Classic Béarnaise Sauce Recipe - Sauce Fanatic (2024)

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Béarnaise sauceis the perfect way to complement a steak but this recipe can be used in a variety of ways – serve it over steak, vegetables, eggs, or fish!

Jazz up your meal with this tasty béarnaise sauce or our roasted garlic aioli sauce. You’ll never reach for bottled sauce again!

Classic Béarnaise Sauce Recipe - Sauce Fanatic (1)

Table of Contents

  • 1 Béarnaise Sauce Sauce
  • 2 Béarnaise Sauce Ingredients:
  • 3 How to Make Béarnaise Sauce:
  • 4 Tips for Making Béarnaise Sauce:
  • 5 Béarnaise Sauce

Béarnaise Sauce Sauce

Béarnaise sauce is the child of hollandaise sauce and is flavored with tarragon, shallot, garlic, and vinegar. Traditionally, chervil is added but this can be difficult to find so our recipe omits it completely.

If you can find chervil at your market or you wish to order it online, feel free to incorporate it into the recipe.

The best thing about this sauce is it comes together quickly. You can whip it up in just under 10 minutes!

It has a creamier texture than hollandaise sauce and is best served with grilled meat and fish. We love it on asparagus as well!

Once you’ve made béarnaise sauce, you should give beurre blanc sauce a try. It’s similar but made without eggs.

Classic Béarnaise Sauce Recipe - Sauce Fanatic (2)

Béarnaise Sauce Ingredients:

To make this béarnaise sauce recipe, you will need:

  • White Wine Vinegar: Add acidty to the sauce
  • Shallot: They are milder than onion
  • Garlic: Always garlic
  • Tarragon: We use dried tarragon
  • Salt & pepper:Season to taste
  • Egg yolks: They will thicken as they cook making a lusciously creamy sauce
  • Butter: Use unsalted butter that is softened
Classic Béarnaise Sauce Recipe - Sauce Fanatic (3)

How to Make Béarnaise Sauce:

To make this easy béarnaise sauce, simply…

  1. Place all the ingredients, minus the egg yolk and butter in a small saucepan. Bring it to a boil and cook until it has reduced to half.
  2. Cook the yolks with butter. Place the egg yolks in a medium heat-proof bowl set over a pot of barely simmering water. Whisk in the vinegar reduction and 1 tablespoon of butter. Keep cooking and whisking until the sauce begins to thicken.
  3. Gradually add remaining butter. Whisk in 1 tablespoon of butter at a time and cook for a couple more minutes, until the sauce is thick.
  4. Serve Immediately or let stand an hou: Take it off the heat and serve it with beef, fish, or vegetables.
Classic Béarnaise Sauce Recipe - Sauce Fanatic (4)

Tips for Making Béarnaise Sauce:

Here are some things to remember when making this béarnaise sauce recipe.

  • Don’t let the bottom of the bowl touch the simmering water in the pot.
  • Keep whisking when the egg yolks go over the simmering water. Don’t stop whisking.
  • You can use an emulsion blender to make mixing easier!
Classic Béarnaise Sauce Recipe - Sauce Fanatic (5)

Most sauces on our site are naturally gluten-free unless it’s a gravy of some sort. Here are a few more to suit your gluten-free lifestyle.

  • Coconut Cream Sauce
  • Horseradish Sauce
  • Garlic Butter Sauce
  • Creamy Basil Pesto
  • Yum Yum Sauce
  • Peruvian Green Sauce

Béarnaise Sauce

4.34 from 15 votes

Béarnaise sauce is the perfect way to complement a steak but this recipe can be used in a variety of ways – serve it over vegetables, eggs, or fish!

Sauce Fanatic

Prep Time 5 minutes minutes

Cook Time 7 minutes minutes

Total Time 12 minutes minutes

Serving Size 12

Ingredients

  • cup white wine vinegar
  • 2 teaspoons finely chopped shallot
  • 1 teaspoon finely chopped garlic
  • ¼ teaspoon dried tarragon crushed
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • teaspoon white pepper
  • 6 large egg yolks
  • ¾ cups unsalted butter cut into thirds, softened

Instructions

  • In a small saucepan, stir the vinegar, shallot, garlic, tarragon, salt, and pepper together. Bring to a boil and let cook for 2 minutes, until reduced by about half.

  • Place egg yolks in a medium-size heatproof bowl. Whisk in the vinegar mixture and 1 piece of the butter.

  • Place the bowl over a pot of barely simmering water. The water should not touch the bottom of the bowl. Cook, stirring rapidly with a whisk until the butter melts and the sauce begins to thicken.

  • Add the remaining butter, one piece at a time, stirring constantlyuntilmelted.

  • Continue to cook for 2 minutes until the sauce is thick and the temperature reaches 160°F.

  • Immediately remove the sauce from the heat and serve over beef, pork, chicken, or vegetables.

Make ahead tip

  • The sauce can be made an hour in advance. Cover and let stand at room temperature.

Notes

White pepper: Black pepper will also work.

Makes about 1.5 cups.

