Sauce Béarnaise

The great warm emulsion of the French kitchen: a sharp reduction of tarragon, shallot, and vinegar whisked into egg yolks and butter until thick and glossy, finished with a flurry of fresh tarragon and chervil, the classic sauce for a grilled steak

Origin: Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France

From the journey of Tarragon.

Sauce béarnaise is one of the daughter sauces of the French repertoire, a sibling of hollandaise built on the same warm emulsion of egg yolk and butter, but it is tarragon that makes it béarnaise and nothing else. The sauce was created around 1836 in the kitchen of Le Pavillon Henri IV, a restaurant at Saint-Germain-en-Laye on the edge of Paris, and named in honour of the Béarn, the southwestern home country of Henri IV, whose statue stood nearby; the name is a tribute, not a description, for there is nothing especially Béarnais about the sauce. What defines it is the gastrique, the sharp reduction of white wine vinegar, dry white wine, and shallot in which tarragon stalks and crushed peppercorns are simmered down to a fragrant essence before being strained and whisked into the yolks. Fresh tarragon and chervil, chopped, are folded in at the end, so that the herb appears twice, as a cooked depth in the reduction and a fresh lift on the finish. Thick, glossy, and tasting unmistakably of tarragon, béarnaise is the sauce of the grilled steak above all, the classic partner of a châteaubriand or an entrecôte, and a touchstone of a cook's command of the emulsion.

Ingredients

The Reduction

  • 1 large bunch fresh tarragon, leaves and stalks separated
  • 3 tbsp white wine vinegar
  • 3 tbsp dry white wine
  • 1 shallot, finely chopped
  • 6 black peppercorns, crushed

The Emulsion

  • 3 egg yolks
  • 180 g unsalted butter, gently melted and slightly cooled (or clarified)

To Finish

  • 1 tbsp fresh chervil, chopped (optional)
  • salt and a little lemon juice, to taste

Method

  1. Make the reduction: put the vinegar, wine, shallot, crushed peppercorns, and the tarragon stalks (reserve the leaves) in a small pan. Simmer gently until reduced to about 2 tablespoons of liquid. Strain, pressing the solids, and let the fragrant essence cool a little.
  2. Set a heatproof bowl over a pan of barely simmering water, making sure the base does not touch the water. Add the egg yolks and the cooled reduction and whisk constantly until the mixture is pale, thick, and trebled in volume, holding a ribbon.
  3. Whisking all the time, add the melted butter in a thin, steady stream until the sauce is thick and glossy. If you used whole melted butter, stop before the milky residue at the bottom.
  4. Finely chop the reserved tarragon leaves and fold them in with the chervil. Season with salt and a few drops of lemon juice.
  5. Serve warm, not hot, at once, with grilled steak, roast beef, grilled fish, or asparagus.

Notes

The classic finishing herbs are tarragon and chervil; some cooks add a little chopped parsley too. For sauce choron, a tomato variant, stir in a spoonful of thick tomato purée. The reduction can be made ahead. If you are nervous of the emulsion, a stick blender or the blender method (blitzing the yolks and reduction, then pouring in the hot butter) is more forgiving than whisking by hand.

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