Showing posts with label sauce foyot. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sauce foyot. Show all posts

Sauce Béarnaise, its Creation, its Creator and its Connection with Béarn. Sauce Béarnaise in French Cuisine.

from
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman
behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com     

Filet Mignon with Béarnaise Sauce
    
Sauce Béarnaise (pronounced bay-are-naiz) is a superstar.  On steaks, with chicken, with salmon, over vegetables or poached eggs and on nearly everything else Sauce Béarnaise has been popular for almost 200 years.
 
Sauce Béarnaise is a “child” of Sauce Hollandaise
 
Sauce Béarnaise is a “child” of Sauce Hollandaise.  In the 1830’s the chef and restaurateur Jean-Louis Françoise-Collinet, took the recipe for Sauce Hollandaise, omitted the lemon juice and added white wine vinegar, shallots, chervil, and tarragon and made Sauce Béarnaise. It's the tarragon and white wine vinegar that supply the tang that makes us Sauce Béarnaise devotees.
   
Steamed Asparagus with Sauce Hollandaise.

The same chef Collinet, in the same restaurant, Pavillon Henry IV, 20 km (12.5 miles) from Paris in 1837,  created soufflé potatoes. The story of soufflé potatoes will need a separate post.
 
Sauce Béarnaise on French Menus today:
 
Brochette de Rognon de Veau Grillée Sauce Béarnaise – A skewer of grilled veal sweetbreads served with Sauce Béarnaise.
   
Steak with Sauce Béarnaise.
www.flickr.com/photos/djackmanson/38734190120/
 
Chateaubriand Grillé Sauce Béarnaise, Pommes Dauphines Tomates Roties au Sésame et Pointes d'Asperges – A grilled Chateaubriand Steak served with Potatoes Dauphin, asparagus spears and tomatoes roasted with sesame seeds. (Potatoes Dauphine are potato croquettes mixed with choux pastry, and fried).
 
Coquelet de Grain Fermier Désossé Grillé, Sauce Béarnaise, Pommes Frites- A young, grilled deboned, grain-fed, farm-raised cockerel served with Sauce Béarnaise and French fries.
   
Flank steak, Sauce Béarnaise, and watercress.
www.flickr.com/photos/60173925@N06/15530825490/

Daurade Royale de Loctudy, Langoustine Grillée, Céleri-rave, Sauce Béarnaise Gilthead seabream from the fishing village of Loctudy in Brittany served with a Dublin Bay prawn, Sauce Béarnaise, and accompanied by that tasty member of the celery family, celeriac.
 
The fishing village of Loctudy is in the department of Finistère in Bretagne, Brittany. The fish and shellfish from Brittany are considered the best in France. Even the name of the fishing port that brought in a particular fish is important when choosing the very best fish; a sort of Terroir of the sea.  Finistère is the most western part of mainland France and sticks out into the Atlantic. More about Brittany and its connection to Britain at the end of this post,
  
Tronçon de Turbot Grillé, Sauce Béarnaise – A cut from a  grilled turbot, the fish, served with Sauce Bearnaise, Here the cut, a  tronçon (pronounced tron-son) is used with its original meaning, a cut from across a flatfish.  Now the word tronçon is also used for meats where it indicates broad cuts.
   
Steak and Sauce Béarnaise,
 

Cold Entrées (French first courses).
 
Roast-beef Froid, Sauce Béarnaise – Slices of cold roast beef served with Sauce Béarnaise.
 
Saumon Froid aux Asperges Vertes Accompagné d'Une Sauce Béarnaise  – Cold salmon and green asparagus served with Sauce Béarnaise.
   
Salmon with Sauce Béarnaise.
Photograph courtesy of Gourmandasia.com

N.B. Some menu listings may note Sauce Béarnaise Maison, the house’s own Sauce Béarnaise. They are not indicating that only their’s is homemade and other restaurants are selling a store-bought sauce. Instead, the wording advises they are making slight changes to the original recipe and creating their own version; the Next Generation.
 