Nutrition

Serving: 2tablespoons | Calories: 133kcal | Carbohydrates: 1g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 14g | Saturated Fat: 8g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 4g | Trans Fat: 0.5g | Cholesterol: 128mg | Sodium: 55mg | Potassium: 19mg | Fiber: 0.03g | Sugar: 0.1g | Vitamin A: 486IU | Vitamin C: 0.2mg | Calcium: 17mg | Iron: 0.3mg

CourseCourse: Dinner

CuisineCuisine: American

Classic Béarnaise Sauce Recipe - Sauce Fanatic (2024)

FAQs

What ingredients are in bearnaise sauce? ›

What Is Béarnaise? Béarnaise is a fat-in-water emulsion—in this case, butter emulsified into a reduction of white wine and vinegar flavored with shallots, tarragon, and chervil, all bound and thickened with egg yolks. It's technically a derivative of hollandaise sauce, one of the five French mother sauces.

What are the key flavor components of a sauce béarnaise? ›

Béarnaise sauce is a piquant child of hollandaise, one of the so-called mother sauces of French cuisine. It is simply an emulsification — egg yolks and butter cut through with vinegar flavored with tarragon and shallots, with a bite of black pepper.

Has Maille stopped making bearnaise sauce? ›

The Maille bearnaise sauce has been discontinued and this is a brilliant substitute.

What's the difference between béarnaise and hollandaise sauce? ›

It is regarded as a "child" of hollandaise sauce. The difference is only in the flavoring: béarnaise uses shallot, black pepper, and tarragon, while hollandaise uses white pepper or a pinch of cayenne. The sauce's name derives from the province of Béarn, France.

Does Ruth's Chris serve bearnaise sauce? ›

Entrée Complements SHRIMP Six additional large shrimp dusted with blackening seasoning and broiled. LOBSTER TAIL Cold water lobster tail, lightly seasoned with Cajun spices, sea salt and butter. OSCAR STYLE Jumbo lump crab cake, asparagus and homemade béarnaise sauce.

What is a substitute for butter in bearnaise sauce? ›

Yes, you can make a "light Bearnaise" with olive oil, in fact Gordon Ramsay has done it before and it's featured in a recipe somewhere. Just warm the oil slightly (as you would warm the ghee/clarified butter in an actual Bearnaise sauce,) to keep the temperature correct.

What are the three basic ingredients in most sauces? ›

Sauces are flavorful liquids used to enhance the taste and appearance of other foods. There are three basic kinds of ingredients in most sauces: a liquid, a thickening agent, and other flavoring and seasonings.

What makes bearnaise sauce break? ›

Heat can cook the egg yolk and break the emulsion as could mixing the ingredients in the wrong order. We can call this “breaking” curdling. Straining and whisking in a little warm egg yolk might re-emulsify. Whisking or blending alone may help for sauces that have been sitting for awhile.

What is Sauce Béarnaise syndrome? ›

sauce béarnaise effect

a colloquial term referring to a conditioned taste aversion. If a person happens to become ill after tasting a new food, such as sauce béarnaise, they may subsequently dislike and avoid that food. Regardless of the actual cause of the illness, the sauce will be identified with it.

Can bearnaise sauce go bad? ›

Béarnaise Sauce is best used immediately. If you must, you can refrigerate it for up to 2 days and reconstitute it. It will become solid in the fridge. Break it up into pieces and reheat it, whisking constantly and vigorously over low heat and sliding the saucepan off the burner if it seems to be melting too quickly.

What is the shelf life of bearnaise sauce? ›

Shelf Life Total Ambient/Unopened 12 month(s) Store in a cool, dry place. Glutamate ✓ mg/kg ✓ Naturally occurring glutamates. No Added MSG. Knorr Béarnaise Sauce - a delicious and versatile ready-to-use sauce to complement meat, poultry, fish & vegetable dishes.

Why is bearnaise sauce so good? ›

Flavored with tarragon, shallots, and white wine vinegar, bearnaise sauce somehow adds both creamy decadence and a pleasant acidity to cut through the fat of the beef and butter. I've included it in the family recipes section of this book/website, because for me it is closely associated with my father.

What do you eat bearnaise sauce with? ›

Béarnaise sauce is commonly paired with grilled fish or steak, but it's just as delicious on roasted vegetables or eggs Benedict. Spoon this silky, herby sauce over roasted asparagus, steamed broccoli, or grilled mushrooms for a sophisticated dinner party side.

Is hollandaise or béarnaise better for steak? ›

Béarnaise Sauce is considered by many to be one of the finest sauces to serve with steaks. A variation of Hollandaise sauce, one of the 5 “mother sauces” in classical French cookery, it's notoriously difficult to make by hand.

What does bearnaise sauce taste like? ›

Irresistibly creamy, buttery, and rich, béarnaise combines an herby, slightly acidic reduction of white wine, vinegar, shallots, fresh tarragon, and lemon juice with hollandaise to make a luscious sauce for spooning over grilled steak, chicken, fish, or vegetables.

What is the distinct flavor of bearnaise sauce? ›

The flavor of bearnaise sauce is hard to describe. It's a little tangy, a little savory, and a little bit sweet—plus it has that unique, unmistakable aroma. Some people say it tastes like a mix between hollandaise and mustard sauces, while others find it difficult to put a finger on the flavor.

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