# what makes a good beurre blanc?



## soesje (Dec 6, 2012)

so what do you guys consider makes a good beurre blanc?

there are various recipes.  what are the correct ratios?

I am trying to get this down but today I ruined a batch and dunno why. 

reduced too much I think.

I personally don't add cream so just use white wine, white vinegar, shallot, butter.

about equal amount liquids and for butter about same amount. say I have one cup liquid then use one cup butter ...

no metrics, to keep it easy.

other things I should consider keeping in mind?

thanks


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## brianshaw (Dec 18, 2010)

Most important is to reduce the wine enough so the butter emulsifies properly and doesn't break.  Straining out the shallot is also the difference between OK and good.


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## meezenplaz (Jan 31, 2012)

How did you mess it up in what way?
The key is simplicity.
And yes, the reduction needs to not resemble wine, just this side of au sec.
About a tablespoon left, kinda syrupy.
And a lil cream helps stabilize it, but its not crucial.
Shinwa if u want, but it works for me either way.
Off the heat but still hot, melt in pats at a time til you have it
where you want it.


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## bjazz (Nov 4, 2013)

BrianShaw said:


> Most important is to reduce the wine enough so the butter emulsifies properly and doesn't break. Straining out the shallot is also the difference between OK and good.


What do you mean? The Roux brothers - Albert in particular - advices _never_ to remove the shallots. Personally, I do it both ways, depending on the occasion. Sometimes it´s perfectly acceptable for a sauce to have little texture.

Eg. Poached fish that´s delicate in texture might fully welcome the bits in your sauce, whereas asparagus wrapped in parma ham should definetely be strained as it´s got texture enough and only needs the butterniness.

Each to his own.


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## left4bread (May 8, 2009)

Five minutes until service...

Me: "Chef! Help! Why is my beurre blanc breaking!?"

Chef: "Because we need it."

I don't know what the "correct" ratios are, but I use 1 part wine/vinegar/whatever to 2 parts butter. I wouldn't think that it would make much of a difference though if you are reducing it au sec. The emulsifying agents are in the butter. Obviously, it would make a difference flavor wise...

AFAIK, it breaks because it is too hot or too cold. Some people whisk in small amounts over low heat, some toss all the butter in at once and whisk like mad. I do the latter. And then after I strain it I hit it with a wand (hand held immersion mixer).


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## kaiquekuisine (Apr 11, 2013)

If you have access to a stainless steel bowl you could heat it , and whisk the butter when warm. 

Or whisk it over baine marie. 

If you keep it over a baine marie ( the water hot not simmering ) , it makes it easier to

maintain  (just like an hollandaise). 

Never tried it this way , but it made sense in my head.


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## meezenplaz (Jan 31, 2012)

I usually try to leave the shallots in, unless I was in a hurry and didn't mince them fine enough.

Too big of chunks detracts IMO. MOst of em break with too much heat, or direct heat once the

butter starts going in.

KK point taken, Ive fiddled round too long after removal from heat and it got too cold

for the butter phase, so Ive popped the saute pan over water real quick and finished it off--

and BTW I add the butter in pats--but theyre pre cut and ready to go--1 or 2 pats at a time.

Usually takes 4 to 8 oz of whole butter before its done.

Left4bread: I never thought of finshing with the immersion blender--I'll have to try that out. /img/vbsmilies/smilies/smile.gif


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## soesje (Dec 6, 2012)

so, all different takes on same sauce.

to me, beurre blanc is one of the modern emulsion sauces, I'd almost say mother sauce although that would make escoffier turn in his grave.

or maybe not......maybe he would have approved, as this sauce only exists since beginning 20th century or so.

as its such a basic sauce, how come there are SO many different recipes, on the basic version alone?

are those purely personal takes? when did the cream enter the beurre blanc? why do the french not approve on this?

as they don't approve then WHAT is the french recipe for beurre blanc?

I am kinda fascinated by this "hollandaise sauce that went wrong" as the story goes.

lots of variations like having a blanc canvas and make new artwork every time.

hmm think I better stop here.

