Thanks. I use direct heat and have just started adding the butter to the yolks rather than yolks to butter. I’ll proceed more slowly and at a lower temperature.
I’m not sure if I’m reading the sentence right, but, to make perfectly clear, you add the butter to the yolks. So, melt your butter in one saucepan (if you clarify it, even better.) Or, heck, you can do it in the microwave in a bowl, just as well. Let it cool down a little bit. Heat your yolks in another saucepan and stir them until they thicken to about the consistency of cream. Be very careful as it’s easy to overheat if you’re doing the direct heat way. Almost all cookbooks will advise you to use a double boiler. Slowly add the cooled butter to the yolks, and proceed as usual. It’s more-or-less the same idea as mayonnaise.
Excellent, thanks.
I make my hollandaise over direct heat, but I use chilled pats of butter, adding them one at a time. They slowly melt in the warm yolk/water/lemon juice mixture (basically a sabayon) as you whisk. Takes a little longer, and takes a bit to adapt if you’re used to the melted-butter method, but reduces the risk of curdling by a significant margin.
Oooo. I like that idea!
Ooo. I have most of a box of eggs, and this thread is making me want to try. However I’m slightly worried that I’ll end up giving myself no end of misery if I screw up mayo or hollandaise sauce. I’ve never made either, and from what I understand, it takes practice to make either, right?
Also, I’m trying to stay out of the gutter, here, and all y’all aren’t making it easy. 
I have no problem with mayonnaise, From the NYT cookbook, I put egg yolks and olive oil, one yolk per cup into Mrs. Plant’s food processor and zap away. Seems there is some lemon juice involved, 1/8 as much oil.
Hollandaise, eh, sometimes great, sometimes the dog gets it. 
Mayonnaise is easy. Just requires patience. Hollandaise is more finicky, but there’s easy ways of doing it with a blender. (Just google “blender hollandaise.”) You can also make mayonnaise easily with a blender.
The basic rules are as follows:
For every egg yolk, you’re going to need about 1/2 cup of oil. I use a half and half mixture of extra virgin olive oil and neutral vegetable oil.
So, let’s do it with two egg yolks and 1 cup of oil:
Put the egg yolks in bowl. Beat them with a whisk or electric hand-held mixer until the yolks thicken and turn lemony yellow. Now, here’s the important part that requires patience. For the first third of a cup or so, you have to add the oil very very slowly. I start a couple of drops at a time, then move up to teaspoonfuls. Put in a couple drops, mix, and don’t continue until you see that all the oil has been absorbed by the yolk (you can tell because it will look homogenous), then add more. After you get 1/3 or so done, you can start adding in a slow stream, whisking constantly. If you see oil starting to pool, just hold off on the oil, whisk it together until it looks homogenous again, and continue.
You’ll only screw it up if you try to rush it. For a cup of mayo, it takes me 5-10 minutes to whisk by hand. I’m probably a little slow, but I’m extra cautious and have never had a mayonnaise break on me.
As for the extra ingredients (usually, for me, lemon, a little dijon, salt, pepper), I start adding those slowly about a third of the way through, or I just dump them in at the end. The usual method is to start with your lemon, yolk, and salt beaten together at the beginning. To be honest, I really can’t tell any difference in flavor between when I do it at the beginning, or if I do it at the end. To me, it’s easier to do it at the end because I can correct the flavors much more easily.
takes notes I’ll have to try making mayo sometime – thanks for all the hints!