Sauce Hollandaise

Did you know there are more than 365 types of cheese in France? Literally one for every day of the year. They are fantastic with crunchy baguettes, and if you spread on it a lavish layer of the best butter in the world - you can say you are in the (gastronomical) heaven.

But, apart from cheeses, baguettes and butter, the French left another huge treasure to world cuisine - their sauces. We don't know if anyone has ever listed and described them all. Still, what we do know is that the Harissa Spice Store offers a great selection of both classic French and various other sauces and stocks that will enrich your dishes and save you precious hours that you would otherwise spend in the kitchen.

This text would certainly be too short if we started listing them, so this time we will stick to those that are considered basics in French cuisine, where they originated - béchamel, espagnole, hollandaise, velloute and sauce tomate.

We will start our story about sauces with the one that gives chefs (primarily beginners) but also all of us, amateurs, the most trouble - the hollandaise sauce.

Although its name suggests that it comes from the Netherlands, this is of course not true. It first appeared in historical gastronomic records in 1651, in the French region of Normandy, and the recipe was written down in the cookbook "Le Cuisinier François" by François Pierre La Varenne as Isigny sauce.

And this text would certainly be too short if we started listing them, so this time we will stick to those that are considered basics in French cuisine, where they originated - béchamel, espagnole, hollandaise, velloute and sauce tomate.

We will start our story about sauces with the one that gives chefs (primarily beginners) but also all of us, amateurs, the most trouble - hollandaise sauce.

Butter, egg yolks, vinegar and...

Judging by the recipe, the sauce was made from butter, vinegar, salt and egg yolks, and it also said that it goes best with blanched asparagus. According to this cook, you could add some finely chopped shallots, tarragon and a few drops of French wine vinegar to taste.

At the beginning of the 20th century, more precisely in 1903, one of the greatest French chefs of all time, Escoffier, included hollandaise sauce among the 5 main French sauces in his book "Le guide culinaire".

The popularity of this sauce reached unimaginable proportions during the First World War when the famous dairy industry in Normandy was completely stopped. Chefs needed a sauce that didn't require cream, and hollandaise proved to be the best option because of its rich, buttery flavor and variety of uses.

Today, hollandaise sauce is best known for its indispensable role in Eggs Benedict, but it is often served with poached salmon, broccoli, and asparagus, but also various crabs, lobster, clams and mushrooms. In addition, this sauce is also the base for some other, also famous French sauces such as bérnaise, dijonnaise or maltaise.

Delicate and fine, but demanding

Rich in butter, slightly sour and delicious, this sauce is quite a challenge when it comes to preparation. Although you won't need any exotic ingredients for it, just eggs, butter, salt and vinegar, you will need considerable skill and a considerable amount of patience.

Namely, you need to guess the ideal temperature of the water bath in which the sauce is prepared, as well as the exact frequency and speed of mixing since the hollandaise can easily separate or turn into scrambled eggs.

A successful hollandaise is a silky, creamy, warm sauce that will turn the most ordinary steamed vegetables into a mouth-watering gourmet delicacy. And that's exactly what Home Chef Hollandaise sauce is, which you can get in all our stores and on our website, saving you a lot of time, nerves, and (broken and thrown) eggs.

It's enough to heat it gently and pour it over vegetables, fish or seafood. The preparation of everyone's favorite eggs Benedict will become child's play, so you'll be able to afford them whenever you want, without having to camp out in the kitchen building biceps while stirring hollandaise and dreading if your sauce will separate.