# Weird hollandaise



## cnochef (Sep 5, 2012)

I was watching a food show and the feature restaurant made hollandaise as I've never seen it done before. 

The chef used a 1 litre (4 cups) plastic container of eggs, added cold water and vinegar to them in a bowl and whisked "until you can't see the water anymore." The volume increase was huge. Then he added 250ml (1 cup) of melted butter, whisked it in and finished with lemon juice.

This seemed like a really weird method, not to mention the unconventional ratio of eggs to butter.

Ever seen anything like this?


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## cnochef (Sep 5, 2012)

When I said 1 litre plastic container of eggs above, I meant egg yolks of course.


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## BraisedorStewed (Sep 5, 2012)

The method doesn't seem all that odd to me. The description of "until you can't see the water anymore" sounds a bit funny. I use water and vinegar and usually whisk for 2-20 minutes dependent on the number of yolks and my volume increases at least 4x. The ratio is definitely very odd to me though, thats about 48 yolks to 8oz butter. Sounds too eggy for my tastebuds.


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## SameGuy (Sep 5, 2012)

I've not made it recently, but it's similar to other emulsions, right? So yeah, the ratios seem way way way off, and from what I had learned, the lemon or other acid should come in near the beginning. Clari butter has fairly high viscosity at pouring temperatures that aren't too hot, but the ratio above is backwards. Two acidified yolks to five ounces of clarified butter is how I learned to do it.


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## Salty dog (Sep 5, 2012)

I had to do it.

[video=youtube_share;ydAK9ZpYKNc]http://youtu.be/ydAK9ZpYKNc[/video]


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## Mr.Magnus (Sep 5, 2012)

Salty i worship your right arm


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## SameGuy (Sep 5, 2012)

Care to whip me up some zabaglione for the luscious fresh field strawberries I picked up yesterday??


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## ThEoRy (Sep 5, 2012)

Not weird. To me at least. That's how I was taught to do it almost 20 years ago or so. I always thought everyone else was weird for now doing it like me. 

First I can use up to and over 1lb of butter per yolk this way. With a balloon whisk I would whip up the yolks with white wine and a little water for quite a while until ribbon stage. Then over an open flame I would continue whipping until the yolks were cooked, not scrambled. At this point the yolks can have easily quadrupled in size. Now you can begin to stream in the clarified butter. This part always kills me cause most guys do it too slow. Once you get the emulsion started it's go time man!! season with acid, Tabasco, herbs kosher salt &white pepper. Done. And your shoulder is killing you.

Recently I tried the blender method and I am now in love. I was inspired by the hydraulic yolk separation thread so I made a video about it. I'll see if I can post it soon.


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## cnochef (Sep 5, 2012)

ThEoRy:

It's not so much the method that I find weird, but the proportions. This chef was using 4 cups of yolks to 1 cup of butter!!!



ThEoRy said:


> Not weird. To me at least. That's how I was taught to do it almost 20 years ago or so. I always thought everyone else was weird for now doing it like me.
> 
> First I can use up to and over 1lb of butter per yolk this way. With a balloon whisk I would whip up the yolks with white wine and a little water for quite a while until ribbon stage. Then over an open flame I would continue whipping until the yolks were cooked, not scrambled. At this point the yolks can have easily quadrupled in size. Now you can begin to stream in the clarified butter. This part always kills me cause most guys do it too slow. Once you get the emulsion started it's go time man!! season with acid, Tabasco, herbs kosher salt &white pepper. Done. And your shoulder is killing you.
> 
> Recently I tried the blender method and I am now in love. I was inspired by the hydraulic yolk separation thread so I made a video about it. I'll see if I can post it soon.


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## brainsausage (Sep 5, 2012)

Blender method rules...


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## Salty dog (Sep 5, 2012)

My eyes! My eyes! May they never see a written word again! Curse them!


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## Crothcipt (Sep 5, 2012)

ThEoRy said:


> Not weird. To me at least. That's how I was taught to do it almost 20 years ago or so. I always thought everyone else was weird for now doing it like me.
> 
> First I can use up to and over 1lb of butter per yolk this way. With a balloon whisk I would whip up the yolks with white wine and a little water for quite a while until ribbon stage. Then over an open flame I would continue whipping until the yolks were cooked, not scrambled. At this point the yolks can have easily quadrupled in size. Now you can begin to stream in the clarified butter. This part always kills me cause most guys do it too slow. Once you get the emulsion started it's go time man!! season with acid, Tabasco, herbs kosher salt &white pepper. Done. And your shoulder is killing you.
> 
> Recently I tried the blender method and I am now in love. I was inspired by the hydraulic yolk separation thread so I made a video about it. I'll see if I can post it soon.