I am feeling passionate ....something must be wrong with me


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## meezenplaz (Jan 31, 2012)

Not sure I see all different takes on it, I see 2 major points--cream or no cream, and whether

or not to strain out the shallots.

(Or did you mean out on the net/world in general, not necessarily in here?)

To me, if you have a sauce with very few flavor ingredients, who's major component is

whole butter, it qualifies as Beurre Blanc, regardless of the ratios.

Ratios don't make the sauce what it is--butter does,. If you use more

wine etc, your reduction will be a bit more concentrated in flavors.

I'm not sure where and when the cream technique came from, supposedly it 

keeps it from breaking but Ive watched it break both ways. Usually from excessive

heat--even for only a few seconds. And cream is dairy,  so its still

BB. But get enough cream in it and at some point it changes the taste--but still BB IMO.

Whether or not the shallots remain in....still BB.

Soesje, when you said your sauce was ruined, what did it actually do? Did it separate?

Maybe together we can figger it out.


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## soesje (Dec 6, 2012)

meezenplaz, yes I meant the WWW in general.  I was quite surprised actually.

and I have been thinking what exactly went wrong with this particular BB yesterday.

I have made it before no problem but yesterday hmmm different recipe to start with.

and it's already not easy to make a one person portion (anyone tried?) as it goes sec so fast you'll miss it.

still figuring that out. (sure this was my home situation not my work situation....)

so what I did was use same amount white wine and white wine vinegar with shallots. 

reduced until sec.

maybe I should not have because it was barely a tablespoon left.

added few tablespoons cream, reduced by half.

then hmmm took it off the fire..... then put it back on a bit later and started whisking in the butter.

what I saw happen is that no emulsion formed.  fire was on lowest setting so surely not too hot I thought. saw butter melt. did not fully melt the butter cubes before adding new ones. 

tasted good though, no problem since I was on my own and experimenting but I hate it when something like this happens LOL

so I want to know why it went wrong and will try again soon.

maybe I am just "overthinking" it all.


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## linecook854 (Feb 13, 2013)

On an off note does anyone here add peppercorns to the acid reduction? I've seen some classical texts using both shallots and peppercorns (as well a culinary school textbook that had shallots, peppercorns and a bay leaf) though usually this is the exception.

I usually do shallots and peppercorns in the reduction, thus I need to strain not leaving much of a choice of whether to strain or not.


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## kaiquekuisine (Apr 11, 2013)

I have used both peppercorns , and shallots , let the wine reduce in that mixture. 

And then strained , then made the beurre blanc over baine marie ( the water hot not simmering ). 

It works for me , and doesnt alter taste , i just personally find it easier and a bit fool proof (then again whats easy for me , can be different to others). 

Plus the baine marie helps maintain it longer in my opinion , since you just have to whisk it every now and then to not break as fast. 

If i dont use peppercorns and just the shallots , then there is no need to strain unless you want to.


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## kaiquekuisine (Apr 11, 2013)

Soesje , i think you let the cream heat up too much. 

The moment i see it bubble around the edges or note a few bubbles i start to add in butter , remove from heat and add the last 2-4 pats left. 

My opinions is the cream was heated for too long , especially since you used less cream , it heated too fast and caused the sauce to break. 

Also you took the sauce off the fire for a bit and reheated it , i would have just lowered the flame added in the butter , them removed and added in the last pats of butter. 

But i think it was the cream , it was exposed to heat , removed while hot , and reheated while most likely warm , thus causing it to break due to excessive amounts of heat. 

Again just my opinions , as you explained i imagined it in my head , and thats what i think went wrong.


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## cheflayne (Aug 21, 2004)

My basic ratio before reduction of vinegar/wine is 1 to 3 (wine/vinegar to butter). Because it can be tricky to hold, I make my reduction for an evening's service ahead of time and then finish a la minute as I get orders. I don't use any cream.


