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Bearnaise Sauce

A sauce made by emulsifying egg yolks with oil, vinegar, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Tarragon and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,547 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Bearnaise Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. In a double boiler, beat the egg yolks, then add the salad oil and hot water.

  2. Cook until the mixture thickens, stirring constantly.

  3. Remove from heat and add salt, paprika or cayenne, and tarragon vinegar.

Make the butter version

  1. For a butter version, cream the butter and cook it with the egg yolks, omitting the hot water.

  2. Once thick, remove from heat and stir in 2 more tablespoons of creamed butter and seasonings.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Tarragon + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,572 recipes

    Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

  4. Egg + tarragontop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,789 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

  5. Vinegar + buttertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,513 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Emulsify the oil and set into a thick, rich sauce as they cook.
Salad oil
Supplies the fat that, emulsified with the yolks, gives the sauce its body.
Butter
Adds richness and a silkier texture in the optional butter version.
Tarragon vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the rich yolk and fat base.

The step that matters

Cook until the mixture thickens, stirring constantly. Egg yolks set when heated, but if they get too hot or are not stirred, they can scramble and curdle. Gentle, constant stirring over a double boiler keeps the sauce smooth and thick.

“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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