How to freeze a bernaise sauce?

Well, you can't really freeze a bernaise sauce and expect it to come back emulsified and viable to spoon over something, I wouldn't think.

My suggestion would be to make a bernaise flavored compound butter and just serve that over the steak. Make a bernaise reduction, chop some tarragon, shallot, etc...then just mix into softened whole butter. Then roulade and slice into discs as needed. You'd be missing the eggs, obviously, but the flavor profile could be very similar. 

I also don't understand why you would want to freeze bernaise sauce, since it is a warm emulsified butter sauce...?

Agreed. You really want to stay away from freezing bearnaise. It basically defeats its whole purpose. The idea of bearnaise is to be fresh daily, and held no more than a couple hours. Making a compound herb butter (tarragon reduction) is your best bet.
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Someday 

Well, you can't really freeze a bernaise sauce and expect it to come back emulsified and viable to spoon over something, I wouldn't think.

 

My suggestion would be to make a bernaise flavored compound butter and just serve that over the steak. Make a bernaise reduction, chop some tarragon, shallot, etc...then just mix into softened whole butter. Then roulade and slice into discs as needed. You'd be missing the eggs, obviously, but the flavor profile could be very similar. 

 

I also don't understand why you would want to freeze bernaise sauce, since it is a warm emulsified butter sauce...?

Yes indeed +1. This would be the way to go.......................

Iv made it with 2 parts creme fraice 1 part egg yolk and make just like a normal holandaise or bernaise.   After its made you can cool it down in a refrigerater to use later and almost heat to order if your cooks are semi decent.  Iv used this for partys and its better than the canned crap but doest break as easy as regular bernaise.  Good luck.

Bernaise is not made with creme fraiche.  Whatever that was, and no matter how wonderful, it wasn't sauce Bernaise.  A compound butter flavored with Bernaise elements could be okay, but it isn't sauce Bernaise either.  "Bernaise" is pretty specific terminology; I wouldn't screw around with your customers' expectations too much.

You can hold Bernaise pretty well in a thermos -- couple of hours easy.  That way, you can get an entire service out of one or two batches. Oh, and hire better cooks.

BDL

Make a bernaise semifreddo (without sugar of course), freeze, cut into stick butter size, refreeze, pull and cut portions to order.

1 cup white wine

1 cup tarragon vinegar

4 tablespoons chopped shallot

1 ounce chopped tarragon

1/2 ounce chopped chervil

1/4 ounce crushed black peppercorns

combine the above and reduce by 2/3, cool, add

6 egg yolks

whip in a double boiler until very thick, it will turn lighter in color and double in volume, strain through etamine, fold in

3 cups of manufacturing cream whipped to soft peaks

1 tablespoon chopped tarragon

1/2 tablespoon chopped chervil

freeze

Chef Layne,

That is a pretty cool idea.

Can  you confirm / clarify the following (English is not my first language... sorry for the trouble)

1) first high-light; what shape or type of container do you freeze this in initially?  I'm guessing a loaf pan?

2) second high-light; did you mean a tamis? or Étamine (tissu) basically a layered cheese cloth?

3) third high-light; 40% or more milk fat?

Thanks a bunch.

This looks to be something very useful.

OK. I don't get the popularity of this topic lately. I'm curious here. Just how many dishes do you make that come w/ béarnaise sauce? ... and how much calling do you have for those dishes? I can see eggs-b, yucky potatoes and once in a while, some jamoak will want it on his steak. That's it for me. I must be a sheltered dinosaur. 

Why whip the cream?  That makes no sense. 

There may be cream in a Bearnaise semifreddo, but not in sauce Bearnaise -- whipped or otherwise.  Call it what you will, but the recipe is for frozen custard. 

ChefLayne:

I hate to be tough on new ideas, and certainly haven't even tried your idea or anything like it -- which may disqualify the opinion -- and please forgive me for being so blunt, pessimistic, and dubious. 

The recipe doesn't sound good to me for any purpose.  Do your diners really melt a scoop of frozen custard (with plenty of cream) on top of a hot protein? Really?  Steak a la mode?!  Is it a popular dish?  How much do you charge?

