If bearnaise sauce has turned up in a recipe or caught your eye at the store, here's what you need to use it with confidence and how to choose it, cook it, store it, what to substitute, and 3 recipes to try it in.

What is bearnaise sauce?

Béarnaise Sauce is a classic French “mother” sauce, made with eggs, butter, wine, vinegar, shallots, pepper, and tarragon.

It resembles hollandaise sauce in consistency.

Béarnaise is used for steaks, boiled or fried fish, broiled chicken, egg dishes, and croquettes.

Though it takes its name from the Béarn, a French province in the Pyrenees, some authorities say that the sauce did not originate in this region where oil, not butter, cookery is customary but was created near Paris, in a restaurant called Pavillion Henry IV.

Henry IV was the French king once called “le grand Béarnais”.

It was he who hoped that during his reign every Frenchman would have a chicken in the pot every Sunday.

See Béarnaise Sauce recipes, including True Bearnaise Sauce and Classic Bearnaise Sauce.

In Chinese:

蛋黄酱汁

British (UK) term:

Bearnaise sauce

en français:

sauce béarnaise

en español:

salsa bearnesa

Recipes using bearnaise sauce

There are 3 recipes that contain this ingredient.

All 3 recipes