How To Emulsify: Culinary School Secrets From The Little Foodie Recipe

The thought of making your own mayonnaise or hollandaise may seem daunting to even the most dedicated home cook. However both of these sauces, as well as hundreds of others, fall under the same principle of emulsification, which I promise is not as scary as it sounds.Emulsifying a sauce essentially means to combine two liquids that would normally not mix, with the help of an "emulsifier."  For example, think of your standard salad dressing: oil and vinegar. When placed into a container together, the oil sits atop the vinegar, refusing to mix for longer than a few fleeting moments after a good shake. But, when an emulsifier is whisked into the party, such as an egg yolk or some Dijon mustard, the dressing becomes thicker and more cohesive. Voila: an emulsion. In culinary school, we break this concept down even further into warm emulsions and cold emulsions. A cold emulsion, like a mayonnaise, requires only agitation with a whisk to emulsify and thicken, whereas a warm emulsion, such as a hollandaise, needs some heat. I'm not going to lie; warm emulsions are extremely fussy and can easily "break." But don't fret if you have a few disastrous hollandaise; practice makes perfect...and perfect eggs benedict.