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Horseradish Hollandaise Sauce
To Hollandaise Sauce II add one-fourth cup grated horseradish root. Lobster Sauce I To Hollandaise Sauce I add one-third cup lobster meat cut in small dice. 1¼ lb. lobster 1/4 cup butter 1/4 cup flour
A one-line variation that assumes you already have Fannie Farmer's Hollandaise Sauce II in front of you. The whole dish turns on the base sauce, so the notes below concern that as much as the horseradish.
- Which HollandaiseHollandaise Sauce II appears to be the thinner, cooked version held over hot water, as against the pure butter-and-yolk emulsion of Sauce I. Neither base is printed on this page, so look the recipe up before starting; a thinner cooked sauce will in any case carry a bulky addition like grated root more easily.
- The hinge: never let it boilKeep the sauce over hot, not boiling, water and pull it from the heat the moment it thickens. Above roughly 180F the yolks curdle and the emulsion breaks; whisking in a spoonful of cold water off the heat will sometimes bring back a sauce that has only just begun to separate.
- Fresh horseradish rootA quarter cup grated means fresh root, peeled and grated fine on a rasp just before use. Its heat is volatile and falls away fairly quickly once grated, so add it at the very end and serve promptly.
- Using prepared horseradish insteadBottled horseradish is packed in vinegar and will both thin and sour the sauce. Drain it well and start with two tablespoons, tasting before adding more, and cut back any lemon juice in the base accordingly.
- YieldThe base sauce is not printed here, but a hollandaise of this kind will run to about a cup, enough for four to six servings alongside poached salmon, boiled beef or corned beef.
- Holding itIt will sit for half an hour in a bowl set over warm water, covered, whisked once or twice. It does not reheat from cold and it does not freeze.
Fannie Merritt Farmer's sauce chapter works by extension: a base hollandaise followed by short variants -- this page shows horseradish and lobster -- rather than a fresh formula each time. Horseradish had long been a standard sharp accompaniment to boiled beef and to oily fish in English and German cooking, usually stirred into cream or vinegar; folding it into a warm egg-and-butter sauce belongs to the French-influenced cookery American books of the period were absorbing. Fresh root was grated to order because its pungency is so fugitive.