Sunday, May 3, 2015

How to Fix a Broken Hollandaise Sauce

It happens to the best of us. You did everything right, and yet somehow your gorgeous hollandaise sauce has separated. Your hungry, possibly hangry, brunch guests are sitting down, and you're in the kitchen panicking, since there's no time to start a new one from scratch. What do you do? What...do....you....do?

First, take a deep breath, and by "deep breath" I mean a big sip of your Bloody Mary. Then, do what you see me do in this video. A hollandaise sauce is actually very easy to fix, and only takes a minute. Let's hope you never have to use it, but just in case, I hope you give this great technique a try.

14 comments:

Chibby said...

Can we still get those shirts?

Unknown said...

Awesome video!

Does that work with broken mayo by any chance chance? When I fix a failed mayo, I use your stick blender method and just start with a fresh egg and add the broken slop on top, and it works fine, but it'd be nice not to have to add an extra egg.

Unknown said...

Awesome video. Does that work with broken mayo by any chance chance?

When I fix a failed mayo, I use your stick blender method and just start with a fresh egg and add the broken slop on top, and it works fine, but it'd be nice not to have to add an extra egg.

Unknown said...

This is similar to the method for fixing a broken ganache.

Lisa from Indiana said...

What keeps me from trying hollandaise sauce is the fear of breaking it and wasting all those ingredients.

Thank you!

Unknown said...

"A hollandaise can sense fear", but now we can drown it in water fearlessly... but keep an eye on the food police ;)

Anonymous said...

Does this work "better" than starting out with 1-2 fresh egg yolks, then slowly incorporating the broken mixture while stiring?

Chef John said...

Yes you can also fix by starting with extra yolks, but then you have too many yolks in your hollandaise sauce! And since it works with just water, why bother?

Chef John said...

Yes, those T-shirts are still available on Cafépress. Just do a search for hollandaise, and I'm sure you will find it!

Unknown said...

Chef John - Thank you as always. I always wondered why all of the "chef shows" struck fear in us newbies of breaking the sauce.

Jude said...

Wow- time warp.

cpherigo said...

Thanks so much! I bet you've already explained this in another video, but what is the brick-wrapped-in-a-towel-thing under the bowl?

Anonymous said...

Much appreciated Chef! Real good technique to know. Pearls of culinary wisdom you give!

Edward said...

You can also put all of the broken Hollandaise in a warm bowl and add a little boiling water from your kettle. Then whisk briskly. Add a little more boiling water if it doesn't come together immediately. Then, as in the video, add even more boiling water to get a looser texture so that it runs off the eggs a bit.