The name Béarnaise
 
The name Béarnaise may seem to indicate that the sauce comes from the old province of Béarn, once part of the independent kingdom of Navarre that had one border in Spain and the other in France. While Navarre had many recipes of its own none were related to Sauce Béarnaise. Nevertheless, when the chef Collinet named the sauce, he did have Béarn and Navarre on his mind. His restaurant was called The Pavillon Henry IV, and Henry IV was, before assuming that title, Henry III of Navarre and Prince of the Principality of Béarn; he had spent much of his childhood in Béarn. (Henry IV was, in France, also called the Good King Henry though few French citizens, looking back, would call him good.  With the evil will and drive of Catherine de Medici, then the Dowager Queen of France, he planned and carried out the massacre of France's Protestants.
    
Flag of the of Béarn, France
In Alexandre Dumas (Pere)’s book The Three Musketeers,
 the hero d'Artagnan comes from Béarn.  
     
When Henry received the French crown, he also became the first Bourbon King of France. As part of the arrangements that made Henry King of France, he also brought the French part of the kingdom of Navarre on the North-side of the Western Pyrenees into France. In international relations, something from Navarre had always been offered in trade and even England had had two queens who were born in Navarre. Today the French part of the old province of Navarre including Béarn is part of the department of Pyrénées-Atlantiques in the new super-region of Occitanie. The Pyrénées-Atlantiques reaches from the Pyrénées at the Spanish border to the plains below. (The city of Pau had been the capital of the province of Bearn and is now the capital of the department of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques).
   
Béarnaise and Mother Sauces.

The French chef Antonin Careme in the early 1800s, wrote down all the laws for France's Haute Cuisine, many of which he had developed, including the idea of mother sauces.  A mother sauce is a basic sauce, and with small changes, a new sauce is created. These new sauces are called the children of the mother sauce. Seventy years later Auguste Escoffier, together with his collaborators, in the early 1900s, adapted French cuisine for the first half of the 1900s. They changed Careme’s four mother sauces to five.

The five mother sauces are: 

Sauce Hollandaise - Apart from its name this sauce has nothing to do with Holland;
Tomato Sauce;
Sauce Béchamel - Named after Louis de Béchamel the treasurer of King Louis XIV (the Sun King);
Sauce Espagnol - Apart from its name this sauce has nothing to do with Spain;
Veloute - The origin of this name was lost in the smoky kitchens of the 1800s.

The most famous child of Sauce Hollandaise is Sauce Bearnaise, and Sauce Bearnaise now has many children and grandchildren of its own.

A few of the Children of Sauce Bearnaise

Sauce Choron.

The chef Alexandre Étienne Choron (1837 - 1924), took Sauce Béarnaise and added tomatoes. Sauce Choron is served on steak, chicken, eggs, and vegetables.

Sauce Foyot or Sauce Valois.

A chef whose name has been lost took Sauce Béarnaise and begat Sauce Foyot also called Sauce Valois. Sauce Foyot is Sauce Béarnaise with the addition of the glazed cooking juices of the roasted meat. With Sauce Foyot’s taste, it is a perfect addition for grilled meats.

Sauce Palois.

Another chef whose name I cannot find took Sauce Béarnaise and begat Sauce Palois. Sauce Palois is Sauce Béarnaise with the tarragon replaced with mint. That makes Sauce Palois a very popular French sauce with lamb dishes where it is usually served warm.


Brittany

Brittany was taken over by Celtic tribes who fled Britain as succeeding waves of conquerors made their lives impossible. The first group fled with the Roman invasions, the next groups left when the Germanic tribes of Angels and Saxon ravaged their villages and the final groups left when overrun by the Vikings.   
 
When visiting Brittany around the 21 of June, the longest day of the year you may join local, make believe, Druid ceremonies celebrated with a great deal of the Druid's alcoholic honey-based mead called Chouchen. (Chouchen is available in Brittany all year round and will also be flavoring dishes on local menus).For those who prefer it, Champagne is also available anywhere in Brittany.
  
