Sugar in hollandaise sauce and/or mayonnaise?

[CoalTit]

I had eggs benedict in a fancy garden centre café and wondered if the muffin or the spinach had been accidentally contaminated with icing sugar. Eventually I worked out that it was the hollandaise sauce.
A week beforehand an elderly aunt had said she makes mayonnaise with sugar.
Is this normal? Is this something that's come from the USA? I know other people who make their own mayonnaise and they don't put sugar in it.

When I make mayonnaise I add about half tsp sugar to 3 egg yolk quantity, that was how I was taught in catering, however it's not enough to actually sweeten it but just one of the ingredients that go in with the salt/pepper/mustard powder at the start.

I make mayo with light olive oil (which is a mixture of EV and refined). No sugar, just salt, pepper and a big dollop of Dijon mustard and white wine vinegar. I started making it because it's virtually impossible to buy mayo without sugar in it.

I make 1 minute mayo and there's a teaspoon of sugar in it. Not in hollandaise though.

I thought with spinach was eggs Florentine? Isn't Benedict with bacon/ham?

You are correct, @nocoolnamesleft

I expect they used a commercial sauce. They can be sweeter because of the preservatives.

Eggs Florentine is the best breakfast there is, I’m sorry yours was ruined.

Ah. My mistake. Thanks for the correction/clarification. The first café actually called it eggs Atlantic, which I didn't recognise.

I’d never make mayonnaise with sugar, but almost all shop-bought mayo in the UK contains it. I only realised when I had a particularly sweet one and checked the label. Yes, it’s unpleasant.

Pretty much all the mayo manufactured in the uk has sugar or sweetener in. Possibly to a lesser degree than the US stuff.
There are a few exceptions if you look for them. Or make your own.

There's a difference between just a little sugar used almost as a seasoning, to lift certain flavours and maybe slightly counter a little bit of the acidity, and enough sugar to make something taste actively sweet, though. It's maybe a single teaspoon of sugar in an entire bottle/jar of commercial mayo, going by nutritional information for a couple that I looked up to see what the actual figures were. I don't use any sugar when I make my own, but I don't consciously notice a difference specifically in sweetness between homemade and bought. Except that appalling garlic mayo I mentioned before (six and a bloody half per bloody cent sugar!).

I would send back sweetened eggs Benedict for sure!

As an American living in the UK, I find that the store-bought versions of sauces and spreads here in the UK, like ketchup and mayonnaise, are much sweeter than the standard ones you find in the US.

That's interesting because I always hear that complaint from other Europeans in the US! American bread (basic sliced white or hamburger buns) is sweeter, I will agree there.

in the USA I would say that regular mayonnaise doesn't have sugar, or if it does it's a tiny amount. Miracle whip does. Kewpie (Japanese) tastes slightly sweeter, but apparently it's because it uses rice vinegar as the acid. Coleslaw dressing has it added, along with something acidic, so it's sweet and sour. plenty of recipes call for half olive oil, though there's often a warning not to use all olive oil, especially extra virgin.

i have never added sugar to hollandaise or béarnaise sauce. Julia Child (who Americans would rely on) doesn't either. And she doesn't add any sugar to mayonnaise.

I made hollandaise sauce last night using Delia's recipe and there's definitely no sugar. I make mayonnaise a lot and sometimes put a tiny pinch in to balance the flavour. Nothing that would make it taste sweet though.

If the flavour isn't to your taste I think you should say to the restaurant. I'd be annoyed by sweet eggs Benedict.

These recent posts are so interesting. When living in America and now here I miss the traditional Continental mayonnaise I grew up with and now I often make it (no sugar, half the oil is something mild and neutral to avoid bitterness). I agree with @aNewYorkerInLondon that shop bought sauces generally taste sweeter here.

My Chinese friend in America who is an excellent cook uses sugar as a seasoning as @JarByTheDoor discusses. But interestingly she finds most shop bought sauces in America (except for imported Asian sauces) far too sweet.