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Sauce

Bearnaise Sauce

A sauce made from egg yolks, butter, salt, pepper, and tarragon vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and tarragon 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

  1. Beat the egg yolks lightly in a small saucepan.

  2. Stir the yolks continuously over low heat until they begin to thicken.

  3. Remove from heat and add one-third of the butter, stirring until melted.

  4. Return to low heat and add another third of the butter, stirring for 2 minutes.

  5. Repeat with the remaining butter, stirring for another 2 minutes.

  6. Season with salt and pepper, then stir in tarragon vinegar to taste.

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. Pepper + tarragontop 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. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + tarragontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,572 recipes

    Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

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 into a smooth, rich texture.
Unsalted butter
Adds fat and richness, and forms the body of the emulsified sauce.
Tarragon vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the rich yolk and butter.

The step that matters

Adding the butter in stages over low heat. Egg yolks thicken and emulsify as they warm, but if the heat is too high they scramble. Adding butter in portions lets each addition emulsify before more is added, keeping the sauce smooth rather than broken.

Swap the tarragon

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

  1. Tarragonthe original
  2. Parsleyfits about as well
  3. Dillfits less well
  4. Thymefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, pepper, vinegar. 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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