The Beurre Blanc or White Butter Sauce is one of those fine French cuisine originated preparations that can be found in many restaurants today. Now there are some variants that chefs will utilize on this one and typically you will see them including heavy cream as a thickening or stabilizing agent for the sauce, but these are not a true Beurre Blanc Sauce. More likely a Beurre Fondue however, as it was prepared with the addition of the reduced heavy cream in this manner at the Eiffel Tower Restaurant when I was the daytime sauté cook. The heavy cream addition to the sauce is commonly known as a Beurre Nantais.
I will include both a recipe from the Columns Hotel for Beurre Blanc as it was prepared on a daily basis while is was a Sous Chef and served with veal, chicken and fish entree dishes. Then I will also list the Eiffel Tower Restaurant Beurre Fondue variant which was used a base for other sauces served with veal, chicken and fish as well.
Beurre Blanc
Ingredients:
12 ounces White wine
2 ounces Shallots, finely chopped
2 ounces Glace de Viande (reduced veal stock gel)
½ ounce Lemon juice
1 pinch Salt
2 lbs. Butter, lightly salted
Procedure:
- Over a medium heat reduce the white wine with the shallots, Glace, lemon juice and the salt by ¾ to almost dry (au sec).
- While the wine mixture is reducing cube the butter into 1” sized blocks and bring it to room temperature.
- When the liquid is reduced to the proper consistency remove from the heat and whip in the butter cubes slowly to avoid the butter from breaking and maintain a thick consistency.
Beurre Fondue
Yield: 2 quarts approximate
Ingredients
1 quart Heavy cream
4 lbs. Sweet butter, cut into 1 inch cubes and brought to room temperature
1 each Juice of lemon, fresh squeezed
To taste Salt and white pepper
Procedure
- Reduce the heavy cream by 1/3 to ½ reduction.
- Remove the heavy cream from the heat and then whip the butter cubes into the reduced heavy cream to incorporate well.
- Add the lemon juice and salt and white pepper to taste.
This sauce was used at the Eiffel Tower Restaurant as a base for the Grenobloise Sauce or was served over fresh vegetables.