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## kaiquekuisine (Apr 11, 2013)

Oh i also forgot to mention i reduce the shallots , wine , and vinegar to about 1/4th a little more then a tablespoon.

All i know is if i ever get called for an interview and i have to make a BB or an Hollandaise ill be screwed , 2 sauces i havent made in months XD .


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## left4bread (May 8, 2009)

Soesje said:


> as its such a basic sauce, how come there are SO many different recipes, on the basic version alone?


Well, because no one came along and said, "Hey! You have to do it THIS way". And I doubt that that will happen for a long time.

There is no modern Escoffier (open to opinion).

I think that since it is so "basic", that is why there are so many variations.

My favorite is 1 part lemon juice, 1 part lime juice, 1 part orange juice. No wine. Some parts shallots. 6 parts butter.

I mean, really, it's just emulsified butter. Flavored.

It's not magic sauce, it isn't stabilized with roux, it isn't a hollandaise gone awry (good story, though (sorry, I'm a cynic)).

Love it, but don't over think it. /img/vbsmilies/smilies/smile.gif

You're going to make it fine for 10 years without issues and then you'll be teaching someone how to make it some day and it will break.

Yeah, Meez, the wand does what you'd think it would do; adds lift and silkyness. Did it as a total noob. Waited for someone to call me on it... Still waiting for someone to call me on it. /img/vbsmilies/smilies/lol.gif

EDIT: Yikes! left the reply window open for over an hour and missed a lot of reply posts. Sorry if my post is redundant.

Soesje: where you say "then hmmmm took it off the fire" is where it started going wrong is my guess.


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## kaiquekuisine (Apr 11, 2013)

I have done with part lime juice as well , and topped it with capers  

Maybe ill make a BB or hollandaise for this months challenge , just to see if i can do it after months XD. 

Now im getting off topic.


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## soesje (Dec 6, 2012)

hmmm all your comments made perfect sense to me.

sometimes you already KNOW the answers but have to hear it from collegues to be reminded, if you know what I mean.

going to give it a different take, it needs to work perfectly within a few weeks. 

with moving house going on and stuff not a lot of time to work on it...we'll see, I am sure I will get it right, as usual.

its as it is with hollandaise, say, once you know what to look for and how it works, relax and it just happens...


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## left4bread (May 8, 2009)

Yeah, nothing wrong with sound boarding/thinking out loud.

Totally know what you mean.

Good luck in your endeavours!


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## bjazz (Nov 4, 2013)

> ...
> 
> Left4bread: I never thought of finshing with the immersion blender--I'll have to try that out. /img/vbsmilies/smilies/smile.gif


If you´re going that direction, you don´t even necessarily have to dirty your whisk, as the blender works just fine. The plus and minus of it is that you´re bound to foam your emulsion. So if you want your sauce silky smooth it´s a no-go. If buttery foam is a welcome sight on top of your fish-fillet - Go for it.


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## jgraeff1 (Jun 3, 2013)

I work in an old an old school restaurant and Make about 100+ butter sauces a night. If you can think of it I have probably made it into a butter sauce.

The important thing is to reduce the wine or liquid down enough. It depends on the size batch your making. If you reduce the liquid to far it will not allow the butter to emusify and eventually break. 

also most will make butter sauce on low heat and one piece at a time this is a bad technique. Use high heat and all your butter at once. This will allow your liquid to keep reducing while cooking and allow the butter to slowly emulsify into the wine.

For example here is a simple but great recipe.
1oz key lime juice
2oz white wine
1# unsalted butter
Salt to taste or base of your choice.
1 jalapeño 

Slice jalapeño and add wine and juice, place
On high and reduce by about 2/3 once this add the full 1# butter cubbed and continue
To stir. Adjust seasoning and once butter has just about melted remove from heat then strain. This will result in a nice thick key lime jalapeño Beurre blanc.

This is the best technique also once you get comfortable you don't need to stir constantly and you can even let butter reduce to a certain point without breaking. 

