Week 29 -- Hollandaise & Beurre Blanc

Butter sauces are complex and fragile, demanding careful heat control, yet can be quite wonderful for chicken, fish, eggs, seafood, salad binders, vegetables, etc.

  • Clarified Butter
    • Butter is made up of three things: butterfat 80%, water 15%, and milk solids 5%
    • Milk solids are the reason butter starts to burn at a lower temperature than something like olive oil
    • When you clarify butter, you remove all the milk solids and water, and are left with just the butterfat
    • Clarified butter has a much higher smoke point (370F) than whole butter (260F), making it ideal for cooking and sauteing
    • Procedure for making clarified butter
      • Melt butter in a skillet over low heat
      • Continue cooking over low heat, without stirring, while the butter foams and bubbles
      • Spattering (if there is any) is a good sign the water is evaporating
      • Not stirring is important, as you want the milk solids to sink to the bottom of the pan, and rise to the surface as foam
      • Remove from heat and let stand about 5 minutes to cool
      • Pour the yellow oil slowly into a glass (tall/thin vessel), leaving as much as possible of the milk solids, surface foam and bottom sediments, behind in pot
      • Skim off any foam (milk solids) from the top of the glass
      • Pour through cheese cloth to filter out any remaining milk solids
      • The yellow oil is clarified butter (think "drawn" butter and lobster)
      • 1 lb whole butter yields 12 oz clarified butter, 75% of the whole

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  • Hollandaise Sauce, for eggs benedict, but versatile sauce for other things as well, Hollandaise sauce can be one of the most challenging and frustrating sauces to make because of the fragile emulsification that must be created between two unmixable items. However, once you have the knack it becomes quite simple and you'll find yourself whipping up this creamy sauce for fish and vegetables on-the-spot
    • One of the five mother sauces, consisting of liquid and its thickener, formed by emulsification, the mixing of two unmixable items, one liquid suspended in the other
    • Egg yolk is both the liquid and the thickener (clarified butter is also the liquid), the emulsifier, liaison, holding the two things together, due to the lecithin in egg yolk
    • The trick is heat control, the yolk proteins coagulate at 165F (making scrambled eggs), but we want a smooth creamy sauce
    • To control heat (under 165F) use double boiler (pot and mixing bowl)
    • Procedure: thicken egg yolk along with clarified butter
      • Separate eggs, we want only yolks (save whites for another good use)
      • Put about an inch of water in a pot, then put slightly larger diameter mixing bowl on top (making a double boiler), bring water to low boil, mixing bowl should not touch the water
      • Put two egg yolks in the mixing bowl and whisk
      • Watch the heat, if the eggs are coagulating too fast, remove from heat for a moment, eggs emulsify best at 110F
      • Keep whisking until the yolks begin to lighten in color
      • Add small amount of warm clarified butter (110F) and keep whisking, again, watch heat and coagulation --don't want scrambled eggs
      • Keep adding small amounts of butter while whisking (total 1/4 cup clarified butter)
      • When it begins to thicken, add 1/2 tsp of lemon or lime juice, keep whisking
      • Continue whisking and heating until the sauce forms a ribbon from the whisk down into the bowl when lifted, the right consistency, s&p to taste, other herbs/spices as desired
      • Use immediately, or keep warm until ready to use
      • Ideally, Hollandaise sauce should reach 140F to prevent bacterial growth, but if it gets too hot, it will break
      • Recovering broken Hollandaise sauce, first cool it down, then add a few drops warm water (110F) and whisk, if that doesn't work, add another yolk and a bit of warm water and whisk
    • How to use it? eggs, chicken breast, asparagus, broccoli, cauliflower, crab meat, shrimp, fish, salmon, potatoes, binder for salads

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  • Bearnaise Sauce, child of the Hollandaise mother sauce (a "small sauce")
    • Ingredients
      • 1/4 cup rice vinegar
      • 1/4 cup white wine
      • 1 small shallot, minced (1/2 small onion and 1 garlic clove is fine)
      • 1/2 tsp black pepper
      • 1 tbs tarragon
      • 2 egg yolks
      • 12 tbs butter, melted, clarified butter is great, but not necessary
      • Salt to taste
      • Splash of lemon juice (optional)
    • Procedure
      • Review the procedure/method for Hollandaise sauce
      • Put vinegar, wine, shallots (onion/garlic) in sauce pan, bring to simmer until nearly au sec, add tarragon before the end, remove from heat and set aside to cool
      • Set up double boiler (pot with bowl that is slightly larger diameter than the pot), put an inch or two of water in the pot, and bring to soft boil
      • Put the cooled shallot and tarragon mix into the bowl along with 1 tbs of water and the egg yolks, whisking like making Hollandaise
      • Continue whisking until the yolks thicken, approx doubling the volume of the yolks
      • Slowly whisk in the melted butter to emulsify, continue adding butter a couple tbs at a time, until the desired consistency is achieved
      • Add a splash of lemon juice for a bit of tartness, and serve, or keep warm till ready to use
    • How to use it? eggs, chicken breast, asparagus, broccoli, cauliflower, crab meat, shrimp, fish, salmon, beef, potatoes, binder for salads, etc, use imagination

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  • Beurre Blanc: unthickened (no flour or starch) butter sauce, made with white wine, champaign, vermouth, bourbon, any light-colored flavorful liquid (chicken broth, shrimp broth, vegetable broth), not a Mother Sauce but important enough in the culinary world that it should be, the small bit of lecithin found in whole butter helps create the emulsification that makes this sauce so perfect for fish and vegetables
    • Classically, a saute of shallots or onions and mixed with some kind of liquid, then mounted with cold butter
    • The trick is to keep the butter yellow, without breaking down into oil and milk solids
    • Start with saute pan and 3-4 tbs cold butter (but not pan-hot first), heat pan and butter together, let the melted butter melt the rest of the butter, and if the pan starts to get too hot, move off the heat, then back on the heat as needed to melt the butter while keeping it yellow and together
    • When butter is all melted, add 1/3 cup diced shallots for a soft saute, object is not to brown the shallots or butter, but to infuse the shallot flavor into the butter, shallots should become translucent, okay to add a couple cloves of minced garlic
    • Drop the temp of the pan with cold liquid, such as white wine, try 1/2 cup, but use your own judgment/preference, not to de-glaze but to reduce temp, and cook until almost dry (au sec)
    • Remove pan from heat and allow temp to drop more, then add a couple more tbs of cold butter (small diced cubes), and melt them in the shallot and wine reduction, then add a couple more tbs of cold butter (small diced cubes), sauce should thicken nicely with great flavor, a splash (1/2 tsp or so) of lemon or lime juice could be nice too
    • Add S&P or whatever seasonings/herbs you like
    • How to use it? Fish, shellfish, chicken, pork, egg dishes, vegetables, toast/crostini, or how about a steak? Well, you may want Beurre Rouge for beef
    • Adding a little cream and more butter do very nice things for a sauce like this one, hey were you wondering why restaurant food tastes so good? add a bit of cream and more butter

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