Clas­sic Bear­naise Sauce

(serves 6)

1 stick unsalted (impor­tant!) but­ter (about 120 grams)
1/4 cup each white wine, white wine vine­gar
1 tbsp tar­ragon leaves
2 shal­lots, minced
pinch white pep­per
2 egg yolks
cayenne pep­per
salt

Now, this may sound involved, but it’s really not. For­get all the instruc­tions about dou­ble boil­ers. I never heard of any­thing so silly. You merely need two saucepans of same or nearly same size. First, melt the but­ter JUST to melt­ing, don’t brown, in a microwave if you have one. If not, use a saucepan. Put the melted but­ter in a bowl some­where and wash out the saucepan. In this pan, boil the wine and vine­gar, tar­ragon, shal­lots and pep­per until the liq­uid is reduced by half. Strain this into a bowl and throw away the solids. Now boil some water in a saucepan, rinse out the one you boiled the wine mix­ture in, and pour the strained mix­ture into this sec­ond saucepan. Before you place this on the boil­ing water pan, whisk in the egg yolks. Now place the saucepan on top of the one con­tain­ing boil­ing water and whisk until the the MOMENT the eggs thicken. Take off the heat. Put four ice cubes in the boil­ing water and return the saucepan with the sauce in it to the top of the hot water one, whisk­ing in the melted but­ter VERY grad­u­ally until thick and yel­low and all the but­ter is used up. If at any time the sauce seems to be break­ing up, sim­ply remove from the hot bot­tom saucepan and whisk till smooth.

When all the but­ter is incor­po­rated, add a dash of cayenne pep­per and salt to taste.

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