Noisette

Hollandaise built on browned butter. One change to the fat and the sauce tastes of hazelnut — which is what its name says.

200 g — butter

3 pc — egg yolk

30 ml — water

15 ml — lemon juice

3 g — salt

Melt the butter and keep it on the heat until the milk solids at the bottom turn the colour of a hazelnut shell and the smell changes. Take it off one shade early — it keeps darkening in the pan.

Let it settle, then pour off the clear browned butter and leave the burnt solids behind. Those solids are bitter and they do not emulsify.

Whisk the yolks with the water over steam to the ribbon, then thread in the browned butter at 55–60 °C. Hotter than that and the emulsion splits faster than with plain butter, because there is less water left in it.

Poached white fish, asparagus, veal escalope.