I posted once before I did almost a gallon of hollendiase with the wip meathod. About 3years later I saw the blender method and was so happy, it doesn't take as long either.


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## brainsausage (Sep 5, 2012)

Throw it into an ISI siphon, and give it two charges- you'll get the lightest, fluffiest hollandaise ever. And you don't have to worry about it breaking.


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## brainsausage (Sep 6, 2012)

Salty dog said:


> My eyes! My eyes! May they never see a written word again! Curse them!



Less work, more consistent/arguably better product... Where's the problem here? It still takes a certain amount of skill and palate to pull it off...


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## ThEoRy (Sep 6, 2012)

brainsausage said:


> Throw it into an ISI siphon, and give it two charges- you'll get the lightest, fluffiest hollandaise ever. And you don't have to worry about it breaking.




I've done this too but it kept breaking until I whipped one whole egg into the yolk mixture and then continued as normal. Maybe something about the protein strands in the whites held it together better. I'll give it another shot only this time using the blender method sans whole egg and report back.


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## brainsausage (Sep 6, 2012)

There's a high amount of lecithin in the whites, a natural stabilizer. It's also prevalent in garlic- aioli is pretty easy to emulsify with a pinch of garlic and at least one white in your mix. I typically use three yolks and one white to approximately a pound and half of butter. Although, I've recently discovered that a pinch of xanthan gum(say .01-.1%) greatly reduces the amount of fat(butter/oil) needed. Also useful for stabilizing your hollandaise in the siphon. I've done it without the xanthan no problem though. All that being said- egg whites are the original hydro colloid stabilizers. Try em out next hollandaise!


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## Salty dog (Sep 6, 2012)

If it's not cooked it's salad dressing.


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## NO ChoP! (Sep 6, 2012)

I worked at a steak house where we used literally gallons of hollandaise every night. Emulsion stick blender and pasteurized egg yolks were the secret. Never broke. 

I learned 4 yolks to a pound butter. 1 cup yolks = a dozen'ish...

Lemon or reduced vinegar to acidify the yolks prior to emulsifying. (I prefer lemon for Hollandaise/ reduced vinegar for Bernaise)

Alton Brown did a segment where he used cold cubed butter, and mounted it like a buerre blanc. Seasoned with lemon after. 

I say Bain Marie method for smaller batches....


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## brainsausage (Sep 6, 2012)

Salty dog said:


> If it's not cooked it's salad dressing.



The eggs and butter are heated before hand, and the friction of the blender does the final cook. to each their own, I just prefer this method. Neither one is 'right'.(unless you're an Escoffier acolyte I suppose...)


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## K-Fed (Sep 6, 2012)

One of the chefs I work for still doesn't know, I suppose, about the blender method ( he's old school ), and I fixed a broken hollandaise nice n' quick in the robot coupe while no one was paying attention and got a few ooohs and ahhhhs. Thought it was funny but now that I'm thinking about it I didn't know about the blender method till' about 2 years ago. I still prefer to do it the old fashioned way unless I'm doing huge batches of the stuff for a banquet or something of the sort.


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## SameGuy (Sep 6, 2012)

brainsausage said:


> Neither one is 'right'.(unless you're an *Escoffier *acolyte I suppose...)


That's just it: I learned it this way, handed down from my grandfather to my mom to me; I doubt most people could notice the differences -- subtle or not -- while eating a regular brunch meal in a restaurant or at home.


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## JohnnyChance (Sep 7, 2012)

Used a blender or robot most of pro career, but at my current job we use the whole butter method.


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## slowtyper (Sep 18, 2012)

can you explain a bit more about how you do it in the robo? Somoene said you heat up the eggs beforehand, how much so?

Thanks


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## slowtyper (Sep 18, 2012)

also, robo or vita?


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## Crothcipt (Sep 19, 2012)

you heat the butter not the eggs, that will cook the eggs enough while the robo keeps them moving so not to scramble. With to high of heat on the butter you will still get scramble'd. don't remember the ratios maybe someone can help with that.


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## pumbaa (Sep 19, 2012)

when ive done blender it was whole hot butter not clarified and standard ratio. so 3 egg yolks would be 9-12oz of butter as I was taught. you put yolks, vin/wine, hot sauce, salt, white pepper in the robot. once it starts slowly add hot butter. you can hear the sound change when its done or close. it goes from a smooth sound to a choppy sound, at that point i check it.


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