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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.

348 K 4.3/5 (15 reviews)

1 hour 6 min. difficulté

Easy

£4.55

6 people

10 Ingredients

Last modified on: May 22^th 2016

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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

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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 %

The % figures are calculated in relation to the Recommended Dietary Intake , or RDI of 2,000 k-calories (or 8,400 k-joules) per day for a woman Change to a man

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

How much will it cost?

For 6 people : £4.55
Per person : £0.80

Change currency:

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

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