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Sauce

Bernaise Sauce

A sauce made from vinegar, onion, egg yolks, clarified butter, oil, parsley, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 25,843 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Bernaise Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. In a saucepan, combine vinegar and chopped onion. Simmer until reduced by half.

Finish and serve

  1. Remove from heat and slowly whisk in egg yolks until thickened.

  2. Gradually add clarified butter and oil while whisking.

  3. Stir in chopped parsley and salt.

  4. Serve with fish and tenderloin cutlets.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Vinegar + oniontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Vinegar + parsleytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,477 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken the sauce and emulsify the butter into a smooth, rich texture.
Clarified butter
Adds richness and fat that gives the sauce its silky body.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that gives the sauce its sharp, tangy flavour.
Onion
Adds aromatic flavour as it reduces with the vinegar.

The step that matters

Whisking in the egg yolks off the heat. Egg yolks thicken at low heat but scramble if they get too hot, so removing the pan from the heat before whisking keeps the sauce smooth and thickened.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, egg, butter, parsley):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Cucumberfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, egg, butter, parsley. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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