How to Rescue a Broken Sauce?

Sauces are thickened liquid additions to a recipe, used to enhance the flavor or apperance, or to add moisture. Egg based sauces are available in many differnt forms. Two of the most popular among them are as follows:

1. Mayonnaise is a smooth savoury sauce made from oil and the yolk of eggs. It is an emulsion in which the oil is dispersed in tiny droplets. Egg yolk contains lecithin which prevents the oil and water from separating out. Mayonnaise and Caesar dressing are examples of cold oil sauces containing egg yolks.
2. Hollandaise is a warm emulsion of clarified butter and lemon juice using egg yolk to bind them. This sauce is not exactly Hollandaise but tastes exactly the same and almost never fails.

Steps to prepare the cold Mayonnaise

Stop adding oil as soon as you see the mixture loosen and turn grainy. Adding oil too quickly to an egg yolk or forcing more oil than it can hold will break an emulsion such as mayonnaise. In a separate bowl, whisk together a fresh egg yolk and 1 tbsp. lemon juice. While whisking constantly, drizzle the broken mixture very slowly into the new yolk.

If you're using a blender, transfer the mixture back into the blender jar. Continue whisking or blending in more oil slowly until you obtain the desired consistency. Unrefined oils such as extra-virgin olive oil tend to separate easily, so use pure olive oil or another refined oil to make a more stable mixture.

Tips for preparing and rescuing the broken sauce

1. Place mayonnaise in clean, sanitized storage container. Label and date product. By government standard, this product does not require refrigeration for safety.
2. If olive oil is used, the mayonnaise should be used at once. It cannot be stored under refrigeration because olive oil will crystallize or solidify at refrigeration temperatures and the mayonnaise emulsion will "break" and separate.
3. One can make the whisking process easier by using a kitchen towel. Wet a kitchen towel, or any small towel, until it is very wet and heavy, but not dripping. Coil the towel on top of a flat surface, such as the kitchen countertop or a table. Place the bowl onto the circle. This will provide a steady base for the bowl and allow you to whisk with one hand while adding ingredients with the other.
4. Using clarified butter will allow for a better (easier) emulsion, although much of the flavor in butter comes from those milk solids not found in clarified butter.

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