Béarnaise sauce

Béarnaise sauce (/bərˈneɪz/; French: [be.aʁ.nɛz] ^ⓘ) is a sauce made of clarified butter, egg yolk, white wine vinegar, and herbs. It is regarded as a "child" of hollandaise sauce.^[1] The difference is in the flavoring: béarnaise uses shallot, black pepper, and tarragon, while hollandaise uses white pepper or a pinch of cayenne.

Béarnaise sauce

Type	Sauce
Place of origin	France
Main ingredients	Egg yolk, clarified butter, white wine vinegar, herbs
Cookbook: Béarnaise sauce   Media: Béarnaise sauce

The sauce's name derives from the province of Béarn, France. It is a traditional sauce for steak.^[2][3]

History

According to a common explanation, the sauce was accidentally invented by the chef Jean-Louis-François Collinet, the accidental inventor of puffed potatoes (pommes de terre soufflées),^[4] and served at the 1836 opening of Le Pavillon Henri IV, a restaurant at Saint-Germain-en-Laye. The restaurant was in the former residence of Henry IV of France, a gourmet himself, who was from Béarn.^[4][5]

Although the sauce is a French invention, it caught on in the Nordic countries in the late 20th century, where it forms a major part of local steak cuisine with steaks and fries,^[6] and is occasionally used there as topping on pizza, whether as part of the pizza or as a cold dressing put on afterwards.

Preparation

See also: Hollandaise sauce § Preparation

A Béarnaise sauce is simply clarified butter, an egg yolk, a shallot, a little tarragon vinegar. It takes years of practice for the result to be perfect. – Fernand Point ^[7]

As with hollandaise, there are several methods for preparing béarnaise.

The most common method of preparation uses a bain-marie, whisking to a temperature of 66 °C (150 °F),^[8] where a reduction of vinegar is used to acidify the yolks.

Auguste Escoffier^[2] calls for a reduction of wine, vinegar, shallots, fresh chervil, fresh tarragon, and crushed peppercorns (later strained out), with fresh tarragon and chervil to finish instead of lemon juice. Others are similar.^[9]

Alternatively, the flavorings may be added to a finished hollandaise (without lemon juice). Joy of Cooking^[10] describes a blender preparation with the same ingredients.

Derivatives

• Sauce Choron (also called béarnaise tomatée) uses tomato purée instead of herbs.^[10][11] It is named after Alexandre Étienne Choron.
• Sauce Foyot (also called Valois) is béarnaise with meat glaze (glace de viande) added.^[10][12]
• Sauce Paloise uses mint instead of tarragon.^[13]

See also

• Food portal

• List of sauces
• Steak sauce

References

1. The family is sometimes referred to as "mayonnaise sauces" as they are, like mayonnaise, based on the emulsion of an oil in egg water.
2. Escoffier: 89
3. Julia Child
4. "La sauce béarnaise". 16 May 2015.
5. "What is Bearnaise sauce? | Cookthink". Archived from the original on 2009-06-02. Retrieved 2010-03-08.
6. "Ad libitum: Populære bøfrestauranter inviterer på steak fries og bearnaise" (in Danish). MigogKbh. 21 April 2023. Retrieved 21 June 2023.
7. Restaurateur Fernand Point (1897–1955) in Ma Gastronomie.
8. "How to Make Hollandaise | A French Mother Sauce | Stella Culinary".
9. Cookwise, pp.304–5
10. Joy of Cooking p.359
11. Escoffier: 90
12. Escoffier: 91
13. Escoffier: 141

Sources

• Child, Julia; Louisette Bertholle; Simone Beck (1961). Mastering the Art of French Cooking. New York: Knopf.
• Corriher, Shirley (1997). "Ch. 4: sauce sense". Cookwise, the Hows and Whys of Successful Cooking (1st ed.). New York: William Morrow & Company, Inc. ISBN 0688102298.
• David, Elizabeth (1960). French Provincial Cooking. Penguin. ISBN 978-0-14-118153-0.
• Escoffier, Auguste (1982) [Trans. fm 4th French (Flammarion) ed. 1921]. "Ch. 1: Sauces". La Guide Culinaire [The Complete Guide to the Art of Modern Cookery] (in French). English translation by H.L. Cracknell and R.J. Kaufmann (First American ed.). New York: Mayflower Books. ISBN 0-8317-5478-8.
• Rombauer, Irma S.; Rombauer Becker, Marion (1975). Joy of Cooking. New York: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc. (MacMillan). ISBN 0-02-604570-2.

External links

• Béarnaise sauce from the British Good Food TV channel