Sauce Bearnaise
To make this admirable sauce—a souvenir of the mountain home of Henri de Navarre—put in a saucepan two tablespoonfuls of chopped shallots (small green onions), and four of white wine vinegar. Reduce to one half. Add six yolks of eggs, two tablespoonfuls of beef extract and stir on the fire with a wooden spoon, until it thickens. Put a little to the side, and add, a bit at a time, a half pound of good table butter, dropping a little water in when the sauce becomes too thick. Press through a napkin. Finish with finely chopped tarragon, chervil, parsley, and a pinch of red pepper.
One of the great emulsion sauces — a tarragon-scented cousin of hollandaise — here in a rich Creole rendering built on beef extract and a generous amount of butter.
- Butter measure“Half a pound” of butter is 2 sticks (1 cup, 8 oz), worked in a bit at a time to build the emulsion.
- “Beef extract”A concentrated meat glaze like glace de viande or Bovril; a spoon of demi-glace or Better Than Bouillon stands in. (Classic béarnaise omits it — this is the Creole touch.)
- Reduce, then let it cool a momentBoil the shallots and vinegar down by half; cool slightly before the yolks go in so they thicken rather than scramble.
- Low, steady heatWork over barely simmering water; if it tightens, the drops of water loosen it again. Too hot and the emulsion breaks.
- “Press through a napkin”Strain through cheesecloth to catch the shallot solids before the final herbs go in.
- Chervil substituteIf chervil is hard to find, lean on the tarragon with a little extra parsley.
The recipe’s romantic note — “a souvenir of the mountain home of Henri de Navarre” — points to Béarn, the Pyrenean region where the future Henry IV of France was born. But the sauce is no medieval relic: it is a 19th-century creation, often credited to a chef at the Pavillon Henri IV, a restaurant near Paris named for that same king. Calling it béarnaise was a flattering nod to the beloved “good king Henry” of Béarn — not a claim that he ever tasted it.
From page 34 of the 1904 edition.
Original page from the book