I suppose you could heat a little of the frozen base in a microwave, in the same way home cooks in a hurry make a creme anglaise by melting French Vanilla ice cream, but considering what's in this recipe, it doesn't sound like a good idea to me.  I think it would be overly liquid, overly airy (if you'd beaten the cream) and lack the intense butter/egg/acid richness you get from a Bearnaise because it was destroyed by all that cream. 

MichaelGA:

Go ahead and make a test batch if you have the time -- what can it hurt?  Don't expect too much, and do get back to us to let it know how it worked for you. 

BDL

I'm with BDL on this, just sounds wrong........To the OP, either make the sauce or find something else. The compound butter is your best bet.

Why not make the sauce just before service and hold it warm?  Any time we've run a special with a hollandaise based sauce that's exactly what we've done with perfect results.

WOW. 

Nothing personal.

Yes.

As I understand it, "semifreddo" means serving something which is half-frozen.

We bought a new, "self-contained" ice cream freezer a few months ago so we've been doing a fair bit of frozen stuff -- and that does include some semifreddos.  My semifreddos are made by folding gelato and whipped cream together (about 2 gelato to 1 whipped cream), and I believe that method or something very much like it is how semifreddos are almost always made.   

Folding whipped cream into a warm base and then putting it directly into the freezer without thoroughly chilling it first is -- IMO -- bad technique on several levels.  You get a lot of ice crystals and too much air; which both add up to lousy texture.   You might get away with using a warm base in a Pacojet or commercial ice cream maker -- but if you do use a Pacojet or churn or do anything else to break up the crystals we're back to "what's the point of whipping the cream?"  

I'm left still questioning the wisdom of putting something frozen on a hot protein at all, especially in sufficiently large quantities to act as a sauce.  I'll grant you that "scoop" was hyperbole but the idea of steak a la mode was irresistible. 

Your technique may be different, but if I serve anything but the smallest piece of butter (plain or compound) on a protein the butter is temped to room temperature and not straight from the refrigerator.

Again, this is just about food and is not meant in any way as a personal critique. 

BDL

Quote:

Originally Posted by boar_d_laze 

There may be cream in a Bearnaise semifreddo, but not in sauce Bearnaise -- whipped or otherwise.  Call it what you will, but the recipe is for frozen custard. 

 

Coming from the guy who refused to call it Caesar Salad if the dressing's missing the anchovies (can't eat it together with chicken/meat) and parmesan (same issue, with the addition of it being actual dairy)...(I make a great version, but am educating my customers and calling it Brutus Salad - very much unlike the other kosher restaurants and caterers), I gotta say that if it's got both the ingredients and flavors intrinsic to what Bearnaise stands for, then calling it a Bearnaise semifreddo is a cool variation, and no customer will be expecting a warm, rich sauce.  If you were calling it Bearnaise Sauce, then you'd be sent to a corner to think about you've done.

Cheflayne - I do, however, wonder about the point of putting a cold anything on a hot protein.  Maybe you should scoop it, deep-freeze it (thereby rendering it a full-freddo??), roll it in flour-egg-breadcrumb, and deep-fry it for service, thereby warming it and "partially saucing" itself in it's shell (and rendering it a barely-freddo?).  Really effing confuse people by calling it Italian Fried Bearnaise Semifreddo!

I can't believe this is still an active thread.

I hope it's not out of laziness, but it sure screams of that, there's no excuse not to make a sauce daily, that takes literally 3 minutes to make.

lest we forget that the op asked for a 'frozen' bearnaise...whether you like it or not, agree with it or not or it just sounds all wrong, a solution was delivered period...it's not a pissing contest.....gotta say, i like chefdave's idea the best....'italian fried bearnaise semifreddo'....that's just funny!!!!

who's on first?

joey

 sometimes i do a southwest rubbed steak special and top it with a corn and black bean relish(cold)...does that mean i should i go to the corner too? or pair fresh fruit relishes on grilled fish continually......fresh blueberries on grilled salmon, grilled pineapple on spice rubbed and grilled pork, tomato-caper and canellini beans on grilled tuna.....and the beat goes on and on and on...does a hat come with that corner?

