Béarnaise sauce
A derivative of hollandaise — one of the five mother sauces of French cooking — and the classic partner for steak. It is an emulsion of yolks and butter, so the whole battle is over temperature. Above about 65°C the yolks set and the sauce turns to scrambled egg. Let it cool too far and the butter firms up and the emulsion breaks. There is one answer: a bain-marie and butter added in a very thin stream, never faster.
Your own work in that: 10 min.
- Reduction 15 min
- Yolk sabayon 8 min
- Adding the butter 10 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneReduce vinegar and wine almost dry
Boil the vinegar, wine, shallots, tarragon stalks and crushed pepper until only 2 tablespoons of liquid remain. Stalks, not leaves — in long boiling the leaves darken and lose their fresh aroma, while the stalks give the reduction its flavour well. The chopped leaves go into the sauce at the end.
Ingredients: 80 ml tarragon vinegar · 80 ml white wine · 2 pcs shallots · 1 bunch tarragon · 1 tsp peppercorns
Down to two spoonfuls — and stalks only, not leaves.Strain and cool the reduction
Strain the reduction through a sieve, pressing, and cool it to lukewarm. Hot reduction poured into the yolks sets them instantly — the commonest way to ruin the sauce before it has begun.
Ingredients: 80 ml tarragon vinegar · 80 ml white wine · 2 pcs shallots · 1 bunch tarragon · 1 tsp peppercorns
Whisk the yolks over a bain-marie
Mix the yolks with the reduction and two spoons of water and whisk over a pan of barely steaming water. The base of the bowl must not touch the water — that is the quickest route to overheating and set yolks. The yolks in this sauce are only gently warmed, so do not serve it to young children, pregnant women or elderly people unless you use pasteurised eggs.
Ingredients: 4 pcs egg yolks · 250 g clarified butter · 2 tbsp water · ½ tsp salt · ½ pcs lemon
Whisk to a sabayon, up to 4 minutes
Whisk 3–4 minutes, until the mixture triples, pales and holds a clear track from the whisk. That is the sabayon — a base in which the butter suspends easily; without it the sauce splits far more readily.
Ingredients: 4 pcs egg yolks · 250 g clarified butter · 2 tbsp water · ½ tsp salt · ½ pcs lemon
Tripled and holding a track — that is a sabayon.Take it off the heat before the butter
Lift the bowl off the bain-marie and set it on a folded cloth so it cannot slide. Butter added over heat raises the temperature too fast — from here the bowl's residual warmth is entirely enough.
Ingredients: 4 pcs egg yolks · 250 g clarified butter · 2 tbsp water · ½ tsp salt · ½ pcs lemon
Add the butter drop by drop, then in a stream
Add the warm clarified butter drop by drop at first, whisking without pause, and once the sauce thickens, in a thin stream. The first 50 g decide it: added too fast they never bind and no emulsion forms at all.
Ingredients: 4 pcs egg yolks · 250 g clarified butter · 2 tbsp water · ½ tsp salt · ½ pcs lemon
The first fifty grams drop by drop — then a stream.Rescue a splitting sauce with cold water
If the sauce starts to separate, take it off the heat and beat in a spoonful of iced water, whisking hard. Most of the time it comes back. If not, whisk a fresh yolk and drip the broken sauce into it.
Ingredients: 4 pcs egg yolks · 250 g clarified butter · 2 tbsp water · ½ tsp salt · ½ pcs lemon
Fold in the tarragon and serve warm
Stir in the chopped tarragon, chervil, salt, white pepper and lemon juice. Serve warm, not hot — around 50–60°C is right. Never reheat over a flame, or the sauce splits.
Ingredients: 3 tbsp tarragon · 1 tbsp chervil · ¼ tsp white pepper
Before you start
Clarified butter, not ordinary
Ordinary butter is 16 per cent water, which thins the emulsion and makes the sauce split sooner. Clarified is pure fat — the sauce comes out thicker and more stable, and it copes better with being kept warm.
Béarnaise is hollandaise with a reduction
The difference between hollandaise and béarnaise is the reduction: one is usually soured with lemon, the other with vinegar, shallot and tarragon. The emulsion technique is identical, so mastering one gives you both.
An hour in a flask
Béarnaise does not take to the fridge or to reheating. It holds about an hour somewhere warm — best in a flask rinsed with boiling water, or a bowl over warm but not hot water. Do not keep it longer: a lukewarm yolk sauce is a good home for bacteria. Otherwise always make it at the last minute.