Chouchen

The Druids from Southern Britain would have taken the shortest possible route to France. They would have left from somewhere close to where the Port of Falmouth, England is now and would have reached Amor, the land that would become Bretagne, somewhere close to Plouescat, France.  Plouescat today is a seaside resort with its own small Casino; it is very popular with the French.
   
Falmouth, England to Plouescat, France is 179 km  (111 miles)
Map courtesy of Google Maps ©

Today, the Pavilion Henri IV is a boutique hotel with a beautiful restaurant set in a classified historical building that was completed in 1603. In this building, the future Sun King, who built the Chateau de Versailles, King Louis XIV, was born on September 5, 1638. The hotel and its restaurant (that I have not yet dined in) is located in Saint-Germain-en-Laye (Yvelines), 18 km (11 miles) from the center of Paris and can be reached by train in 15 minutes. The Pavillon Henry IV is 570 km (350 miles) away from the old province of Béarn.

The Hotel and Restaurant Pavilion Henri IV
Saint-Germain-en-Laye

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Sauce Hollandaise. The Mother of All Sauces.

from
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

 


    
Sauce Hollandaise and asparagus.
www.flickr.com/photos/donutgirl/6879640672/

Sauce Hollandaise
A mother sauce is a sauce that is used as a base for the creation of other sauces.
Those new sauces are her children.

Sauce Hollandaise is a sauce like no other, its origins go back at least four-hundred years, but it is still the sauce of choice for tens of dishes in Western cuisine. A mother sauce means that the sauce’s recipe will be used to create other sauces, those sauces then become her children. Mother sauces with Sauce Hollandaise include were first clearly defined by the Chef Antonin Carême in the early 1800s.

Sauce Hollandaise will be served either alongside or as part of many dishes that include vegetables, fish and egg dishes both hot and cold The recipe for Sauce Hollandaise is simple, it calls for egg yolks, melted butter, lemon juice, salt, and pepper.

(BTW Sauce Hollandaise has nothing to do with Holland. In the early stages of French Haute Cuisine countries in the 1800s were being named any real connection was rarely required and that includes Sauce Español, nothing to do with Spain and Sauce Allemande, nothing to do with Germany).
  
Smoked salmon with rocket and Sauce Hollandaise


Sauce Hollandaise on French Menus:

Les Belles Asperges Blanches Juste Cuites Parfumées au Citron et Accompagnées de la Classique Sauce Hollandaise – Beautiful white asparagus, just lightly cooked, scented with lemon, and served with the classic Hollandaise sauce. (Asparagus, should be like the best pasta, al dente: in French perfectly cooked is à point).
  
Lobster and pancetta over English muffin
topped with eggs and Sauce Hollandaise.
www.flickr.com/photos/edsel_/7357879598/
    
Hollandaise sauce is my favorite sauce to accompany warm, fresh, white, or green asparagus. For more about asparagus in France see the post: Asperges en La Cuisine Française – Asparagus in French cuisine.
 
Tronçon de Turbot Label Rouge Poché Sauce Hollandaise ou Grillé Sauce Béarnaise.  A wide cut of farm-raised, Label Rouge turbot, the fish, served either poached with a Sauce Hollandaise or grilled and served with a Sauce Béarnaise.


The Label Rouge, the red label of quality.

The Label Rouge, the red label, is a trusted, respected, and well controlled French government label of quality; the label may be awarded to all natural and manufactured food products with the exception of wine which has its labeling regulation. The red label turbot offered above comes from a French sea-farm; fish-farms that wish to apply for the label rouge are continuously checked for their farming methods. Those controls include the fish’s sanitary conditions; the food fed to the fish, and very importantly, the density of the fish in their cages. Of equal importance are the controls that prevent these fish from having any antibiotics and or hormones in their food or environment.
   
