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Sauce

Bearnaise Sauce

A rich sauce made from tarragon vinegar, wine, peppercorns, cayenne, onion, egg yolks, and butter, thickened over a bain‑marie.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Tarragon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,399 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Bearnaise Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the reduction

  1. Simmer tarragon vinegar, white wine, peppercorns, cayenne, and onion together until the liquid almost evaporates.

  2. Remove from heat and let it cool slightly, then stir in the egg yolks.

Finish the sauce

  1. Place the mixture over hot water and stir slowly while adding butter in small pieces until fully incorporated.

  2. Continue stirring until the sauce thickens, then strain into a hot bowl.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. White wine + buttertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Tarragon + white winetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together409 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Emulsify the butter and thicken the sauce as they heat gently.
Butter
Adds richness and body, emulsified into the yolk base for a smooth texture.
Tarragon vinegar
Provides acidity and the characteristic tarragon aroma after reduction.
White wine
Adds acidity and depth of flavour as it reduces with the vinegar.

The step that matters

Heating the yolks over hot water. Egg yolks thicken and emulsify at gentle heat but scramble if they get too hot. Stirring slowly while adding butter in small pieces keeps the emulsion smooth and stable.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tarragon, vinegar, white wine, pepper, 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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