Foolproof Béarnaise Sauce Recipe (2024)

Western European
French

This elegant sauce for steaks and fish can be made in five minutes.

J. Kenji López-Alt

Culinary Consultant

Kenji is the former culinary director for Serious Eats and a current culinary consultant for the site. He is also a New York Times food columnist and the author of The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science.

Learn about Serious Eats'Editorial Process

Updated September 15, 2022

Why It Works

Blending hot butter into the vinegar and egg yolk mixture instead of whisking it over a double boiler makes for a foolproof and stable emulsion every time.
Using a tall container that barely fits the head of a hand blender creates a strong vortex that leads to a strong, stable emulsion.

For my money, the very best classic steak sauce you can make at home, a sauce that will wow your guests with its flavor and elegance, and—most importantly—a sauce that can be made start to finish in under half an hour, is béarnaise.

Classic French steak sauces likeespagnoleor its derivatives,bordelaiseor Robert, for instance, require intensely rich, gelatin-packeddemi-glace. Those sauces are multi-day affairs that nobody but the most ambitious home cooks will even attempt.Compound buttersflavored with herbs and aromatics are a great option for a home-cooked steak, as is a simplepan sauce, but they're lacking in class and panache. That's where béarnaise comes in. It's as classy as sauces come, it requires nothing that you can't find at your average supermarket, and it's quick to make.

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. And just like with hollandaise, the ways to mess it up are plentiful. Traditionally, you'd make béarnaise over a double boiler, slowly drizzling in clarified butter while whisking egg yolks until a thick emulsion is formed. Add the fat too fast and you break your emulsion. Heat it up too much and it turns into scrambled eggs. Don't heat it enough and you'll have a thin, wet sauce instead of a rich, meat-coating sauce.

The Key to Making a Foolproof Béarnaise

Fortunately, we can use the exact same technique we use to make foolproof hollandaise and mayonnaise to make a foolproof béarnaise. The key is to completely forgo the double boiler, instead heating up the butter and using its residual heat to cook the egg yolks. By placing the yolks and the wine reduction in the bottom of a tall container that just barely fits the head of a hand blender, we can create a strong vortex that then pulls hot butter down towards the blades of the hand blender, creating a strong, stable emulsion. Check out our foolproof hollandaise video to learn more about the science behind this technique.

Stir in some chopped tarragon and chervil (I sometimes also add a few tablespoons of minced chives), and you're ready to serve. Steak never had it so good.

April 2015

Recipe Details

Foolproof Béarnaise Sauce Recipe

Cook30 mins

Active15 mins

Total30 mins

Serves14 servings

Makes1 3/4 cups

Ingredients

1/2 cup dry white wine
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
3 sprigs chervil, leaves finely minced, stems reserved separately (optional; if not using add an extra sprig of tarragon)
3 sprigs tarragon, leaves finely minced, stems reserved separately
1 small shallot, roughly chopped
1/2 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
2 egg yolks
Kosher salt
1 1/2 sticks (12 tablespoons) unsalted butter

Directions

Combine wine, vinegar, herb stems, shallots, and black peppercorns in a small saucepan. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat and lower heat to maintain a gentle simmer. Cook until reduced to about 1 1/2 tablespoons of liquid, about 15 minutes. Carefully strain liquid through a fine-mesh strainer into a small bowl, pressing on the solids with the back of a spoon to extract as much liquid as possible.
Combine wine reduction, egg yolk, and a pinch of salt in the bottom of a cup that barely fits the head of an immersion blender. Melt butter in a small saucepan over high heat, swirling constantly, until foaming subsides. Transfer butter to a 1-cup liquid measuring cup.
Place head of immersion blender into the bottom of the cup with the wine reduction and turn it on. With the blender constantly running, slowly pour hot butter into cup. It should emulsify with the egg yolk and wine reduction. Continue pouring until all butter is added. Sauce should be thick and creamy (see notes). Season to taste with salt. Whisk in chopped tarragon and chervil, if using. Serve immediately, or transfer to a small lidded pot and keep in a warm place for up to 1 hour before serving. Béarnaise cannot be cooled and reheated.

Special Equipment

Immersion blender, tall container that fits blender head, small saucepan, fine mesh strainer, small lidded pot (optional)

Notes

If your béarnaise is thin and runny, transfer to a large bowl set over a pot of barely simmering water. Whisk constantly and vigorously until sauce is thickened.

Nutrition Facts (per serving)
109	Calories
11g	Fat
1g	Carbs
1g	Protein

Show Full Nutrition Label

Nutrition Facts
Servings: 14
Amount per serving
Calories	109
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 11g	14%
Saturated Fat 6g	32%
Cholesterol 66mg	22%
Sodium 58mg	3%
Total Carbohydrate 1g	0%
Dietary Fiber 0g	1%
Total Sugars 0g
Protein 1g
Vitamin C 0mg	2%
Calcium 15mg	1%
Iron 0mg	2%
Potassium 40mg	1%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.

(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)

FAQs

How to fix bearnaise sauce? ›

Put egg yolk in a clean bowl. Whisk it then add the broken sauce drop by drop with continuing to whisk. If you don't have 3 hands or a way to hold the bowl still, you may want someone to help you. Whisk until the sauce is creamy and hom*ogeneous.

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

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.

How to make bearnaise sauce thicker? ›

Notes. If your béarnaise is thin and runny, transfer to a large bowl set over a pot of barely simmering water. Whisk constantly and vigorously until sauce is thickened.

Discover More ›

What are the ingredients in a Béarnaise sauce? ›

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.

What is sauce bearnaise 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.

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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.

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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.

View Details ›

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

It's what happens next that sets them apart: Hollandaise gets its acidity from lemon juice (sometimes vinegar) and is usually seasoned with salt, white pepper, and cayenne pepper. Béarnaise, meanwhile, builds upon hollandaise with white wine vinegar, shallots, tarragon, and other fresh herbs.

Why is bearnaise sauce so good? ›

The fat from the egg yolks and butter play off the acidic vinegar, which are enhanced and activated by the salt. Perhaps, though, béarnaise's excellence comes from the generous amount of pepper that elevates the flavor triumvirate to something higher.

Why won't my bearnaise sauce thicken? ›

Yolks are combined with a herb-infused vinegar reduction over a double boiler, then melted butter is carefully and slowly drizzled in while whisking. Too fast and the sauce will split. Too hot and the eggs will scramble. Too cool and it won't thicken properly.

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What is a substitute for tarragon in bearnaise sauce? ›

Parsley and Cinnamon

This is one of the best substitutes if you're making bearnaise sauce and realize you're out of fresh tarragon. Simmer a 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon and a tablespoon of parsley in a 1/4 cup of water. Don't boil the mixture, but allow it to simmer for several minutes.

Get More Info Here ›

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.

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What goes well with béarnaise? ›

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.

How long will bearnaise sauce keep? ›

Béarnaise sauce is best served immediately, but will keep for three days in an airtight container in the fridge. Use it straight from the fridge like butter for toast, or reheat over a double boiler.

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Can Bernaise sauce be saved? ›

A: in my experience, yes it can be saved/reheated. it's great straight but you can thin it out (stretching it, a bit) by adding butter too. And i've kept them for months in the refrig, and it tastes the same. Looks the same, too.

How do you fix a broken emulsion? ›

You can do this by placing a teaspoon of lemon juice (or water) in a clean bowl and adding a small amount of the broken emulsion, whisking to form another, stable emulsion. Once that emulsion forms, drizzle in the rest of the broken sauce, whisking constantly.