What is Bernaise Sauce?
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Bernaise sauce is a sauce like Hollandaise sauce, and is an emulsion of clarified butter and egg yolk with the distinct flavoring of tarragon, shallots, and chervil. Sauce Béarnaise in French, Bernaise sauce is best served with meat, poultry, or vegetables. Though several variations of recipes for Bernaise sauce exist, it is a difficult sauce to perfect because it requires special attention to avoid separation and curdling. When prepared properly, it is a smooth, creamy sauce.
Varying recipes are easily found in cookbooks and online recipe forums and food sites, but the consistent ingredients include egg, butter, white wine vinegar, tarragon, shallots, and chervil. Tarragon is an herb and shallots are a variety of onion. Several recipes call for chervil, also an herb, and the beginning steps of the recipe usually require adding the three seasonings to white wine vinegar and cooking it into a glaze base. Some variations call for champagne, and many recipes consistently call for cayenne pepper as well.
Cuisine experts say that the careful monitoring of heat is the biggest difficulty in the preparation of Bernaise sauce, as too high heat will cause the egg yolk to curdle and too low heat will not properly thicken the sauce. Similarly, adding the butter too quickly while cooking can cause the emulsion to separate and ruin the sauce. For the bold chef who wishes to tackle Bernaise sauce, the rewards of perfecting it are best served over filet mignon, london broil or other red meat. Bernaise sauce also goes well with other meats, and certain vegetables can be enhanced by its flavor. Unlike Hollandaise, which is best reserved for eggs Benedict, Bernaise sauce isn’t a great choice for egg dishes.
For the less bold who find perfecting anything in the kitchen difficult, there are pre-prepared Bernaise sauce mixes sold in grocery stores. Usually only butter and egg yolk are added, but the cooking directions must be followed to avoid the same curdling and separation pitfalls mentioned above. Try Bernaise sauce as a different flavoring for your next dinner party or special dinner at home with a meat and side of asparagus or roasted potatoes, especially seasoned with garlic. Follow wine etiquette for the type of meat you are serving and enjoy.
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New: Discuss this ArticlePosted by: anon6731
Both are similar; Hollandaise uses lemon juice rather than vinegar to provide the acid, and omits the tarragon, shallots, and chervil.
Now, these sauces are oil-in-water emulsions (in other words, the sauce is a water-based sauce in which droplets of oil are dispersed). To cook either one, you generally want a double boiler in order to keep the heat low and even. It's not impossible to do it in a saucepan, but it's not easy, either. If you choose the latter method, then make sure you use a recipe that has you cook the sauce down after adding butter -- otherwise, you're likely to coagulate the yolk before you get started.
In normal environments, the proteins in the yolk will begin to coagulate at 160 deg F. if you lower the pH to around 4.5 (a role that can be played by the acids in the lemon juice or vinegar in the sauces), coagulation begins at a higher temperature, around 195 deg F. If you're not worried about salmonella, you can dispose entirely with cooking the yolks, and simply heat them and the flavorings slightly before whisking in enough clarified butter to create the desired consistency.
If you just want a quick and dirty version of these sauces, you can always use another egg yolk emulsion, mayonnaise, as your base. Just gently warm mayonnaise with vinegar or lemon juice (plus any spices, such as mustard or tarragon) and you'll be ready to whip up Eggs Benedict on a moment's notice. Posted by: olittlewood
what is the difference between Hollandaise and Bernaise sauce? which one is easier for an amateur to try to cook? what are some good dishes that feature bernaise sauce?
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