Hollandaise Vs. Béarnaise: What's The Difference? - Mashed (2024)

FAQs

What is the difference between béarnaise and hollandaise? ›

It's what happens next that sets them apart: Hollandaise gets its acidity from lemon juice (sometimes vinegar) and is usually seasoned with salt, white pepper, and cayenne pepper. Béarnaise, meanwhile, builds upon hollandaise with white wine vinegar, shallots, tarragon, and other fresh herbs.

Because of its water content, more whole butter is needed to thicken a hollandaise then just straight clarified butter. Make sure your acid reduction is cool before the egg yolks are added or they may curdle.

Both Hollandaise and Bearnaise sauces use egg yolks, butter and an acid. A Hollandaise uses lemon juice, while the Béarnaise uses tarragon and vinegar reduction: that is, chopped tarragon in (white) wine vinegar boiled down. Aside from the reduction, the preparation of both sauces is the same.

Bechamel starts with a light roux, and is made with milk. It gets its flavor from onion, bay leaf, snd clove, along with a hint of nutmeg and white pepper. Hollandaise is a liaison of egg yolks and butter, flavored with lemon juice, white pepper and a dash of cayenne, according to Julia Child.

The five French mother sauces are béchamel, velouté, espagnole, hollandaise, and tomato. Developed in the 19th century by French chef Auguste Escoffier, mother sauces serve as a starting point for a variety of delicious sauces used to complement countless dishes, including veggies, fish, meat, casseroles, and pastas.

To make Béarnaise, you start with a reduction of wine, vinegar, shallots, and tarragon. Set it aside while you make the hollandaise, which is a semi-permanent emulsion of egg yolks and clarified butter. Stir the herbal reduction into hollandaise, and voila! You have Béarnaise sauce.

You can substitute vinegar for the lemon juice in Hollandaise if you wish, but in my opinion the flavor isn't as good. The most common mistake people make with Hollandaise is adding melted butter that is too hot, or adding too much too soon.

Why Does Hollandaise Sauce Break? Over-heating or overcooking the egg yolks is one culprit. Next time, be sure to use a double boiler and heat the yolks gently to avoid overcooking them. The second cause is either adding too much butter or adding it too quickly.

Tips To Ensure a Creamy Hollandaise Sauce

Add butter in a thin stream, not all at once. Don't melt the butter at a high temperature, because it'll evaporate the water in the butter. And a little extra water helps the hollandaise emulsify better.

It's a delicate sauce, made thick by the emulsion between the egg yolks and butter. In appearance, hollandaise is pale yellow, smooth, and creamy. It's commonly served as a finishing sauce for eggs Benedict, poached fish, and asparagus.

Why do you need to constantly whisk when adding the butter to hollandaise sauce? ›

You keep whisking the mixture as you add the melted butter because you want to break it up into tiny, tiny drops. Each tiny drop ends up surrounded by emulsifiers . But to give the emulsifiers a helping hand, you need to keep the butter from gathering in a big glob.

Clarified butter is most often used because it's all fat and makes a more stable emulsion. Whole butter contains water, which the emulsion doesn't want, so it breaks more easily. As Tilman mentioned, a whole butter hollandaise has more flavor, but that's the only advantage.

Hollandaise and béarnaise can often be used interchangeably, but for some dishes, one sauce works better than the other. Both are among the best sauces and condiments for eggs, with hollandaise being famous worldwide as a topping for a traditional eggs Benedict recipe.

There is a vast difference between the two sauces, which are: Beurre Blanc – It is cooked in a pot by reducing white wine, vinegar, and shallots and then whisking in whole butter. Hollandaise – it is cooked over a double boiler and contains egg yolks, clarified butter, and lemon juice.

There are a lot of scrumptious alternatives to hollandaise sauce. Béarnaise Sauce and Mock Hollandaise Sauce are great substitutes.

Hollandaise sauce is unlike the mother sauces we've mentioned so far, due to a liquid and a thickening agent, plus flavorings. Hollandaise is a tangy, buttery sauce made by slowly whisking clarified butter into warm egg yolks. So the liquid here is the clarified butter and the thickening agent is the egg yolks.

Béarnaise sauce is commonly paired with grilled fish or steak, but it's just as delicious on roasted vegetables or eggs Benedict. Spoon this silky, herby sauce over roasted asparagus, steamed broccoli, or grilled mushrooms for a sophisticated dinner party side.

We cannot ignore the value of tarragon's earthy notes nor the subtle umami from the cooked shallots. Likely, it is the forwardness of the acid in béarnaise that makes it so delectable when paired with steak or other fatty meats.

Fresh Tarragon: Provides a distinct anise-like flavor, essential for béarnaise. White Wine Vinegar: Adds acidity to balance the richness of the sauce. White Wine: Enhances the flavor complexity of the sauce.