Pm me if you need any help


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## ljokjel (Jul 1, 2009)

Dont have much to add to the part about technique. 

Sometimes i add pomme granate seeds just before serving. I like the flavour and its mild acidity as well as the visual part.

You could argue that the hard texture of the seeds is a bad thing, well to me it depends on the dish.


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## mikael (Nov 2, 2013)

I remember back when i started training as an intern i was helping my head chef and we were making some fish dishes. As we were plating them she told me to get the beurre blanch, and since i was the new guy and, the one with the least amount of experience i wanted to do everything as good as possible. So i tasted the sauce and noticed it was a bit too cold. So i put it on the fire with maximum heat only to watch the sauce change texture to something ugly.

And thats how i found out that the nice woman who were my head chef had quite a temper


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## cheflayne (Aug 21, 2004)

mikael said:


> So i tasted the sauce and noticed it was a bit too cold. So i put it on the fire with maximum heat only to watch the sauce change texture to something ugly.
> 
> And thats how i found out that the nice woman who were my head chef had quite a temper /img/vbsmilies/smilies/smile.gif


*HOLY CRAP!!! * I'm laughing with you though because I have been there, done that, had that done to me. It is a wonder sometimes why anybody stays in this crazy business! Too funny, thanks for sharing that.


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## kaiquekuisine (Apr 11, 2013)

mikael said:


> And thats how i found out that the nice woman who were my head chef had quite a temper /img/vbsmilies/smilies/smile.gif


 LMFAO , yeh the nice ones usually have a temper. At least my chef did .


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## beastmasterflex (Aug 14, 2013)

Balinese peppercorns blew my mind first time I put them in buerre blanc.


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## maine rednek (Nov 9, 2013)

I preface this with the fact that I haven't actually used Beurre Blanc in many years. But, as far as the cream goes, we used to only use that to bring the sauce back together when it got too hot. We would just add a  touch, and I mean a touch, and whisk like crazy to bring it together again. Never tried the reduced cream, but I'm sure it would work great too.

The key is that it has to be made and held at a very certain temperature, though I have no clue what exact temp (warm but not hot). Many will hold it in a thermos, but we just held it in a moderately warm but not hot place. Depending on how busy we were, we'd probably make it one more time during service. Kind of inspires me to try it again very soon.

Really like the citrus idea by jgraeff


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## chefsluggo (Jul 30, 2013)

I will share a secret... most people wont like this, but you can literally boil this buerre blanc and it wont separate. i know a lot of chefs who do this... ready? slurry... yes i said it... slurry reduce your wine, lemon juice and shallots way before au sec, slightly slurry it and mound away. it will not break and you cannot taste the difference between this method and the traditional method, we do this when making large batches and it makes it dummy proof.


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## beastmasterflex (Aug 14, 2013)

ChefSluggo said:


> I will share a secret... most people wont like this, but you can literally boil this buerre blanc and it wont separate. i know a lot of chefs who do this... ready? slurry... yes i said it... slurry reduce your wine, lemon juice and shallots way before au sec, slightly slurry it and mound away. it will not break and you cannot taste the difference between this method and the traditional method, we do this when making large batches and it makes it dummy proof.


I can tell the difference, not to say its a bad method.


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## cheflayne (Aug 21, 2004)

ChefSluggo said:


> you cannot taste the difference between this method and the traditional method





beastmasterflex said:


> I can tell the difference, not to say its a bad method.


I am going to have side with beastmasterflex on this one.


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## kaiquekuisine (Apr 11, 2013)

Agreed with Layne and Beast.


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## kuan (Jun 11, 2001)

ChefSluggo said:


> I will share a secret... most people wont like this, but you can literally boil this buerre blanc and it wont separate. i know a lot of chefs who do this... ready? slurry... yes i said it... slurry reduce your wine, lemon juice and shallots way before au sec, slightly slurry it and mound away. it will not break and you cannot taste the difference between this method and the traditional method, we do this when making large batches and it makes it dummy proof.


