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Bearnaise Sauce

A rich sauce made from shallots, tarragon, vinegar, egg yolks, butter, and béchamel, finished with parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and tarragon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 492 recipes mention both. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Bearnaise Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the reduction

  1. Combine vinegar, shallots, and whole tarragon leaves in a saucepan.

  2. Cover and reduce the liquid to about one quarter of the original quantity.

  3. Remove from heat, let cool slightly.

Finish the sauce

  1. Add the béchamel sauce and reheat.

  2. Stir in the egg yolks.

  3. Season with salt and Mignonette pepper.

  4. Whisk over low heat, gradually incorporating the butter.

  5. Do not let it boil after adding the eggs.

  6. Strain through a fine cloth.

  7. Return to a clean saucepan.

  8. Whisk again over hot water or in a bain-marie.

  9. Add the chopped parsley and tarragon leaves.

  10. Serve.

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. Shallot + tarragontop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together492 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Tarragon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,691 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Tarragon + vinegartop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together1,299 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Wine + buttertop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together8,517 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  5. Wine + vinegartop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together2,385 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Emulsify with the butter and thicken the sauce as they gently cook.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, forming a smooth emulsion with the egg yolks.
French wine vinegar
Provides acidity that gives the reduction its sharp, bright flavour.
Shallots
Add a mild aromatic onion flavour to the reduction.
Béchamel sauce
Adds body and thickness to the sauce.

The step that matters

Do not let it boil after adding the eggs. Egg yolks scramble and curdle when overheated, which breaks the emulsion. Gentle heat, such as low heat or a bain-marie, lets the yolks thicken the sauce smoothly.

Flavor stand-ins for the shallot

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

  1. Capsicumabout as good a flavor fit
  2. Shallotthe original
  3. Tomatoabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Mustardabout as good a flavor fit

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