Béarnaise sauce

Sauce made of clarified butter and egg yolk

Cookbook: Béarnaise sauce
Media: Béarnaise sauce

Béarnaise sauce (/bərˈneɪz/; French: [be.aʁ.nɛz]) is a sauce made of butter, egg yolk, white-wine vinegar, and herbs. It is regarded as a "child" of hollandaise sauce.^[1] The difference is only in the flavoring: béarnaise uses shallot, black pepper, and tarragon, while hollandaise uses white pepper or a pinch of cayenne.

The sauce's name derives from the province of Béarn, France. It is a traditional sauce for steak.^[2]^[3]

History

Legend has it that the sauce was accidentally^{[dubious – discuss]} invented by the chef Jean-Louis-François Collinet, the accidental inventor of puffed potatoes (pommes de terre soufflées),^[4] and served at the 1836 opening of Le Pavillon Henri IV, a restaurant at Saint-Germain-en-Laye. The restaurant was in the former residence of Henry IV of France, a gourmet himself, who was from Béarn.^[4]^[5]

Although the sauce is a French invention, it caught on in the Nordic countries in the late 20th century, where it forms a major part of local steak cuisine with steaks and fries,^[6] and is occasionally used there as topping on pizza, whether as part of the pizza or as a cold dressing put on afterwards.

Preparation

A Béarnaise sauce is simply clarified butter, an egg yolk, a shallot, a little tarragon vinegar. It takes years of practice for the result to be perfect. – Fernand Point ^[7]

As with hollandaise, there are several methods for preparing béarnaise.

The most common method of preparation uses a bain-marie, whisking to a temperature of 66 °C (150 °F),^[8] where a reduction of vinegar is used to acidify the yolks.

Auguste Escoffier^[2] calls for a reduction of wine, vinegar, shallots, fresh chervil, fresh tarragon, and crushed peppercorns (later strained out), with fresh tarragon and chervil to finish instead of lemon juice. Others are similar.^[9]

Alternatively, the flavorings may be added to a finished hollandaise (without lemon juice). Joy of Cooking^[10] describes a blender preparation with the same ingredients.

Derivatives

Sauce Choron (also called béarnaise tomatée) uses tomato purée instead of herbs.^[10]^[11] It is named after Alexandre Étienne Choron.
Sauce Foyot (also called Valois) is béarnaise with meat glaze (glace de viande) added.^[10]^[12]
Sauce Paloise uses mint instead of tarragon.^[13]

References

^ The family is sometimes referred to as "mayonnaise sauces" as they are, like mayonnaise, based on the emulsion of an oil in egg water.
^ ^a ^b Escoffier: 89
^ Julia Child
^ ^a ^b "La sauce béarnaise". 16 May 2015.
^ "What is Bearnaise sauce? | Cookthink". Archived from the original on 2009-06-02. Retrieved 2010-03-08.
^ "Ad libitum: Populære bøfrestauranter inviterer på steak fries og bearnaise" (in Danish). MigogKbh. 21 April 2023. Retrieved 21 June 2023.
^ Restaurateur Fernand Point (1897–1955) in Ma Gastronomie.
^ "How to Make Hollandaise | A French Mother Sauce | Stella Culinary".
^ Cookwise, pp.304-5
^ ^a ^b ^c Joy of Cooking p.359
^ Escoffier: 90
^ Escoffier: 91
^ Escoffier: 141

Sources

Child, Julia; Louisette Bertholle; Simone Beck (1961). Mastering the Art of French Cooking. New York: Knopf.
Corriher, Shirley (1997). "Ch. 4: sauce sense". Cookwise, the Hows and Whys of Successful Cooking (1st ed.). New York: William Morrow & Company, Inc. ISBN 0688102298.
David, Elizabeth (1960). French Provincial Cooking. Penguin. ISBN 978-0-14-118153-0.
Escoffier, Auguste (1982) [Trans. fm 4th French (Flammarion) ed. 1921]. "Ch. 1: Sauces". La Guide Culinaire [The Complete Guide to the Art of Modern Cookery] (in French). English translation by H.L. Cracknell and R.J. Kaufmann (First American ed.). New York: Mayflower Books. ISBN 0-8317-5478-8.
Rombauer, Irma S.; Rombauer Becker, Marion (1975). Joy of Cooking. New York: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc. (MacMillan). ISBN 0-02-604570-2.