No. 475

Grimod Sauce

Sauce a la Grimod

Set in a bain-marie two raw egg-yolks, the juice of one lemon, salt, pepper, nutmeg, and mignonette, also a quarter of a pound of butter; beat the eggs and butter together over a slow fire using a small egg-beater; add a little cayenne pepper, a pinch of saffron leaves infused in half a gill of water; and when the sauce begins to get warm, strain it through a tammy, and keep it in a moderate temperature until needed to serve.

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For the Modern Kitchen Do not make this as written.

A saffron-and-lemon hollandaise built the classic way, over water rather than direct heat. Ranhofer gives no yield and no temperature, so the working numbers are below.

The hinge: heat controlEverything here depends on the yolks thickening without setting. Keep the water in the bain-marie hot but not simmering and the sauce itself around 150-160F, whisking constantly; above roughly 180F the yolks scramble and the emulsion breaks.
MignonetteIn this period mignonette means coarsely cracked white or black peppercorns, not the shallot-vinegar relish served with oysters today. A generous pinch, cracked in a mortar, is what is wanted, and the tammy will catch the husks.
A gillA gill is half a cup, so half a gill is 1/4 cup (60 ml) of water for infusing the saffron. Steep the threads in hot water for ten minutes and add the liquid, not the threads.
Saffron leaves"Leaves" here simply means the dried stigmas we call threads. A pinch is about 15-20 threads; more turns the sauce medicinal rather than perfumed.
TammyA tammy was a fine worsted straining cloth, wrung between two people to force sauce through. A fine-mesh conical strainer, or a sieve lined with damp muslin, does the same work.
ButterA quarter of a pound is 115 g, one American stick. Soften it and add it in pieces as the yolks warm rather than all at once; the sauce emulsifies more reliably that way.
Holding it"A moderate temperature" means warm enough not to congeal, cool enough not to curdle: a bowl over barely warm water, around 130-140F. Egg-and-butter sauces should not be held for more than an hour or so, and this one is best made close to service.
YieldTwo yolks, a stick of butter, the lemon juice and the saffron infusion give roughly a cup, enough for four to six portions of poached fish, asparagus or eggs.

A Little History

The name is generally taken to honor Alexandre-Balthazar-Laurent Grimod de La Reyniach des Gourmands in Paris between 1803 and 1812 and is often credited with inventing the restaurant review as a form. Charles Ranhofer—who ran the Delmonico's kitchens in New York and published The Epicurean in 1894—collected a great many such tributes among his hundreds of numbered sauces. The recipe itself is a hollandaise in all but name, distinguished by saffron and a heavier hand with the pepper and nutmeg.