Bearnaise Sauce



Bearnaise sauce is a sauce made of clarified butter emulsified in egg yolks, white wine vinegar and flavored with herbs. It is considered to be a 'child' of the mother Hollandaise sauce, one of the top-ranked French sauces. The difference is only in their flavoring: Bearnaise uses shallot, chervil, peppercorn, and tarragon, while Hollandaise uses lemon juice or white wine. Its name is related to the province of Bearn, France (see below).

Ingredients (6 serving)
250 g unsalted butter
40 ml white vinegar
40 ml dry white wine
2 shallots
4 egg yolks (organic)
8 white peppercorns
8 tarragon sprigs
8 chervil sprigs
8 white peppercorns
Table salt.

The amount of butter in the sauce may seem a lot, but this will serve 6 ! it’s not easy to make a bearnaise in smaller quantities... However you can keep it (covered) a few days in the fridge.


Directions



Prepare the ingredients (butter, herbs, pepper, white wine and vinegar, eggs and shallots) as follows :
  1. Start by butter. In a sauce pan, bring the milk to a light simmer over low heat without whisking. You will see a mousse on top. It’s the casein (milk protein). Under it, it’s lipids (the fat) that you have to remove. You will get a clarified butter that resists to high temperature (until 350°F/180°C).
  2. Cut and chop the two shallots finely. Crush chervil and tarragon together in keeping some leaves for the decoration.
  3. In a saucepan, pour the wine and the vinegar. Add shallots, and a part of the herbs and pepper crushed in a morter. Reduce over medium heat to the ¾. Remove from the stove. When it’s cold, strain through a chinois. Add the egg yolks in the reduction cold and filtered.
  4. Whisk quickly and regularly in making a « 8 ».
  5. Place the saucepan over low heat. Continue the emulsion in controlling the coagulation.
  6. You will get a creamy mousse looking like a sabayon. Check the mixture temperature with the kitchen thermometer. When it’s close to 60°C (100°F) remove the saucepan from the stove.
  7. Incorporate the cold melted clarified butter slowly in keeping whisking (same process as for the mayonnaise). If the sauce is too thick, add a spoon of warm water.
  8. The sauce is now ready. Add the rest of finely chopped fresh herbs.
  9. Cover with plastic film and keep in the fridge (no more than 3 days).
A Bearnaise sauce is delicious with a grilled beef steak.
It can also be an ingredient of an emulsionned sauce (combined to a stock) accompanying a fish fillet such as turbot, sea bass, or codfish.

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Bearnaise sauce in the history....


The sauce was likely first created by the chef Collinet, the inventor of puffed potatoes (pommes de terre soufflées), and served at the 1836 opening of Le Pavillon Henri IV, a restaurant in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, nearby Paris. Evidence for this is reinforced by the fact that the restaurant was named for Henry IV of France, a gourmet himself, who was born in the province of Béarn....

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