1,549 easy and fully explained recipes, with +66K photos and 78 videos

This site uses only a few technical cookies necessary for its operation. By continuing to browse, you accept their use.
To find out more...

Béarnaise sauce

Name: Béarnaise sauce
Prep time: 36 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 1 h 6 min
Yield: 6 people
Cuisine: French
Ingredients: 2 egg yolks; 250 g butter; 1 bunch Chervil; 1 bunch tarragon; 100 ml dry white wine; 100 ml white (spirit) vinegar; 1 pinch flour; 1 shallot; salt; pepper

This very tasty sauce, flavoured with tarragon, chervil and shallot, with its hint of acidity, is perfect for grilled fish or meats. Its well-known as a difficult sauce, but here are all the tips that you need to succeed.

364 K 4.3/5 (15 reviews)

1 hour 6 min. difficulté

Easy

5.40 €

6 people

10 Ingredients

Last modified on: May 22^th 2016

For 6 people, you will need:

1 2 egg yolks
2 250 g butter
3 1 bunch Chervil
4 1 bunch tarragon
5 100 ml dry white wine
6 100 ml white (spirit) vinegar
7 1 pinch flour
8 1 shallot
9 salt
10 pepper
Total weight: 535 grams

Times for this recipe

Preparation: 40 min.

Cooking: 30 min.

All in all: 1 hour 6 min.

When should you start or finish this recipe?

If you start now, at , you will finish around : ?.Change start time

To finish around 7pm, you'll need to have started before: .Change end time

Step by step recipe

Stage 1 - ⌛ 10 min.

Peel and chop finely 1 shallot.

Chop tarragon and chervil finely.

Reserve one teaspoon of chopped herbs for garnishing.

Stage 2 - ⌛ 1 min.

Put shallot and herbs in a small pan, salt and pepper generously.

Stage 3 - ⌛ 15 min.

Pour in 100 ml white (spirit) vinegar and 100 ml dry white wine.

Reduce over low heat until you are left with about 1/5 of the original volume.

Stage 4 - ⌛ 3 min.

Pour the contents of the pan into a chinois or a strainer, and squeeze herbs to extract the juices.

Stage 5

You should get only 2 to 4 tablespoons of this tasty liquid which is the base for your sauce.

This base could be made several days beforehand, and kept in a sealed jar in the fridge.

Stage 6 - ⌛ 5 min.

On the day, melt 250 g butter, remove the foam which rises to the top and discard it.

Your goal is to clarify the butter, removing as far as possbile the white impurities (whey) which will be left on the bottom.

Leave to cool.

Stage 7 - ⌛ 5 min.

Prepare a bain-marie.

Put 2 egg yolks, sauce base, and 1 pinch flour in the bowl over the bain-marie.

Stage 8 - ⌛ 10 min.

Put over low heat, and beat to form a sabayon.

Stage 9

Continue to beat until it thickens, and "holds" the whisk.

Stage 10

Then add the melted butter, a little at a time, while beating continously.

Stage 11 - ⌛ 15 min.

Your Béarnaise will develop its texture. Continue until all the butter is added, apart from the very last bit in the container with all the impurities (discard).

Stage 12 - ⌛ 2 min.

And finally add the spoonful of herbs.

Serve without too much delay. If your dish is not ready, leave the sauce to wait in the bain-marie, not too hot, with a lid.

Remarks

Some technical words: Béarnaise is a sauce of the warm emulsified kind (like hollandaise and mousseline), which means a hot base, here a well-flavoured sabayon, where butter is added to get this smooth texture.

Usually chefs make bearnaise in a different way: everything in a single pan, without a bain-marie. Faster, but more difficult.

Keeping: A few minutes, not more.

Source: Nicolas.

Nutritional information

	Proteins (gr)	Carbohydrates (gr)	Fats (gr)	Energy value (in k-calories)	Energy value (in k-joules)
Whole recipe	8 RDI=3 %	6 RDI=1 %	220 RDI=30 %	2,070 RDI=100 %	8,650 RDI: 100 %
Per 100 g	1 RDI=1 %	1 RDI=0 %	40 RDI=6 %	390 RDI=20 %	1,620 RDI: 20 %
Per person	1 RDI=1 %	1 RDI=0 %	40 RDI=6 %	340 RDI=20 %	1,440 RDI: 20 %

Possible allergens in this recipe: egg, milk, Sulfites, Gluten

How much will it cost?

For 6 people : 5.45 €
Per person : 0.95 €

Change currency:

Note: Be careful, these prices are only an estimate, you can consult the table of prices by ingredients used for this estimate.

This recipe uses (among others)

Other recipes you may also like

Small cheese and bacon rolls

These small aperitif snacks can be prepared in advance and heated at the last minute, or served cold.

September 7^th 2018374 K5 1 hour 25 min.

Home-made terrine of foie gras

Preparing your own home-made foie gras from raw is immensively satisfying: good quality liver and a simply amazing flavour – much better than anything you can buy. This recipe is a bit tricky, but quite within everyone's grasp, as long as you follow the 3 most delicate stages carefully. These are, in order: de-veining the liver, seasoning and cooking. As usual, I have explained every stage of the recipe in full, with photos to help you.

December 16^th 20245.32 M 74.2 4 days 15 hours 50 min.

Ham "friand" pie

A "friand" (the word means "fond"!) is a sort of French pasty. This pie-style version has two layers of puff pastry filled with a mixture of cheese, ham and bechamel sauce.

September 8^th 2018104 K4.2 1 hour 5 min.

Fried egg in bread

This is a novel way to cook an egg in the middle of a slice of fried bread. For a continental twist to the English breakfast, it comes with a slice of grilled bacon and a little pesto. The tricky part (explained in full in the recipe) is to cook the egg white through but keep the yolk runny.

September 8^th 2015138 K 15 30 min.

Winegrowers' sausage casserole

This sausage casserole is a simple mix of vegetables with smoked sausage, but the cooking liquid in this case is dry white wine (and hence the name). The casserole is cooked long and slow in the oven with a lid. This allows all the flavours of the vegetables, wine and sausage to mingle harmoniously.

March 19^th 201875 K 2 hours 40 min.

News list of cooking-ez.com

Note: We'll never share your e-mail address with anyone else.