Learned from an old sous chef why my hollandaise kept breaking

Had a talk with a 60 year old sous at a pop up last week and he said I was adding my butter too fast. He told me to think of it like making friends, not dumping ingredients in a blender lol. I slowed way down and used a lower heat, and it actually held for like 20 minutes on the pass. Has anyone else had a random pro tip totally fix a basic sauce for them?

2 comments

2 Comments

wade_perez11d ago

The slow butter trick is the real deal. I had the same issue for years until a chef at a french place in Portland told me to think of it like a slow drip IV, not a firehose. He said you gotta let each little pat of butter get fully absorbed and emulsified before you add the next one. Once I started doing that, my hollandaise went from separating on the plate to holding like a champ for a whole brunch service. It also helped a ton with my bearnaise. The lower heat part is key too cause if it gets too hot the eggs scramble and its game over. Most people just dump in a whole stick of melted butter and wonder why it splits.

barbaraw1611d ago

Oh man, that Portland chef knew what he was talking about! @wade_perez your firehose vs IV analogy is perfect, I had a similar lightbulb moment when a baker told me to add eggs one at a time to cake batter instead of dumping them all in. It's wild how those little patience lessons change everything once they click in your brain.