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Sauce

Sauce Bearnaise

A sauce made from a reduced soup, egg yolks, garlic-flavored vinegar, and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Garlic and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and 8,893 recipes mention both. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Sauce Bearnaise

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Reduce the strong soup to 1 quart by boiling it for a long time and keep it warm.

  2. In a buttered saucepan, beat the egg yolks.

  3. Gradually add the pint of reduced soup while whisking.

  4. Add the garlic-flavored vinegar and lemon juice while continuing to whisk.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Garlic + lemontop 9% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together8,893 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Vinegar + garlictop 11% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together9,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  4. Vinegar + lemontop 20% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together7,334 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Egg + vinegartop 33% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together12,922 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Egg and lemon share little aroma chemistry, yet 44,316 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 as they gently set, giving it a smooth, rich body.
Strong soup
Boiled down to concentrate its flavor, forming the savory base of the sauce.
Garlic-flavored vinegar
Adds sharp acidity and aroma that balances the richness of the yolks.
Lemon juice
Adds bright acidity that lifts the flavor and cuts through the richness.

The step that matters

Adding the reduced soup gradually while whisking. Egg yolks thicken gently when warm but scramble if heated too quickly or added to too fast. Slow addition and constant whisking keep the mixture smooth and emulsified.

Flavor stand-ins for the garlic

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

  1. Tarragonbetter flavor fit
  2. Dillbetter flavor fit
  3. Parsleybetter flavor fit
  4. Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, vinegar, lemon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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