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Bearnaise Sauce

A classic French sauce made with shallots, tarragon, chervil, vinegar, egg yolks, and butter, finished with herbs and cayenne.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Tarragon and chervil match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 824 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Bearnaise Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Combine shallots, tarragon stalks, chervil, mignonette pepper, coarse sea salt, and vinegar in a small saucepan.

  2. Reduce the vinegar by two‑thirds, then remove from heat and let cool slightly.

  3. Add the egg yolks to the mixture.

Emulsify and finish

  1. Return the saucepan to low heat and gradually whisk in the melted butter.

  2. Continue whisking to cook the yolks and emulsify the sauce.

  3. Once combined, strain the sauce through a fine sieve.

  4. Finish with chervil parings, chopped tarragon leaves, and cayenne pepper.

  5. Serve tepid with grilled meats and poultry.

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. Tarragon + cherviltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together824 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Shallot + cherviltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together266 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Shallot + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together602 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Tarragon + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Tarragon + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,547 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Cook and thicken with the butter to form a rich, stable emulsion.
Melted butter
Provides fat and richness, emulsifying into the yolks to give the sauce body.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the sauce its sharp, bright flavour once reduced.
Tarragon
Supplies the characteristic aniseed aroma that defines the sauce.

The step that matters

Whisking the yolks into the butter over low heat. Yolks scramble if they get too hot, and butter added too fast can break the emulsion. Gentle heat and gradual whisking let the yolks thicken and hold the fat evenly.

Swap the shallot

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

  1. Shallotthe original
  2. Chivefits about as well
  3. Lettucefits less well
  4. Mustardfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against tarragon, chervil, pepper, vinegar, egg, butter. 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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