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.
Easy
2 people
10 IngredientsLast modified on: May 22th 2016
1 
½ cup 
1⁄3 bunch Chervil
1⁄3 bunch 
2 ½ tablespoons 
2 ½ tablespoons white (spirit) vinegar
1⁄3 pinch 
1⁄3 
Times for this recipe
Preparation: 40 min.
Cooking: 30 min.
All in all: 1 hour 6 min.
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 1⁄3 shallot.
Chop tarragon and chervil finely.
Reserve one teaspoon of chopped herbs for garnishing.
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 2 ½ tablespoons white (spirit) vinegar and 2 ½ tablespoons dry white wine.
Reduce over low heat until you are left with about 1/5 of the original volume.
Reduce over low heat until you are left with about 1/5 of the original volume.
Stage 4 - 3 min.
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.
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 ½ cup 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.
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 1 egg yolk, sauce base, and 1⁄3 pinch flour in the bowl over the bain-marie.
Put 1 egg yolk, sauce base, and 1⁄3 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.
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.
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 | 3 RDI=1 % | 2 RDI=0 % | 80 RDI=10 % | 700 RDI=40 % | 2,940 RDI: 40 % |
| Per 100 g | 1 RDI=1 % | 1 RDI=0 % | 40 RDI=6 % | 380 RDI=20 % | 1,600 RDI: 20 % |
| Per person | 1 RDI=1 % | 1 RDI=0 % | 40 RDI=6 % | 350 RDI=20 % | 1,470 RDI: 20 % |
How much will it cost?
- For 2 people : 1.85 €
- 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)
Butter
Like these other recipes: Apple and whisky crumble, Caribbean upside-down cake, Chocolate muffins, Pork medallions with "full" turnips, Gratin slices with spinach, ... See them all 470
Dry white wine
Like these other recipes: Pork chops with a duo of brassicas, Cod loin with saffron, Filet mignon with mustard and tarragon sauce, Salmon with sorrel, Seb's Italian-style aperitif slices, ... See them all 68
White (spirit) vinegar
Like these other recipes: Mackerel Fillets in White Wine, How to prepare corn salad, How to prepare cabbage, Provençal remoulade sauce, Sautéed chicken with leeks, ... See them all 18
Egg yolk
Like these other recipes: Little lemon biscuits, Key Lime Pie for Jeremy, Spaghetti with smoked salmon, Clementine Creamy, Chicken breasts in a potato crust, ... See them all 73
Other recipes you may also like
Cervelle de Canut
In French, this curious name means "silk-weaver's brain", but don't be alarmed, this tasty "brain" consists of cottage cheese mixed with herbs, vinegar and finely chopped shallots. The Canuts were the silk weavers in the area around Lyon, France. In the nineteenth century this was one of their...August 1st 202130 K 1 hour 25 min.
Crème brulée
Crème brûlée (burned cream) is quite easy to prepare: it's a simple egg-cream dessert. The only difficulty is in making the delicious crunchy caramel layer on top. The perfect crème brulée (for me) is a cold and soft cream, with on top a nice hot caramel crust. This is a completely new version...December 31th 20111.67 M 74.3 4 hours 40 min.
Candied grapefruit peel
Not really a dessert, more a kind of sweet. After soakiing, strips of grapefruit skin are cooked very slowly to conservethem in sugar. It's a real treat with coffee at the end of a meal.December 20th 2018378 K 14 1 day 1 hour 25 min.
Fresh fruit in sabayon
Fresh grapefruit and / or pears, covered with a sabayon and a pinch of citrus crunch.February 21th 2011290 K4.7 55 min.
Passion fruit jellies
Usually to make fruit jellies or (fruit "paste"), it's like jam but you need to cook fruit pulp and sugar much longer. Unfortunately, this long cooking is bad for both vitamins and flavour. In this recipe we use a special jam gelling agent, to reduce cooking time as much as possible .July 4th 2018336 K4 2 hours 30 min.
News list of cooking-ez.com
Sign up to receive the latest recipes (next batch due to be sent on 2025-06-08)
Note: We'll never share your e-mail address with anyone else.
Post a comment or question
Follow this recipe
If you are interested in this recipe, you can "follow" it, by entering your email address here. You will then receive a notification immediately each time the recipe is modified or a new comment is added. Please note that you will need to confirm this following.
Note: We'll never share your e-mail address with anyone else.
Alternatively: you can subscribe to the mailing list of cooling-ez.com , you will receive a e-mail for each new recipe published on the site.