Hollandaise sauce is the rich, creamy sauce that makes eggs Benedict especially delicious. To make a classic hollandaise sauce, slowly whisk egg yolks with clarified or melted butter and lemon juice to create an emulsion.
This luscious, pale yellow sauce is often drizzled over asparagus or poached fish, and it's an integral part of eggs Benedict, a classic brunch dish with poached eggs, Canadian bacon or ham (or other protein or vegetable) served on a toasted English muffin. In French, sauce hollandaise means "Hollandic sauce" or "Dutch sauce," though a 17th-century French chef gets the credit for its invention. The first known recipe for hollandaise sauce is in François Pierre de la Varenne's 1651 cookbook, Le Cuisinier François, in which it was called "fragrant sauce."