Bearnaise Sauce

Marshal's recipe is great ... very classic

A few basic I have picked up:
Use 2oz of butter per yolk
Can be drawn butter or clarified, most american restaurants use clarified.
Add a little water (I use 1oz or so for a 3 egg sauce) in the egg yolks when you start to whip them.
You can add a little tabasco to the yolks when whipping too (before adding butter).
When you get good at it, you won't need to use a water-bath anymore .. is quicker to do it straight over a burner, removing and replacing the bowl to control the heat.

Blender Bernaise/hollandaise uses the heat from the butter, as you pour it in, to cook the egg yolks. I don't believe they get cooked enough using this method ... the sauce turns out to thin.

Great recipes all. I would just like to add a few items for the sake of information. You can't really get the volume and light texture with a blender bearnaise because the whisking while cooking over a baine maries incorporates and entraps air in the egg mixture, this will add a light texture to your finished sauce. Also I've gone as high as 4oz.+ butter to yolks, but remember the more fat you incorporate the more demand you put on the emulsifying properties of the egg yolk. Here is my basic hollandaise recipe with a bearnaise reduction and some variations:

* Exported from MasterCook II *

Hollandaise

Recipe By : John Paul Khoury, CCC
Serving Size : 1 Preparation Time :0:20
Categories : Stocks,Fonds,& Mother Sauces

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
6 large egg yolks
1 pound unsalted butter -- clarified
-- (reserve whey)
2 tablespoons water
lemon juice -- to taste
OR: (Champagne vinegar) -- to taste
kosher salt -- to taste
1 pinch cayenne pepper
white pepper -- to taste

Put egg yolks in a stainless steel bowl with water and just a splash
of lemon or vinegar plus a pinch of salt.(adding an acid at this point
will allow the egg yolks to reach a higher cooking temp. w/o them
curdling.) Whisk this mixture over double boiler or low flame until
it takes on the consistancy of a sabayon and you begin to see the
bottom of the bowl as the egg takes longer to cover up the whisk's
path. Do not cook the eggs to the curdling point(160'+-) but to the
desired stiffness,less for a thinner sauce and visa versa. It is
important to note as you add the clarified butter it will stiffen to a
considerable degree.

Remove bowl from heat and slowly whisk in warm clarified butter as
you would proceed for mayonnaise. Thin sauce with a little of the
reserved whey from butter clarification. Season and adjust acidity. Hold between 90-110'

This is a wonderful sauce on its own and is also a mother to a
variety of other sauces such as (+ tarragon reduction, sauce
Bearnaise),(Bearnaise + tomato puree'= sauce Choron), (Bearnaise +
veal glace= sauce Foyot), (+ whipped cream= mousseline),ect...

For Bearnaise: add 2 tbl. tarragon reduction to eggs and proceed for
hollandaise, if desired strain and add chopped fresh tarragon and
chervil or parsley.

For Choron: add to your bearnaise 3/4 cup stiff tomato puree'.

You can also make this sauce with oil replaceing the butter. This
sauce may be refridgerated and not lose the emulsion because of
the unsaturated fat involved in the emulsion.

Bearnaise is appx: 16 cents per ounce
Hollandaise: appx 13 cents per ounce

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* Exported from MasterCook II *

Bearnaise Reduction

Recipe By : James Peterson, SAUCES
Serving Size : 1 Preparation Time :0:20
Categories : Appareil-Basic Preperations

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
3 each shallots -- minced
1 bunch tarragon -- fresh
1/2 bunch fresh chervil -- optional
1 teaspoon black peppercorns -- cracked
3/4 cup white wine
3/4 cup white wine vinegar

Put all ingredients in sauce pan and reduce until about 1/2 cup
remains. Strain, reserve liquid. Or you may reduce till dry and then
utilize the reduction as a flavoring paste. If you do this then grind
the pepper finer.

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