmer for about 2 minutes and then you’ll start seeing it thicken. The process of making the traditional hollandaise sauce takes both patience and time (about 10 minutes) but the results are worth the effort.
You can use this sauce using different ingredients like using half egg yolks rather than using whole raw eggs. You can also use just egg whites if you want and substitute vinegar with lemon juice. Instead of whisking manually, it’s possible to use a food processor or blender to keep things easy.
If you have any leftovers, be sure to check out our guide to how to reheat hollandaise sauce.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Does Bearnaise Sauce Taste Like?
Bearnaise comes with a strong liquor-ish taste because it includes tarragon vinegar. It has a pale-yellow color and offers a creamy and smooth texture. It is also made with clarified butter and egg yolks and finished with shallots, white wine vinegar, pepper, and herbs.
You can use pretty much the same technique to make bearnaise sauce that we have mentioned for hollandaise sauce. All you need to do is to replace the lime/lemon juice with a reduced amount of tarragon, shallots, vinegar, and wine.
What Does Bordelaise Sauce Taste Like?
Bordelaise is a flavorful and rich sauce that offers a savory and tangy flavor. It comes with a rich brown color which is achieved by using shallots and red wine. What makes bordelaise different from the rest is that bone marrow, along with butter, is also used to make this sauce. However, some people don’t like to use this ingredient and that’s why many variations of bordelaise sauce are available that don’t offer the traditional rich flavor.
Is Hollandaise Similar to Mayonnaise?
Yes, hollandaise sauce is pretty similar to mayonnaise because both of these sauces are made with similar ingredients. Other than egg yolks and butter, you can use vegetable oil. However, hollandaise sauce uses lemon juice or vinegar.
The biggest difference between the two sauces is their serving temperature. The hollandaise sauce is typically served warm and mayonnaise is usually served cold.
