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Bearnaise Sauce

A sauce made from shallots, tarragon, chervil, vinegar, egg yolks, and butter, finished with herbs and spices.

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 reduction

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

  2. Reduce the vinegar by two-thirds over low heat.

  3. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.

Make the sauce

  1. Add the egg yolks to the vinegar reduction.

  2. Return to low heat.

  3. Gradually whisk in the melted butter until fully combined.

  4. Rub the sauce through a fine sieve.

  5. Finish with chervil parings, chopped tarragon, and cayenne pepper.

  6. 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
Emulsify the butter and thicken the sauce as they gently cook.
Butter
Adds richness and body, forming a smooth emulsion with the yolks.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that balances the rich butter and yolks.
Shallots
Add a mild aromatic onion flavour to the reduction.

The step that matters

Gradually whisk in the melted butter. Adding butter too quickly or with the sauce too hot can break the emulsion, causing it to separate and look greasy. Adding it slowly while whisking lets the yolks bind the fat into a smooth, stable sauce.

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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