Provençal recipe

Bearnaise sauce

Recipe no. 173 Reboul, 1909 Sauce

Recipe no. 173 from Jean-Baptiste Reboul's La Cuisinière provençale (1909), page 87.

Ingredients

Preparation

  1. Preparing the basePut into a saucepan 2 finely chopped shallots, a bundle of thyme, bay leaf, parsley, chervil and tarragon; moisten with half a glass of white vinegar and let it reduce completely.
  2. Incorporating the eggs and butterSet it aside, remove the bundle of herbs, add 3 egg yolks and add little by little, stirring all the while with a whisk, about 100 grams of melted, lukewarm butter. The sauce should then take on the consistency of a paste.
  3. FinishTake particular care to keep the saucepan over a very gentle heat, or even beside the heat, as the slightest excess of warmth would infallibly curdle the sauce; add a pinch of salt, pepper, and chopped chervil and tarragon.

Reboul's text

Put into a saucepan 2 finely chopped shallots, a bundle of thyme, bay leaf, parsley, chervil and tarragon; moisten with half a glass of white vinegar and let it reduce completely.

Set it aside, remove the bundle of herbs, add 3 egg yolks and add little by little, stirring all the while with a whisk, about 100 grams of melted, lukewarm butter. The sauce should then take on the consistency of a paste.

Take particular care to keep the saucepan over a very gentle heat, or even beside the heat, as the slightest excess of warmth would infallibly curdle the sauce; add a pinch of salt, pepper, and chopped chervil and tarragon.

Small Provençal glossary for this recipe

Reboul writes in French: no Provençal word appears in this recipe, apart from the dish's name itself. The table below gives the Provençal equivalents of the words used, in mistralian spelling, translated by Lingua Nostra. Each form is attested in our Provençal-English dictionary; click to open the entry.

ProvençalEnglish
redurrereduce
fouitwhisk
poumadopaste
viracurdle

Source: Jean-Baptiste Reboul, La Cuisinière provençale, Marseille, 1909, recipe no. 173, page 87. Public domain. Transcription, formatting and Provençal glossary by Lingua Nostra.