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[JamieFutureChef7988]

Jacob, on the two occasions thus far which I have been on the line (a one- person line) at the golf course, I had the opportunity to put together the daily special. The first time, we had raviolis and so I tried to prepare a lemon cream sauce to go with them. It tasted great, but by the time the chef came down to help me out during a big rush, It was separated and he noticed and commented " That's a really weak broken sauce, taste pretty good, but its very weak" I later added some buerr manie(kneeded butter and flour) to it and it thickened up like a beautiful alfredo/bechamel sauce and still tasted great. Unfortunately, the chef had already left for the day. Today, the chef brought down some flank steaks for me to slice up and use as the daily special. I decided to make a sauce, since I love making sauces. I sauteed onions in butter untill soft, added 3 tablespoons of brown sugar and 1/4 cup of honey. Then I poured in about 4 cups of worcestershire sauce and reduced it by about 1/2. I then took it off the heat and began adding in some chunked butter, swirling to ensure emulsification. It tasted great and looked like a perfectly formed, rich sauce. However, 10 minutes after setting it down on the line off the heat, the butter seemed to have separated from the worcestershire mixture creating a broken vinagerrette appearance on a spoon. I later added some corn starch slurry to tighten it up, which helped somewhat, but there was still some butter separation. What must I do to ensure that a sauce with butter in it-- mounted or not-- maintains a consistent appearance and texture and does not break??? Should I just leave it on the fire??

[Alessio]

Jamie,
I think that the stability of an emulsified sauce where the continuous medium is water relies on the amount of butter you put in; like in a mayonnaise where we have much more oil than water, idem for a beurre blanc. So probably reducing further the water component or adding more butter should work (unless you use emulsifiers).

[Unity451]

How are you holding the sauce?  It sounds like maybe the sauce is getting too hot.  Even in a bain marie, even though it won't scorch, it can still get well above its ideal holding tempurature.

[JamieFutureChef7988]

I leave my sauces on the grill next to the flame, but not directly on top of the side that is on. I would either keep it on a very low flame on the burner or use a double boiler, but I don't want to leave the burner on all day as the chef would be really pissed off. When I heated up the most recent worcestershire honey butter sauce and stirred it quick it stayed together well. It only slightly leaks out a few fat globules when left off of the heat.

[hac]

Hello,
I finish all my butter sauces in a pre-warmed blender, then move them to a plastic steam table pan with a lid on them within a metal steam table pan and then place them in the steam table. This ensures the sauce maintains the proper temperature. I never let the sauce cool when moving it around. I also boil the butter into the sauce before blending.
My hollandaise sauce is the same way I sayabon  the yolks to 165F whisk in 165F c butter, double pan and keep it all day at 141f plus in the steam table without it breaking no matter how hot the product is I'm placing it on, or plate.

[Zalbar]

[Jacob Burton]

The thermos and steam table both work great. I like to use a touch of Xanthan gum in any emulsion that I wish to hold hot. It makes it much more stable and adds no flavor. If your steam table is too hot, you can simply bring it back together with an emersion blender if you used a little Xanthan Gum during the emulsification process.

[Homecook]

I like to use a touch of Xanthan gum in any emulsion that I wish to hold hot. It makes it much more stable and adds no flavor.

Great tip, thanks Jacob!

[Teddy]

Another way to obtain a hot emulsion is to use agar agar.

[Teddy]

Agar agar makes hot gels, not hot emulsions. My bad on the previous post.

[primechef]

As mentioned, make sure to hold your sauce warmed. Additionally, with just about any butter sauce I make anymore, instead of doing the reduction method I actually basically make a flavored beurre fondue. For this, simply start out with a reduction of whatever you want your flavoring agent to be, then add some chicken stock(or fish, or even veal), and reduce if necessary, slurry this(arrowroot or corn starch), then mount with the butter. This results in a much more stable sauce, and its a very versatile technique- a plain beurre fondue is fantastic for perfectly dressed buttered vegetables.