Holding Hollandaise Sauce

Appears in
Professional Cooking: 10th Edition
Professional Cooking

By Wayne Gisslen

Published 2025

  • About
Hollandaise sauce, as well as other sauces in this family, poses a special safety problem. It must be kept warm for service at a holding temperature of 145°F (63°C) but must not be allowed to get much warmer or the eggs may curdle. Unfortunately, this is only slightly above the Food Danger Zone, at which bacteria grow quickly. Therefore, extra care must be taken to avoid foodborne diseases.
The following sanitation procedures must be observed to avoid the danger of food poisoning:
  1. Make sure all equipment is perfectly clean.
  2. Hold sauce no longer than 2 hours. Make only enough to serve in this time, and discard any that is left over.
  3. Never mix an old batch of sauce with a new batch.
  4. Never hold hollandaise or béarnaise—or any other acid product—in aluminum. Use stainless-steel containers.