For What Is Hollandaise Sauce Used?

Hollandaise sauce is an egg yolk-based sauce flavored with vinegar (or lemon juice), butter and sometimes a hint of cayenne pepper.
To make hollandaise sauce, you melt ½ cup of unsalted butter and keep it warm; boil 4 tablespoons of water; and heat 2 tablespoons white-wine vinegar until warm. Now place the top of a double boiler over, not in, simmering water; put 3 large egg yolks in the top of a double boiler and whisk until they begin to thicken. Add 1 tablespoon of the boiling water to the yolks and continue beating. Add the remaining 3 tablespoons of boiling water, beating the yolk-and-egg mixture between additions. Now add the warmed vinegar and remove the double boiler from the heat. Beat the sauce with a wire whisk as you slowly pour in the melted butter. Add ½ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon cayenne, and beat the sauce until it is thick.
Serve immediately with eggs or asparagus, or add other ingredients to this "mother sauce" to create other popular sauces.

Eggs Benedict

A popular breakfast item, eggs benedict is a toasted, split English muffin topped with poached eggs, grilled bacon or ham, and hollandaise sauce. The dish might have been "named after LeGrand Benedict, a Wall Street financier and regular at Delmonico's restaurant in Manhattan, for whom the chef created this dish in the 1920s when Mr. Benedict complained about the restricted choice on the menu.
An alternative story is that eggs Benedict was named after Lemuel Benedict, a Wall Street broker, who invented and ordered it at the Waldorf Hotel in Manhattan in 1894, whereupon the chef, Oscar Tschirky, added it to the menu." (Chambers Dictionary of Eponyms. London: Chambers Harrap. Retrieved May 28, 2009, from http://www.credoreference.com/entry/cde/eggs_benedict)

Asparagus With Hollandaise

Another popular way to use hollandaise sauce is over cooked or steamed asparagus. Just cut off tough asparagus ends, wash the stalks under running water, bunch the stalks together with cooking string or a rubber band, and cook them upright in a deep saucepan filled with about two inches of boiling water. When you can pierce the lower part of the stalks easily with a fork, remove the bundle(s) from the water and arrange on a plate or platter. Pour hollandaise over the arranged vegetables or serve the sauce on the side.

Maltaise Sauce

Add grated rinds of blood oranges to hollandaise sauce to make maltaise sauce. Use it to top cooked vegetables, especially asparagus and green beans.

Béarnaise Sauce

Add tarragon and shallots to hollandaise sauce and you've made béarnaise sauce. Serve this with meat, fish, eggs or vegetables.

Figaro Sauce

Add tomato puree and minced parsley for Figaro sauce, which can be served on fish or poultry.

Noisette Sauce

Add beurre noisette (a nut-brown butter prepared by melting butter over heat and adding lemon juice after it has melted and foamed and just before it burns) to make noisette sauce, which is served with poached salmon or trout. (Dictionary of Food: International Food and Cooking Terms from A to Z. London: A&C Black. Retrieved May 28, 2009, from http://www.credoreference.com/entry/acbdictfood/beurre_noisette)

Resources

• Help With Cooking: Hollandaise Sauce