What am I doing wrong with my Beurre Blanc?
I made my first Beurre Blanc a couple days ago. It got very sour and I had to pour some sugar to sweeten it. I'm almost sure I reduced the wine and the vinegar enough before I started throwing in the butter.
I know I probably made this 2 mistakes:
- I didn't measure the exact amount of wine and vinegar. I just put one glass of wine and a little stream of vinegar.
- I used distilled white vinegar, not white wine vinegar.
Are these 2 mistakes what made my sauce sour or there's something else I'm doing wrong here? I really wanna master the Beurre Blanc because I love cooking fish but I've never made a sauce for it.
Thank you guys in advance.
Best Answer
Julia Child's "classic" recipe for beurre blanc uses quite a lot of butter (3 sticks) to 1/4 cup each of white wine and white wine vinegar (plus shallot and salt and pepper, with a squeeze of lemon to finish). I suspect that you (a) used too much liquid, and (b) used the wrong vinegar, leading to an overly sour/acetic sauce.
Pictures about "What am I doing wrong with my Beurre Blanc?"
Why does my beurre blanc separate?
Only once at least half the butter has been added and a double cream consistency has been achieved can the butter be added a little more quickly, but still carefully. Overheating the emulsion will split it. To stabilise a beurre blanc, once the reduction is made, add 1 tbsp double cream and reduce again by about half.How do I fix beurre blanc sauce?
BEURRE BLANC Add more butter. The sauce is creamy at first, but then suddenly thins. The sauce has become too hot. Because all of the elements to maintain an emulsion are still present, all you need to do is remove the sauce from the heat and whisk in ice chips, a few at a time, until the emulsion returns.How do you stabilize beurre blanc?
Beurre blanc (French butter) sauce for fish, chicken, and vegetables. Serve this butter sauce with fish, chicken, or vegetables. If you're worried about breaking the sauce, use cream to help stabilize it. Add the cream to the reduced wine-vinegar base and reduce the cream until the mixture coats the back of the spoon.Beurre Blanc Tutorial | The French Cooking Academy
More answers regarding what am I doing wrong with my Beurre Blanc?
Answer 2
You don't need vinegar (although some recipes call for it). A dry white wine will provide all the acidity you need. You control the acidity by the amount of reduction of the wine. To get very controlled acidity, reduce almost to dry and then add a spoon-full of water so that your butter can emulsify. My classic proportions are (metric but can be transposed into any unit):
- 200g cold cubed butter
- 200g/200ml dry white wine
- 50g finely diced shallots (peeled weight)
- Seasoning
Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Images: Yan Krukov, George Becker, ShotPot, RODNAE Productions