Fast Answer
Beurre blanc takes about 25 minutes. Reduce white wine, white wine vinegar, and shallot to 2–3 tablespoons. Turn the heat to low and whisk in 1 cup of cold butter, a cube or two at a time. Don't let it boil. Adding the butter too fast is what breaks it.
What Is Beurre Blanc?
Beurre blanc is a French butter sauce. Reduce white wine, vinegar, and shallots to a few tablespoons, then whisk in cold butter until the sauce turns creamy. It goes on fish, shellfish, and vegetables like asparagus. It has a reputation for being fussy, and it can break. The fix is mostly about speed, and this post shows what to watch for.
Start Here
- Reduce first: wine, vinegar, and shallot cook down to 2–3 tablespoons.
- Cold butter: cut it into small cubes and keep it in the refrigerator until you need it.
- Low heat: turn it down before the butter goes in.
- Go slowly: add a cube or two at a time, and whisk until it's almost melted.
- Don't boil it. Boiling breaks the sauce.
What Most Cooks Get Wrong
- Adding the butter too fast: this is what broke mine. The sauce separated and turned oily.
- Using warm butter: cold butter blends in more easily.
- Heat that's too high: turn it down before the butter goes in.
- Letting it boil: the sauce breaks.
- Making it too early: it's best made at the last minute.
Why This Works
- The reduction concentrates the wine, vinegar, and shallot into a few tablespoons of flavor.
- Cold butter melts slowly, which lets it blend into the liquid instead of pooling on top.
- Whisking keeps the butter evenly mixed so the sauce turns creamy.
- No egg yolks. That's why it's more delicate than hollandaise.
Beurre Blanc Sauce Recipe
Equipment
- Sauce pan
Ingredients
Instructions
Reduce the Wine, Vinegar an Shallot
- In a small saucepan, combine the white wine, white wine vinegar, and shallot. Bring to a boil over medium heat, then reduce the heat to low and simmer until only 2–3 tablespoons of liquid remain.
Whisk in Butter
- With the heat on low, add the cold butter a cube or two at a time, whisking constantly. Wait until each addition is almost melted before adding more. Don't let the sauce boil, or it will break.
Season
- Season with salt and white pepper to taste.
Serve
- Serve right away, or keep it warm over a double boiler (just-hot water, not boiling) until you're ready to serve.
Notes
If It Breaks
- Take it off the heat as soon as it looks oily.
- Whisk in a spoonful of cold cream or a small ice cube, a little at a time, until it comes back together.
- If it won't recover, start a fresh reduction in a clean pan, then whisk the broken sauce in a little at a time.
- Next time, add the butter more slowly.
Add Lemon
- What it does: lemon juice adds acid that cuts through the butter, so the sauce tastes brighter and less heavy.
- How to add it: stir in a little at the end, off the heat, and taste after each addition.
- Why it's worth knowing: beurre blanc is a base sauce. Once you can make it, you can change it with citrus, herbs, or pepper.
- A reader's version: Chef Girard says he was taught to start with white wine, Chablis, shallots, garlic, and two peeled lemons, then add fresh dill, tarragon, and thyme, and serve it over pan-seared pollock.
What to Serve With This
- Asparagus: what I've made it for.
- Fish: halibut, salmon, or any other fish.
- Shellfish.
- Vegetables.
Make-Ahead and Storage
- Best made at the last minute.
- Keep it warm in a Thermos-type bottle or in a double boiler over just-hot water, not boiling.
- Chef Jenni's make-ahead tip: make the reduction a day ahead, heat it to about 150°F on the day, let it cool a bit, then add the butter. I haven't tried it, but I would if I needed to.
- Reheating finished beurre blanc is, in Chef Jenni's words, an exercise in frustration.
Variations
- Beurre rouge: made with red wine instead of white. (Replaces the old “tomato puree or ketchup” line.)
- Beurre blanc aux fines herbes: chopped fresh herbs added to the sauce. Often served with chicken, fish, or vegetables.
- Beurre blanc au poivre: crushed black pepper added to the sauce. Typically served with steak or other meats.
- Beurre blanc aux agrumes: citrus juice, such as lemon or orange, added to the sauce. Often served with seafood or chicken.
Beurre Blanc Sauce FAQ
What is beurre blanc made of? White wine, white wine vinegar, shallots, cold butter, salt, and white pepper. The wine, vinegar, and shallots are reduced first, then the butter is whisked in.
