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Béarnaise sauce

Type	Sauce
Place of origin	France
Main ingredients	Egg yolk, clarified butter, white wine vinegar, herbs
Cookbook: Béarnaise sauce   Media: Béarnaise sauce

Béarnaise sauce (/bərˈneɪz/; French: [be.aʁ.nɛz] ) is a sauce made of clarified butter, egg yolk, white wine vinegar, and herbs. It is regarded as a "child" of hollandaise sauce. The difference is 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.

History

According to a common explanation, the sauce was accidentally invented by the chef Jean-Louis-François Collinet, the accidental inventor of puffed potatoes (pommes de terre soufflées), 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.

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, and is occasionally used there as topping on pizza, whether as part of the pizza or as a cold dressing put on afterwards.

Preparation

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), where a reduction of vinegar is used to acidify the yolks.

Auguste Escoffier and other sources call for a reduction of wine, vinegar, shallots, fresh chervil, fresh tarragon, and crushed peppercorns (later strained out).

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

Derivatives

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

See also

• List of sauces
• Steak sauce

References

1. The family is sometimes referred to as "mayonnaise sauces" as they are, like mayonnaise, based on the emulsion of an oil in egg water.
2. ^ Escoffier: 89
3. Julia Child
4. ^ "La sauce béarnaise". 16 May 2015.
5. "What is Bearnaise sauce? | Cookthink". Archived from the original on 2009-06-02. Retrieved 2010-03-08.
6. "Ad libitum: Populære bøfrestauranter inviterer på steak fries og bearnaise" (in Danish). MigogKbh. 21 April 2023. Retrieved 21 June 2023.
7. "How to Make Hollandaise | A French Mother Sauce | Stella Culinary".
8. Cookwise, pp.304–5
9. ^ Joy of Cooking p.359
10. Escoffier: 90
11. Escoffier: 91
12. 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) . "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.

External links

• Béarnaise sauce from the British Good Food TV channel

• French sauces
• Occitan cuisine
• Steak sauces
• Foods featuring butter
• Egg-based sauces