Nominated for Best Clarification in the Category of Not a Pissing Contest, but in the Interests of Good Technique and Accuracy:

1.  The OP asked if there was a way to hold Bearnaise frozen, not if it should be served that way.  And,

2.  Let me apologize if it seemed like I was bullying ChefLayne, being too hard on him in any way, or harbor personal animosity.  Nothing personal.  I thought (and think) the recipe and techniques for a semifreddo which will be served on a hot protein to melt into a sauce, and the underlying idea of serving a semifreddo on a hot protein are [ahem] less than stellar.  

Other:

Finally, gotta say that while I personally like and always have liked Bearnaise, and like it (and similar Hollandaise daughter sauces) even more since my interests turned retro -- it IS old-fashioned and I wouldn't have thought there was much demand for it outside of old-line steak houses.  I'm curious about what type of restaurant and what the OP has in mind for the menu. 

BDL

Quote:

Originally Posted by durangojo 

 sometimes i do a southwest rubbed steak special and top it with a corn and black bean relish(cold)...does that mean i should i go to the corner too? or pair fresh fruit relishes on grilled fish continually......fresh blueberries on grilled salmon, grilled pineapple on spice rubbed and grilled pork, tomato-caper and canellini beans on grilled tuna.....and the beat goes on and on and on...does a hat come with that corner?

Agreed.  I think further thinking (dangerous) and clarification would be...a sauce now being served in cold form?  Also, cold sauce/relish on meat as opposed to chicken or tuna.  Unless in a sandwich, we don't typically eat cooked meat that's now cold (barring an exception I'm sure is out there), whereas chicken and fish are often cooked and eaten cold.

And any hat you want - except one that's denotes you as being a chef (j/k!) 

I Have never been a big lover of sauces on quality protiens we serve. Au Jus is my most favorite terminology for the wet stuff applied to the meat dish! Never really liked the tarragon reduction bernaise as well as just a pure hollandaise but heck I was not paying the bills so WTF. Bernaise for "me" was always a wrap around to make the dish sound more old school and uppity then if we had done a specific Jus for the meat in question and cooked it properly! Just another sauce that the sous has to do before the rush and realy how much do you sell ? I myself would take a good boardalaise with a merlot and possible mushroom reduction and garnish over any Bernaise sauce for my filet but then again I like simple food cooked well. The solution to your dilema is to change the friggen menu and lose the bernaise. If you can do it well then so be it, otherwise move on! KISS, Doug...................

I'm going out on a limb here -

The OP wanted a particular sauce... that could be frozen and used as required.

That means it isn't particularly popular and has a low volume / demand. (not all of us work in a fancy pants always full place)

Having something to offer to the low volume / demand crowd makes a big difference.  It might not be 'exactly' what they want, but it does show them that you care enough to have something available.

Old timer #1 comes in and asks for his steak well done with a bernaise sauce.

 - server says we don't have that; or

 - server says we can do that steak with a bernaise semi-freddo 

----

Which option do you want?

----

And seriously some of you people need to wake up.  The restaurant business has changed.  

WTF are you all bitching and pissing about... putting a cold condiment on a hot protein.?!?!

Wake the hell up... most of the $$$$ bling bling steaks served in the great'ol'us'of'a get smothered in ketchup!

Do you honestly refuse to offer Heinz57 if someone asks for it?

(just on principle?  I wish I worked at your place if you do)

Cold condiments on a steak are the norm... blue cheese, goat cheese, compound butters etc. Don't even bother to tell me you keep these cheese at room temp just for when you get that order.  Do you really keep the compound butter pats out at room temp... and then discard them every night if they aren't used. (please don't suggest you put them back in the cooler!)  

Seriously - if I can make even one customer happy by saying - we don't have Bernaise but we do have a Bernaise Semi-Freddo for your steak.

I'm happy.  

The Bernaise Semi-Freddo that is kept in the freezer, made in small batches and never really goes bad but is always available for a customer is even better.

Thanks Cheflayne!

Are you kidding here?!?      "Outback", while a nice enough place for those who dine there, is not a "steak-house" of "bling bling".

I'll give you 3:1 that 98.6% of average diners don't know what "semi-freddo" is. I'll also bet that that one(1) customer then asks you when did béarnaise sauce become a dessert?

I'd put the cold condiment on the hot steak and let it sit on the grill for a few seconds. 

     Just for fun.