France
Beurre Blanc
Traditionally, a beurre blanc consists of nearly equal parts white wine and good white wine vinegar reduced dramatically with shallot, held in emulsion with quite a lot of butter.
Beurre blanc began in the Loire valley in a village called Saint-Julien, where fishermen worked the sour cream left over from cheesemaking into butter. The hard part is temperature: the wine reduction has to have dropped to barely a simmer, and the butter must go in cold, a cube at a time, or the sauce splits and turns greasy. It is the sauce for white fish, asparagus and anything that wants brightness with fat.
Ingredients
- good white wine (dry aromatic white, preferably French, such as Pouilly-Fumé)1 cup
- lemon, juiced1
- shallots, minced1
- heavy cream (optional and non-traditional)1 tbsp
- unsalted butter, very cold and in cubes or lumps10 tbsp
- SaltTo taste
- White pepperTo taste
Directions
- 1
Place the white wine in a non-reactive saucepan with the lemon juice and chopped shallots.
- 2
Cook this mixture until reduced to about 2 tablespoons, and don't be shy about letting it boil—it will not adversely affect the sauce. Once reduced, the shallot should still be fairly moist. If you're looking at a dry pan, there's a good chance your sauce won't hold.
- 3
Reduce heat to low flame. If you want to increase the holding power of your sauce, add the heavy cream at this juncture, but every authority on traditional French preparation would disapprove.
- 4
Begin to add cubes of the cold butter while whisking vigorously. From a technical standpoint, the sauce should stay under 200°F (95°C), so do some of the whisking off the flame. Whisk in 1 or 2 cubes and add more, and continue until you've added all the butter.
- 5
Season with salt and white pepper, and serve immediately. The sauce can be held in a vacuum container, such a Thermos, but this is not recommended for long periods of time.
Source: Wikibooks Cookbook (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0; English normalized and Chinese translation added by WorldBite.