What’s the Difference Between Hollandaise and Béarnaise Sauces? (2024)

FAQs

What’s the Difference Between Hollandaise and Béarnaise Sauces? ›

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.

It is regarded as a "child" of hollandaise sauce. The difference is only in the flavoring: béarnaise uses shallot, black pepper, and tarragon, while hollandaise uses white pepper or a pinch of cayenne. The sauce's name derives from the province of Béarn, France.

You can use bearnaise sauce instead of hollandaise in eggs Benedict and eggs Florentine. This will give the dish a more savoury, herby flavour as opposed to the citrusy flavour in hollandaise sauce. Bearnaise sauce is also wonderful over vegetables. We love it with broccoli!

Irresistibly creamy, buttery, and rich, Béarnaise combines an herby, slightly acidic reduction of white wine, vinegar, shallots, fresh tarragon, and lemon juice with hollandaise to make a luscious sauce for spooning over grilled steak, chicken, fish, or vegetables.

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.

What is Hollandaise Sauce? If you've never experienced the magic of hollandaise sauce, let me attempt to describe it to you. It's a very simple savory sauce made with butter, egg yolk, lemon, and salt. It has a smooth, velvety texture with just the right amount of bright lemon flavor to keep it from being too heavy.

Traditional hollandaise, made by emulsifying melted clarified butter into egg yolks and lemon juice, is notoriously difficult to make. You not only have to take the same care in its construction as you take for oil-in-egg-yolk mayonnaise, but you also have to deal with the fickle nature of hot eggs and butter.

Hollandaise is pale yellow, smooth, and creamy. It's often used to to eggs Benedict, asparagus, and fish.

Hollandaise Sauce

One common hollandaise mistake is overcooking the egg yolks, and there's no coming back from that. But the most common problem is that the emulsion breaks, and you see streaks of liquid butter instead of a uniformly creamy sauce.

3 oz of bearnaise sauce (Timber Lodge Steakhouse) contains 270 Calories. The macronutrient breakdown is 14% carbs, 80% fat, and 6% protein. This has a relatively high calorie density, with 321 Calories per 100g.

What is sauce bearnaise syndrome? ›

sauce béarnaise effect

a colloquial term referring to a conditioned taste aversion. If a person happens to become ill after tasting a new food, such as sauce béarnaise, they may subsequently dislike and avoid that food. Regardless of the actual cause of the illness, the sauce will be identified with it.

Add the fat too fast and you break your emulsion. Heat it up too much and it turns into scrambled eggs. Don't heat it enough and you'll have a thin, wet sauce instead of a rich, meat-coating sauce.

You should choose it over hollandaise when you want a little more boldness and depth. The acidity in béarnaise can complement not only a seared steak, but also a hearty piece of grilled white fish or some pan-roasted mushrooms. Using béarnaise in place of hollandaise can also jazz up the aforementioned eggs Benedict.

Making the sauce

Cod pairs wonderfully with the classic Béarnaise sauce. Most people associate this sauce with steak, but I feel it works better with the tender delicacy of poached white fish. Clarify 300g of cubed butter by melting it over a low heat.

Overheating spells disaster — the béarnaise will curdle. But if you take your time, you will end up with a beautiful satiny sauce that has been one of the glories of the French table since it was first created almost 200 years ago.

Hollandaise is best served warm or at room temperature, and is a pain to reheat (because you have to be so careful not to cook the eggs). Warmer yolks = warmer sauce.

Béarnaise sauce is like a cooked mayonnaise, with Tarragon added to it. That's about as simple as I can put it. It CAN be a bit prickly to make, but it's got ENORMOUS flavor, is rich with healthy fats and is extremely low carb.