Eggs Benedict with smoked salmon and spinach
www.flickr.com/photos/ultrakml/8192609350/

Filets de Porc Grillée aux Champignons avec Legumes, Sauce Hollandaise et Croquettes – Grilled fillets of pork and button mushrooms served with vegetables and accompanied by Sauce Hollandaise and croquet potatoes.

Smoked Haddock with Sauce Hollandaise.
www.flickr.com/photos/goforchris/26072923290/
        
Dos de Merlu à l' Unilatéral, Sauce Hollandaise – A thick cut of hake, the fish, cooked à l'unilatéral, on the skin side only, and served with Sauce Hollandaise.    

 N. B. Cooking fish à l'unilatéral is considered the best way to cook thick filets of fish. Cooking slowly and only through the skin side of the fish allows the fish to cook through evenly;  this method eliminates much of the tastes of the cooking oil as would cooking the fish on the open side of the filet.

Sauce Bearnaise, the child of Hollandaise.

Among the many sauces developed from Sauce Hollandaise it is Sauce Béarnaise that really stands out.  This child of Sauce Hollandaise has itself become a mother sauce with many many grandchildren.
   
Steak Frites with  Sauce Bearnaise.
www.flickr.com/photos/flem007_uk/3625173675/

Unlike Sauce Hollandaise where its creator is disputed Sauce Béarnaise is accepted as the creation of the chef and restaurateur Jean Louis Françoise Collinet.  Collinet created Sauce Béarnaise as a child of Sauce Hollandaise; Sauce Béarnaise is Sauce Hollandaise with the lemon replaced by white wine vinegar, shallots, chervil and tarragon. Collinet is also remembered, by some, as the chef who, in 1837,  created soufflé potatoes. The story of soufflé potatoes will be left for another day,
     
Sauce Foyot, also called Sauce Valois.

A sauce whose whose creator I cannot find took Sauce Béarnaise and created Sauce Foyot, also called Sauce ValoisSauce Foyot  is Sauce Béarnaise with the addition of the glazed cooking juices of  roasted meat.

Sauce Choron.
  
The chef Alexandre Étienne Choron (1837 - 1924), took Sauce Béarnaise and created Sauce Choron. Sauce Choron is Sauce Béarnaise with added tomatoes.
     
European sea bass cooked “en croute”, in a pastry cover,
and served with Sauce Choron
www.flickr.com/photos/115081708@N03/31782191597/
    
Sauce Palois.
  
Then, yet another chef whose name I cannot find took Sauce Béarnaise and created Sauce Palois.  Sauce Palois is Sauce Béarnaise with the tarragon replaced with mint; that makes Sauce Palois a very popular sauce to serve with lamb.

And the question remains, who created Sauce Hollandaise?
The answer may lie in the book noted below:
   
Le Vrai Cuisinier François, 
The Real French Chef.
by
François Pierre de La Varenne (1618 - 1678)
The creator of Sauce Hollandaise is disputed but a recipe for a very similar sauce using vinegar, rather than lemon juice, does appear in this 17th century French cookbook: Le Vrai Cuisinier François.
     
The front page of the original edition
Photograph courtesy of the  Biblotech National de France.

Go on-line to the Biblotech National de France, http://gallica.bnf.fr and there in Le Vrai Cuisinier François,  by François Pierre de La Varenne, published in 1654
on pages 254 and 255 you may read, as I did, the recipe for Asperges à la Sauce Blanche, asparagus with a white sauce.  





You may download the whole book in PDF  without payment, by keeping to a few simple rules. 

-----------------------

Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

 

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

 

Copyright 2010, 2012, 2016, 2019.

---------------------------

Searching for the meaning of words, names or phrases
on
French menus?

Just add the word, words, or phrase that you are searching for to the words "Behind the French Menu" (best when including the inverted commas), and search with Google or Bing,  Behind the French Menu’s links, include hundreds of words, names, and phrases that are seen on French menus. There are over 450 articles that include over 4,000 French dishes with English translations and explanations.

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