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Dutch Sauce for Meat or Fish
317. Put six spoonsful of water and four of vinegar into a saucepan, warm and thicken it with the yolks of two eggs. Make it quite hot, but do not boil it; squeeze in the juice of half a lemon, and strain it through a sieve.
A lean, sharp yolk sauce in the hollandaise family, thickened by egg alone with no butter at all. The whole thing turns on heat control: the yolks must set into a cream without ever reaching a simmer.
- The hinge: heat, not boilingYolks begin to thicken around 150F and scramble by about 180F. Use a double boiler or a heavy pan over the lowest flame, whisking constantly, and pull it off the heat the moment it coats the whisk.
- "Spoonsful"An unqualified spoonful in period cookery is usually taken as a tablespoon, which would give 6 tablespoons water and 4 of vinegar — 10 tablespoons, a little over 1/2 cup of liquid to two yolks. If your yolks are large, hold back a spoonful of the water until you see how it sets.
- Which vinegarKitchen vinegar of the period was commonly wine or cider vinegar, though strengths varied. Wine vinegar gives a rounder flavour here than distilled white.
- No butterUnlike the hollandaise now familiar, this version carries no fat, so it will be thin, bright and sharp rather than rich. A tablespoon or two of butter whisked in off the heat at the end will soften it if you want something closer to modern expectations.
- StrainingPassing it through a fine sieve at the end is not optional refinement — it catches any threads of set white or overcooked yolk and is what makes the difference between a smooth sauce and a grainy one.
- Holding itServe within a few minutes. Held warm it will thicken further and then break; over direct reheating it will curdle outright. If it must wait, keep it in a bowl set over water no hotter than the hand can bear.
- YieldAbout two-thirds of a cup, enough for four modest servings alongside poached fish, boiled chicken or asparagus.