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Béarnaise sauce

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.

309K 15 4.3

Last modified on: May 22^th 2016

Keywords for this recipe:Sauce Traditional French Tarragon Chervil Vinegar

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

Change to the quantities for: 2 people 3 people 6 people 12 people 18 people

Change measures: Metric

Metric weight Metric volumes

How long does it take?

Time required for this recipe:

Preparation	Cooking	Start to finish
36 min.	30 min.	1 hour 6 min.

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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.

Nutritional information

Whole recipe
Energetic value	Proteins	Carbohydrates	Fats
2,067 Kcal or 8,654 Kj	9 gr	7 gr	223 gr
103 %	3 %	1 %	34 %

Per 100 g
Energetic value	Proteins	Carbohydrates	Fats
386 Kcal or 1,616 Kj	2 gr	1 gr	42 gr
19 %	1 %	<1 %	6 %

Per person
Energetic value	Proteins	Carbohydrates	Fats
344 Kcal or 1,440 Kj	1 gr	1 gr	37 gr
17 %	1 %	<1 %	6 %

% are calculated relative to a Recommended Dietary Intake or RDI of 2000 k-calories or 8400 k-joules by day for a woman (change to a man).

How much will it cost?

For 6 people : 5.40 €
Per person : 0.90 €

Change currency:

Note : These prices are only approximate.

Source

Nicolas.

This recipe uses (among others)

	Butter: You can get more informations, or check-out other recipes which use it, for example: Polenta with spinach and soft-poached egg, Poppy seed and lemon cake, Thin spinach and potato tart, Sautéed Green Vegetables, Crispy prawn rolls, ... All
	Dry white wine: You can get more informations, or check-out other recipes which use it, for example: Seafood sauerkraut, Pork chops with a duo of brassicas, Fillets of sole Dieppoise, Sausage mushroom and cheese crumble, Seven-hour lamb, ... All
	White (spirit) vinegar: You can check-out other recipes which use it, like for example: Puff or flaky pastry (pâte feuilletée), Caesar salad, How to prepare corn salad, Pickled gherkins, Cervelle de Canut, ... All
	Egg yolk: You can get more informations, or check-out other recipes which use it, for example: Key Lime Pie for Jeremy, Panettone, Gâteau Breton (Brittany butter cake), Hollandaise sauce, Coffee custard, ... All

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