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Sauce

Bearnaise Sauce

A French sauce made from egg yolks, oil, vinegar, and seasonings, thickened in a double boiler.

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. Beat the egg yolks and add the hot water and salad oil in a double boiler.

  2. Cook until the mixture thickens, then remove from heat.

  3. Stir in the salt, paprika or cayenne, and tarragon vinegar.

Make the butter version

  1. For a butter version, cream 3 tablespoons of butter and cook with the egg yolks, omitting the hot water.

  2. Once thick, remove from heat and add 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. Tarragon + eggtop 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 and thicken the sauce as they cook gently over heat.
Salad oil
Adds fat that helps form a smooth, stable emulsion with the yolks.
Tarragon vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the rich sauce and gives it its characteristic flavour.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky texture in the optional butter version.

The step that matters

Cook until the mixture thickens. Egg yolks set gently as they warm; too much heat scrambles them, so cook slowly in a double boiler and remove from heat once 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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