How do you make beurre blanc that doesn’t break? Reduce the wine, vinegar, and shallots to a few tablespoons. Keep the heat low and add cold butter a cube or two at a time, whisking until each is almost melted before adding more.
Why does beurre blanc break? Most often, the butter went in too fast. That’s what happened to me the first time, and the sauce separated and turned oily. Heat that’s too high or letting the sauce boil can break it too.
How do you fix a broken beurre blanc? Take the pan off the heat and whisk in a spoonful of cold cream or a small ice cube until the sauce comes back together. If it’s badly separated, start a new reduction and whisk the broken sauce into it a little at a time.
Is beurre blanc the same as hollandaise? No. Both are butter emulsions, but hollandaise uses egg yolks, while beurre blanc doesn’t. That makes beurre blanc more delicate.
Can you make beurre blanc ahead of time? It’s best made at the last minute. Chef Jenni suggests making the reduction ahead and mounting the butter just before serving. I haven’t tried it, but I would if I needed to.
Can you reheat beurre blanc? Chef Jenni says reheating it is an exercise in frustration. Keep the finished sauce warm in a Thermos-type bottle or in a double boiler over just-hot water, not boiling.
What do you serve with beurre blanc? Fish, shellfish, and vegetables. I’ve made it for asparagus.
Can I add lemon to beurre blanc? Yes. Stir in a little lemon juice at the end, off the heat, and taste as you go. The acid cuts through the butter and brightens the sauce.
8 Responses
Great post about one of the most versatile sauces so many people are afraid to even try.
When we get our affiliate program up and running this week you’ll be able to embed the video you linked to right into your blog to keep readers in your space.
what level of heat during first step of reducing wine/vinegar mixture?
Hi Steve, let me ask Chef Mark who contributed this post on this sauce. – RG
High heat to facilitate the speed of the reduction. Lower to medium for the introduction of the butter though.
The instructions are correct. I was taught to start with white wine, Chablis, shallots, garlic,and two peeled lemons. Reduce,then add butter as formentioned. I intend to add dill, tarragon, and thyme to my mixture while reducing and straining. Then add the same fresh herbs to Finish the beurre blanc,and drizzle over seasoned pan seared Pollock fillets.
Thank you Chef Girard for contributing. – RG
if you are reheating cold burre blanc what temperature does it need to reach to be safe to serve?
Hi Joyce, great question so I asked my friend Chef Jenni to reply and here is what she said –
Trying to reheat a beurre blanc, especially to heat it to well above the upper limit of the danger zone, is an exercise in frustration and futility. A beurre blanc is nothing more than some reduced wine and/or vinegar along with some shallot. To this base, you add softened butter a bit at a time to make an emulsion. It is rather like a Hollandaise in that way, but it is more delicate since there are no eggs or yolks in the formula to assist in emulsification.
For this reason, a beurre blanc is very delicate and should be made a la minute (at the last minute), or as close to serving as possible and then kept warm in a Thermos-type bottle or in a double boiler over just hot, not boiling, water. If you want to get a jump on dinner, you could make the reduction base the day before, heat it up the day of serving to about 150F–well outside the temperature danger zone. Then, you’ll want to let it cool a bit before mounting in your butter.
sure is a whole lot of shallots…3 medium shallots or 3 Tablespoons of shallots???
Trudy, 3 shallots is not that much for 24 tablespoons of butter. Maybe the recipe is to much for most folks but if you cut it in half, that would be 1 to 1 1/2 shallots which seems right.
also, any chance of a metric conversion chart somewhere on the recipe area?
My scale weighs in metric and I attended a French Pastry School where everything we did was in Metric but some of my students other than having a scale, don’t have a clue. It would be handy for some readers/cooks especially the liquid measures for some. I really am thrilled that I found your site/blog I would rather prepare in metric than convert once one does everything in Metric for a while it is so much more precise….but the metric only may prevent a few from giving a recipe a try….
Thanks for listening. Keep them coming! You have a FAN!
I was looking for a recipe and found a treasure!
Thanks Trudy for the kind words. Did you see the converter in the footer of every page? It has conversions for ounces to liters but I’ll have to work on weights next.
My entire first week of culinary school was doing recipe conversions, followed by the next two years of doing recipe conversions from metric to standard and vice versa haha, wish we could’ve had a scale that did it for us.