Mayonnaise, Hollandaise Sauces & Other Tricky Emulsions Made Simple

“An emulsion is defined by combining two liquids that will maintain their distinct characteristics after being mixed. When talking about emulsions as applicable in a kitchen, the term emulsion refers to combining fat and water. Culinary emulsion can take two different forms; fat dispersed into water and water dispersed into fat. Common fat in water emulsifications include hollandaise, mayonnaise, aioli, milk, cream, and pan sauces. Water in fat emulsifications are most commonly found in the form of vinaigrettes and whole butter.”
FS 001| WHAT IS AN EMULSION? A COOK'S GUIDE - Stella Culinary with Chef Jacob Burton

Image - Cheese sauce //flic.kr/p/865b1q

2 Types of Emulsions

Temporary emulsion is a vinaigrette where you combining the oil and vinegar

If you pour Oil into the vinegar, the Oil will float on top of vinegar because the Vinegar is denser than oil. So as soon as you add Shearing Power, which is getting liquid in motion with either shaking, stirring, blending.

If you’re whisking Oil & Vinegar together, they form tiny droplets mix together and become suspended within each other. This is an emulsion.

The more shearing power used, the smaller the dispersed droplets become, which creates a more stable & thicker emulsion.

Your vinaigrette will eventually return back to vinegar and oil because, on a chemical level, nothing is holding the droplets of each liquid together.

To create a successful emulsion, you need 2 things. Shear force & an emulsifier

You can apply Shear Force either by shaking in a jar or by whisking or blending. This breaks apart the oil, dispersing it through the surrounding liquid.

The emulsifier keeps them from retreating into itself. Whisking & Blending to create an emulsion can take a fair bit of time & effort, so you should consider using a Stick Blender to get a conscient emulsion quickly.

Permanent emulsion like Mayonnaise blending consisting of egg yolks and oil.

If you want to create stable, permanent emulsion, then you need an emulsifying agent to hold the droplets of the opposing liquid together preventing them from separating.

Emulsifying creates a chemical bond with each liquid and becomes a bridge between them.

The most commonly used effective emulsifying agent is egg yolk, because of the protein called lecithin used in Mayonnaise and Hollandaise sauces.

Lecithin holds the sauce together because it’s a long chain molecule. Each particle has one hydrophilic (water friendly) end and one hydrophobic (oil friendly) end. Or in layman's terms, one part likes water (in the vinegar), and another part has an attraction to oil.

As rule of thumb 1 large egg yolk can emulsify 200 grams of oil.

With Hollandaise Sauce, you will need a ratio of 50 to 85 grams of butter for every egg yolk.

Hollandaise Sauce

Image - hollandaise sauce //flic.kr/p/7rjksj

Mayonnaise is a cold emulsified egg sauce while Hollandaise and Béarnaise Sauces need warm emulsified egg & use of butter instead of oil. These sauces need to be made and served warm to keep the butter fluid.

Controlling the Temperature when making and holding a warm emulsified sauces is critical

This is where most people stumble getting & holding the temperature in right range.

Egg yolks, begin to coagulate at 62°C. If you add an acid to your eggs, you can increase this to 95°C. So if you go over this temperature, your sauce will split.

You also need to be mindful Temperature Danger Zone 5°C to 55°C because pathogenic organisms can multiply fast.

So the ideal temperature for making and holding warm emulsified sauces like Hollandaise and Béarnaise Sauces is between 49°C - 63°C. These sauces should not be kept any longer than 1 1/2 to 2 hours, then new need to make a new batch of warm emulsified sauce.

Other emulsifiers which get used are Mustard, Honey & Garlic Paste. So they not only add flavour but also hold the sauces together.

It's going to take some practise to master emulsions, so you get silky, creamy sauces.

So there no time like the present, get cracking.

A handy tool for getting enough force to cause emulsion without a lot effort is a Stick blender. It's ideal for warm emulsified sauces.

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