How to Fix Curdled Hollandaise

Hollandaise sauce is one of the five mother sauces classified by Auguste Escoffier in his landmark cooking history book "Le Guide Culinaire," along with Bechamel, Espagnole, Tomato, and Veloute. Hollandaise sauce is a blend of clarified butter, egg yolks and lemon juice slowly blended over the heat of a double boiler. Because the sauce is so temperature sensitive -- too cold and the sauce fails to form, too hot and the sauce curdles -- if the Hollandaise sauce you are making curdles, or breaks, there are a couple of steps you can take to resurrect your sauce and save your next brunch.

Things You'll Need

Strainer
Metal bowls
Saucepan

Egg yolk
Whisk
Lemon juice (optional)

Instructions

Pour the curdled Hollandaise sauce through a strainer into a metal bowl. Strain as much of the curdled portion, which looks a little like scrambled eggs, from the sauce. Set the bowl in a warm place.
Fill a saucepan about 1/3 of the way up with water and set it on the stove on medium high heat.
Add 1 tsp. warm water and 1 egg yolk to another metal bowl. Using a whisk, mix the egg yolk mixture until creamy.
Drizzle the original Hollandaise sauce into the bowl on the saucepan. Continually whisk until the sauce forms without curdles. Adjust heat as necessary. Taste the reformed sauce and add additional lemon juice, if necessary.

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