Hollandaise

Just wondering: given that pregnant women aren't meant to eat undercooked eggs, can you eat Hollandaise sauce prepared in a cafe?? I've looked in a couple of recipe books - in one the egg is cooked (after mixed with everything else, in the other it's not (just whisked into melted butter etc).
i.e. Is eggs benny still on the Saturday morning menu? and don't you get sick of asking what's in stuff and asking for things to be left out when out for a meal?

Oh and I agree with Jess, a poached egg just aint a poached egg when it's overcooked

DO NOT RISK IT if you are pregnant!! (Comments from an ex Chef)

It is not just the fact that it has raw egg in in that you need to be careful about.Even in the best of circumstances I would never eat hollandaise sauce unless I knew it had been made within the last half an hour (Stuff bought in jars from the supermarket is a different story as it is prepared differently).

Traditionally hollandaise is made from a warmed emulsion of raw eggs and vinegar to which melted butter is added.
To keep the emulsion (ie to keep the sauce blended and to stop it from splitting) the sauce has to be kept warm at a temperature of between 20 - 40C. Just the right temperature for all those bacteria and food poisioning toxins to flourish. Basic food hygiene standards means that the hollandaise should be used within two hours of making it or be thrown out and a new batch made.

After 10 years of working in the hospitality industry I never came across a place that did this. It's not practical as it can be time consuming to make in the middle of a busy service. The only time during the day they ever made a new lot was if they ran out

I spent a couple of years as an Exec Chef of a small hotel and refused to have hollandaise on my menu for this reason - its too much of a health risk for everyone, not just pregnant woman. Ask for a sauce called Beurre Blanc (White Butter sauce) which is reasonably similar but does not contain any egg

Edited to correct spelling

Edited by KABJ99

Thanks for your thoughts girls, esp KABJ99 - great to ahve an expert opinion! funnily enough (or not!), there was an item on the radio yesterday about a guy who died a few hours after eating asparagus with sauce in a restaurant - I gather the sauce was hollandaise.

Oh Same....I cant stand cooked through eggs...and I LOVE the Hollandaise sauce you get in the fridge at the supermarket...I wonder what the packet ones are like that Maggi does????? But then still need RUNNY eggs.....


What about Aioli...I am rather impartial to that with chips..YUMMO!

the maggi ones from the packet are yuck. Def not the same! I am sick of scrambled eggs now. I love poached eggs but like the rest of you, they need to be runny Have started having omelettes when I go out for breakfast now but come August I can't wait to get to my 'local' and have eggs benny!!