Foolproof Béarnaise Sauce Recipe (2024)

FAQs

How do you keep béarnaise sauce from separating? ›

Work over consistent heat––sometimes a big jump in temperature can cause the emulsion to break and separate. While cooking, keeping the heat low and slow can keep your sauce happy and together! Add a little fat back––a classic emulsified sauce is typically a 1:1 ratio of fat to liquid!

Irresistibly creamy, buttery, and rich, Béarnaise combines an herby, slightly acidic reduction of white wine, vinegar, shallots, fresh tarragon, and lemon juice with hollandaise to make a luscious sauce for spooning over grilled steak, chicken, fish, or vegetables.

If your béarnaise is thin and runny, transfer to a large bowl set over a pot of barely simmering water. Whisk constantly and vigorously until sauce is thickened.

Trouble: Curdled sauce.

The first step in making a hollandaise and béarnaise sauce, is to gently heat egg yolks. Too high of a temperature coagulates the protein in the yolks of an egg based sauce and begins to cook them, resulting in a grainy sauce that might taste like cooked egg.

Gradually whisk in 1/4 part hot water to your broken hollandaise. Add 1 tbsp hot water at a time until your hollandaise begins to come together. Continue to add the water gradually until your sauce is the right consistency.

Put egg yolk in a clean bowl. Whisk it then add the broken sauce drop by drop with continuing to whisk. If you don't have 3 hands or a way to hold the bowl still, you may want someone to help you. Whisk until the sauce is creamy and hom*ogeneous.

sauce béarnaise effect

a colloquial term referring to a conditioned taste aversion. If a person happens to become ill after tasting a new food, such as sauce béarnaise, they may subsequently dislike and avoid that food. Regardless of the actual cause of the illness, the sauce will be identified with it.

It's what happens next that sets them apart: Hollandaise gets its acidity from lemon juice (sometimes vinegar) and is usually seasoned with salt, white pepper, and cayenne pepper. Béarnaise, meanwhile, builds upon hollandaise with white wine vinegar, shallots, tarragon, and other fresh herbs.

Béarnaise instead relies on punchy white wine vinegar, sometimes in concert with fresh lemon. The second major difference is that béarnaise sauce is flavored with sautéed shallots, black pepper, and licorice-like tarragon, occasionally among other fresh herbs.

A classic bearnaise sauce is flavoured with a concentrated reduction of white wine vinegar, white wine, eschalots, tarragon, chervil and peppercorns. The eschalots and herbs are finely chopped to extract the maximum flavour during the short cooking time.

What is the distinct flavor of bearnaise sauce? ›

It's a little tangy, a little savory, and a little bit sweet—plus it has that unique, unmistakable aroma. Some people say it tastes like a mix between hollandaise and mustard sauces, while others find it difficult to put a finger on the flavor.

If you use mayonnaise instead, however, you don't have to worry about the egg and butter separating and can use just a regular saucepan. As NPR explains, tumeric colors the sauce so it looks like the real thing, and the mayo substitute tastes like a real béarnaise as well—just with less effort.

Parsley and Cinnamon

This is one of the best substitutes if you're making bearnaise sauce and realize you're out of fresh tarragon. Simmer a 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon and a tablespoon of parsley in a 1/4 cup of water. Don't boil the mixture, but allow it to simmer for several minutes.

These sauces should be held at low temperatures, 120°F/50˚C. Because they contain egg yolks and must be held in the food temperature danger zone, prepare as close to service as possible and never hold for longer than 4 hours before discarding.

This generally happens because the melted butter is added too quickly so that the eggs, which act to emulsify the fat and liquid, cannot keep up. When making a hollandaise you should whisk the butter into your sauce in a very slow drizzle, especially at the beginning.