© HLPhoto – stock.adobe.com
The famous sauce, which we Germans usually serve in April during the asparagus season, originally comes from France. There it is also served with fish, meat and vegetables. Anyone who has ever made the sauce themselves knows that you have to be very sensitive to it, otherwise you just won't get the sauce the way you want it to. However, can you actually eat it during pregnancy?
How is the classic Hollandaise sauce prepared?
The ingredients of the hollandaise sauce are melted butter, egg yolk, water, lemon juice, salt and pepper. The Hollandaise sauce is often refined with white wine. In the classic preparation, the egg yolk is stirred with water and lemon juice and salt over a water bath until the mixture becomes creamy. It is important that the egg yolk is not heated too much (i.e. the water in the water bath must not boil), otherwise it will start to set and lumps will form. Then take it out of the water bath and slowly add the melted butter while stirring constantly. Here, too, the difficulty lies in carefully stirring in the butter, otherwise the connection between water and fat will break and it will not become a creamy, uniform mass. However, if everything went well, the sauce is seasoned with salt and pepper and served immediately. Unfortunately, you can't reheat it, otherwise it will curdle.
Hollandaise sauce during pregnancy
Unfortunately, homemade hollandaise sauce is not allowed during pregnancy due to the raw egg yolk.
As you may have guessed above, homemade classic hollandaise sauce is not recommended during pregnancy due to the raw egg yolk, which has not been cooked enough. Raw eggs can contain bacteria such as salmonella. If salmonella poisoning occurs, you would suffer from vomiting, diarrhea and also fever. Although it cannot be directly harmful to your child, the loss of fluids during pregnancy can have negative effects on your child.
You should ask the restaurant how they make the hollandaise sauce. However, you are on the safe side if you do without it during pregnancy.
Recipe: Homemade hollandaise sauce without eggs
When preparing without egg, you are not only on the safe side because of the raw egg, but also because of the complicated preparation, which is not necessary here. In the recipe without eggs, the hollandaise sauce is made from a roux and is therefore permitted during pregnancy.
Ingredients (for 4 people):
• 100 g butter
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 200 ml water
• 50 ml sweet cream
• lemon juice
• salt and pepper
Preparation:
First, melt the butter in a small saucepan. Then the flour is added very slowly for the roux. The water is now carefully added while stirring constantly. You let the whole thing boil up briefly and then take the pot off the stove. Add sweet cream and season the hollandaise sauce with lemon juice, salt and pepper.
Hollandaise sauce from the tetra pack from Thomy, Knorr etc.
The ready-made sauces don't quite come close to the homemade hollandaise sauce – but offer a good alternative. The industrial or finished products usually do not contain eggs and butter at all, but vegetable oil. And if they contain eggs, as is the case with Knorr and Thomy, they have already been heated so that they can no longer contain salmonella.
It's the same with aioli and mayonnaise: the ones that are homemade you'd better avoid because of the raw eggs; you can eat the ones you get packaged in jars or tubes in the supermarket without hesitation.
What did I need for my baby's initial equipment and what can you do without? Here’my personal checklist for a baby's initial equipment!