''Beurre blanc'' ("white butter" in French) is a warm emulsified

butter Butter is a dairy product made from the fat and protein components of churned cream. It is a semi-solid emulsion at room temperature, consisting of approximately 80% butterfat. It is used at room temperature as a spread, melted as a condim ...

sauce In cooking, a sauce is a liquid, cream, or semi-solid food, served on or used in preparing other foods. Most sauces are not normally consumed by themselves; they add flavor, moisture, and visual appeal to a dish. ''Sauce'' is a French wor ...

made with a reduction of

vinegar Vinegar is an aqueous solution of acetic acid and trace compounds that may include flavorings. Vinegar typically contains 5–8% acetic acid by volume. Usually, the acetic acid is produced by a double fermentation, converting simple sugars to eth ...

and/or

white wine White wine is a wine that is Fermentation in winemaking, fermented without skin contact. The wine color, colour can be straw-yellow, yellow-green, or yellow-gold. It is produced by the alcoholic fermentation of the non-coloured Juice vesicles, ...

(normally

Muscadet Muscadet ( , , ) is a French white wine. It is made at the western end of the Loire Valley, near the city of Nantes in the Pays de la Loire region. It is made from the Melon de Bourgogne grape, often referred to simply as ''melon''. While mo ...

) and

shallot The shallot is a botanical variety (a cultivar) of the onion. Until 2010, the (French red) shallot was classified as a separate species, ''Allium ascalonicum''. The taxon was synonymized with '' Allium cepa'' (the common onion) in 2010, as the ...

s into which softened whole butter is whisked in off the heat to prevent separation. The small amount of emulsifiers naturally found in butter are used to form an oil-in-water

emulsion An emulsion is a mixture of two or more liquids that are normally immiscible (unmixable or unblendable) owing to liquid-liquid phase separation. Emulsions are part of a more general class of two-phase systems of matter called colloids. Alth ...

. Although similar to

hollandaise Hollandaise sauce ( or ; ), also called Dutch sauce, is a mixture of egg yolk, melted butter, and lemon juice (or a white wine or vinegar reduction). It is usually seasoned with salt, and either white pepper or cayenne pepper. It is well known ...

in concept, it is considered neither a classic leading nor compound sauce.(1995), '' On Cooking'', Sarah R. Labensky, Salan M. Hause, Priscilla A. Martel This sauce originates in Loire Valley cuisine.

Origin

The chef Clémence Lefeuvre (née Clémence Prau) invented ''beurre blanc'', apparently by accident, sometime around the beginning of the 20th century. She served this sauce at her restaurant "La Buvette de la Marine" in the hamlet of La Chebuette in the village of

Saint-Julien-de-Concelles Saint-Julien-de-Concelles (; br, Sant-Juluan-Kankell) is a commune in the Loire-Atlantique department in western France. Saint-Julien-de-Concelles is the home of the popular ''beurre blanc'' sauce. The sauce was first prepared in a small resta ...

on the banks of the Loire River a few kilometers upstream from

Nantes Nantes (, , ; Gallo: or ; ) is a city in Loire-Atlantique on the Loire, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the sixth largest in France, with a population of 314,138 in Nantes proper and a metropolitan area of nearly 1 million inhabita ...

.St-Julien-de-Concelles Official Website
Retrieved 24 May 2008. Legend holds that she intended to prepare a

béarnaise sauce Béarnaise sauce (; ) is a sauce made of clarified butter emulsified in egg yolks and white wine vinegar and flavored with herbs. It is widely regarded as the "child" of the Hollandaise sauce. The difference is only in the flavoring: Béarnaise ...

to go with pike but forgot to add the

tarragon Tarragon (''Artemisia dracunculus''), also known as estragon, is a species of perennial herb in the family Asteraceae. It is widespread in the wild across much of Eurasia and North America and is cultivated for culinary and medicinal purposes. ...

and egg yolks. Some sources claim that this invention occurred while she worked as a cook for the Marquis de Goulaine at Château de Goulaine.

Aristide Briand Aristide Pierre Henri Briand (; 28 March 18627 March 1932) was a French statesman who served eleven terms as Prime Minister of France during the French Third Republic. He is mainly remembered for his focus on international issues and reconciliat ...

, long-time prime minister of France and

Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Chemistry, Physics, Physiolo ...

laureate, said at her death in 1932 that it "was a bit like national mourning."

Preparation

A good ''beurre blanc'' is rich and buttery, with a neutral flavor that responds well to other seasonings and flavorings, thereby lending itself to the addition of herbs and spices. It should be light yet still liquid and thick enough to cling to food, also known as nappe. ''Beurre blanc'' is prepared by reducing wine, vinegar, shallots, and herbs (if used) until it is nearly dry. Although not necessary, cream can be added at this point as a stabilizer to the sauce.

Lemon juice The lemon (''Citrus limon'') is a species of small evergreen trees in the flowering plant family Rutaceae, native to Asia, primarily Northeast India (Assam), Northern Myanmar or China. The tree's ellipsoidal yellow fruit is used for culina ...

is sometimes used in place of vinegar, and stock can also be added. Cold, one-inch cubes of butter are then gradually incorporated into the sauce as the butter melts and the mixture is whisked. The sauce can separate by either overheating or cooling. If it heats past , some emulsifying proteins begin to break down and release the butterfat they hold in an emulsion. The butterfat will solidify if the sauce cools below .

Derivatives

''Beurre rouge''

''Beurre rouge'' (English: "red butter") is a variant of the ''beurre blanc'' sauce that is prepared by substituting a dry red wine for the white wine and red wine vinegar for the white wine vinegar. File:Rouget en écailles de pommes de terre.JPG, A potato and vegetable dish prepared with ''beurre rouge'' (red butter)

Origin

Preparation

Derivatives

''Beurre rouge''

See also