Hollandaise Sauce (HOL-uhn-dayz) - Hollandaise mean Holland-style or from Holland. Uses butter and egg yolks as binding. It is served hot with vegetables, fish, and eggs (like egg benedict). It will be a pale lemon color, opaque, but with a luster not appearing oily. The basic sauce and its variations should have a buttery-smooth texture, almost frothy, and an aroma of good butter. Making this emulsified sauce requires a good deal of practice — it is not for the faint of heart. Béarnaise sauce, which is "related" to hollandaise sauce, is most often served with steak.
History - Most historians agree that it was originally called Sauce Isigny after a town in Normandy, Isigny-sur-Mer, known for its butter. Today, Normandy is called the cream capital of France. During World War I, butter production came to a halt in France and had to be imported from Holland. The name was changed to hollandaise to indicate the source of the butter and was never changed back.
17th Century - Sauce Hollandaise, as we now know it, is the modern descendant of earlier forms of a sauce believed to have been brought to France by the Heugenots. It appears to have actually been a Flemish or Dutch sauce thickened with eggs, like a savory custard, with a little butter beaten in to smooth the texture.
1651 - Francois Pierre de La Varenne (1618-1678), in his cookbook, Le cuisine françois (The True French Cook) has a recipe for a similar sauce in his recipe for Asparagus in Fragrant Sauce:
"Choose the largest, scrape the bottoms and wash, then cook in water, salt well, and don't let them cook too much. When cooked, put them to drain, make a sauce with good fresh butter, a little vinegar, salt, and nutmeg, and an egg yolk to bind the sauce; take care that it doesn't curdle; and serve the asparagus garnished as you like."
Excerpt from:
The History of Sauces
History - Most historians agree that it was originally called Sauce Isigny after a town in Normandy, Isigny-sur-Mer, known for its butter. Today, Normandy is called the cream capital of France. During World War I, butter production came to a halt in France and had to be imported from Holland. The name was changed to hollandaise to indicate the source of the butter and was never changed back.
17th Century - Sauce Hollandaise, as we now know it, is the modern descendant of earlier forms of a sauce believed to have been brought to France by the Heugenots. It appears to have actually been a Flemish or Dutch sauce thickened with eggs, like a savory custard, with a little butter beaten in to smooth the texture.
1651 - Francois Pierre de La Varenne (1618-1678), in his cookbook, Le cuisine françois (The True French Cook) has a recipe for a similar sauce in his recipe for Asparagus in Fragrant Sauce:
"Choose the largest, scrape the bottoms and wash, then cook in water, salt well, and don't let them cook too much. When cooked, put them to drain, make a sauce with good fresh butter, a little vinegar, salt, and nutmeg, and an egg yolk to bind the sauce; take care that it doesn't curdle; and serve the asparagus garnished as you like."
Excerpt from:
The History of Sauces
.....Eggs and oil are going to make what now?

(As if you hadn't already considered that angle)