de Varenne White Sauce
de Varenne White Sauce is a traditional Elizabethan recipe for a classic French sauce of butter and egg yolks. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic Elizabethan version of de Varenne White Sauce.
prep time
20 minutes
cook time
10 minutes
Total Time:
30 minutes
Serves:
6
Rating: 
Tags : Sauce RecipesBritish Recipes
This is another sauce from Francois Pierre de la Varenne's Le Quisinier Françoise (The French Chef). In essence it's a quick mayonnaise using browned butter rather than the more common olive oil.
Original Recipe
White Sauce (from Francois Pierre de la Varenne Le Quisinier Françoise)
To make Sparagas with White Sauce. Choose the biggest, scrape the foot of them, and wash them, and seeth them in
water, salt them well, and let them not seeth too much; after they are sod,
draine them and make a sauce with very fresh butter, a little vinegar, salt,
nutmegg, and the yolk of an egg to thicken the sauce, and have a care that it
doe not curd or (turne) and serve them garnisht with what you will.
Modern Redaction
Ingredients:
110g butter
3 egg yolks
2 tbsp vinegar (
balsamic vinegar is good)
¼ tbsp salt
¼ tbsp freshly-grated nutmeg
Method:
Melt the butter in a small pan until it is bubbling and turning slightly brown. Take off the heat and whisk in the vinegar, salt and nutmeg. Meanwhile whisk the egg yolks in a bowl and still whisking vigourously add the butter and vinegar mixture a few drops at a time. If all goes well the mixture should emulsify and yield an even creamy, yellow, sauce.
This is not an easy sauce for the beginner to make and you can cheat by placing the egg yolks, vinegar and spices in a blender. Blitz these together then add the molten butter a little at a time, using the blender to merge with the egg yolks. This yields a perfect sauce that will not split for several hours.