Then it's a bechabeurre blanc?  

Cook the shallots and they will release some starch.


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## soesje (Dec 6, 2012)

"slightly slurry it" 

what do you mean. in my book that could mean two things.

I hope not its the one thing I think….


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## meezenplaz (Jan 31, 2012)

You know I could probably taste the difference too, but we're all pro chefs in here.

The _real_ question is....can the guest/client/customer....or Aunt Margie??


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## cheflayne (Aug 21, 2004)

The reason that I can taste the difference is not because I have a superhuman palate, although it is hard to admit that /img/vbsmilies/smilies/wink.gif, but rather because I have been exposed to traditional classical beurre blanc.

Aunt Margie probably thinks Applebee's is top notch because that has been her exposure. One of my goals as a chef is education.

I had been working in the industry and good restaurants for 5 years and considered my self pretty food savy when I got a job with a classically trained European chef, to say it was mind blowing was to sell it short. For the first time, I got an inkling into what a "real" chef is. It altered my life's path.

My food may not alter anyone else's life, but I still attempt to pay the enlightment, received from Chef F, forward.


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## meezenplaz (Jan 31, 2012)

> Aunt Margie probably thinks Applebee's is top notch because that has been her exposure.


Exactly right, and exactly what I meant, Chef. I have found the same phenomenon even more so with say,

Hollandaise Sauce. Friends and family would praise eggs benedict at their local diner or restaurant--

only to listen to me say "Um this Hollandaise aint so good" But once I make them a nice rich scratch batch for comparison....

viola!


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## chefjonjames (Jan 8, 2014)

I make beur blanc everyday at my job an there's a couple of thing I always looking for. First I try to keep an eye on the white wine. Reducing it too far tends to make the sauce too acidic and kills the palate. I typically add cream in mine, a fair amount actually. For our menus intents and purposes our beur blanc needs to be pretty creamy, though its not necessary. If you do add cream, wait until it's reduced by at least half before you start working in any butter. If not it will be to runny and will look and feel too much like a broth. Obviously work the butter in with a wire whip to make sure it emulsifies. 

In terms of ratio, I guess it just depends on what your using it for. I'm just fine with equal parts cream and wine. Butter just work in until its thick enough to call a sauce and has the richness i'm looking for. I've also has a lot of success in terms of flavor working in things like lemon juice, lemon zest, leeks, and fresh herbs. I really don't think vinegar is necessary. If you need more acid, i'd rather work in a citrus fruit and add another dimension of flavor than just acidity.

Hope this helped a bit.


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## jgraeff1 (Jun 3, 2013)

Ya slurry is not a good idea, my chef would kick you out if you did that.

Techniques are meant to be learned and tested through trial and error. Sure you can always make it easier, add cream, slurry, roux, or other stabilizer but let's be honest about what your doing. 

Your not only making it easier and well less correct but your also changing the flavor and texture of the sauce. 

It depends on the establishment but most places would find this acceptable and it may be perfectly ok for what they use it for. 

For me I find things that ate difficult a challenge and try to achieve it in the best and possibly hardest way (not that Beurre blanc is hard to make) Some things are best left simple and I think butter sauces are one of them.


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## inktoxicated (Apr 8, 2015)

What makes a good beurre blanc? Tlc! The trick to not letting a beurre blanc break is to add the butter fast enough so that it infuses with the wine after the wine is reduced. Yes there are several recipes, I make this sauce on a daily basis. Holding it at about 90 degrees works for me. 

If it does break...... heat some cream up and slowly stir your broken sauce into it. It should thicken up. 

To prevent it from breaking in the first place..... well, don't look at it wrong! Even top chefs break a beurre blanc. I know, I work in a top 10 kitchen of 15 years. Play with it and see what works best for you. Have confidence in your skills. Also my advise is definitely to strain the shallots. I also use garlic and some kind of juice (I just made a beurre blanc with blood oranges tonight) did it break? No! Not because I'm experienced but because I got lucky.


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