How To Make Beurre Blanc (Tips to Elevate It, Wines, Variations)

Ready to wow your guests with the classic Beurre Blanc sauce?

This buttery, creamy sauce hits all the sweet spots on your taste buds and pairs well with chicken, poached fish, shrimp, and scallops. And the best part is that it’s easy to make - all you need are a few pantry essentials, and of course, some dry white wine. 

In this article, you’ll discover how to whip up the perfect Beurre Blanc and a couple of other variations, as well as the best white wines to use for this sauce. We’ll also cover how you can build a collection of your favorite bottles of wine.

What Is A Beurre Blanc Sauce?

The Beurre Blanc (French for “white butter”) sauce is a classic emulsified buttery concoction with a strong acidic base. 

It is smooth and rich yet sweet and sharp.

This French butter sauce has only a few ingredients: 

• Butter
• White wine
• White wine vinegar
• Minced shallot

The recipe originated in Brittany, France, and was created at the start of the 20th century by chef Clemence Lefeuvre. 

As it turns out, Lefeuvre actually wanted to make a bearnaise sauce but forgot to put in egg yolk and tarragon. Fortunately, the outcome was a hit!

Beurre blanc sauce is also very similar to hollandaise, bechamel, and velouté sauces. You can use the Beurre Blanc sauce as a base for other recipes.

Now, dig into your condiments cupboard and let’s get cooking!

The Best-Ever Recipe for Beurre Blanc

Your Beurre Blanc sauce must hold a light liquid form and should be thick enough to coat your food.

For a hassle-free cooking session, gather everything before you get cooking. 

Beurre Blanc Ingredients

• 2 sticks (1 cup) cold unsalted butter, cubed
• 4 tablespoons or 1/4 cup white wine vinegar or lemon juice
• 4 tablespoons dry white wine
• 2 tablespoons minced shallot
• Kosher salt, to taste
• White or black pepper, to taste
• (Optional) 2 tablespoons chopped fresh herb (basil, chives, tarragon, bay leaf, parsley)

Here’s how you make this classic butter sauce:

1. Get a small saucepan and place it on high heat. Add white wine, white wine vinegar, and shallot and bring to a boil.
2. When it starts to boil, lower the fire to medium high heat, and simmer the liquid until it reduces to about 2 tablespoons. It should take about 10 minutes. If you reduce the mixture too much, just add 1 tablespoon of water for a bit of moisture.
3. Next, turn the stove down to low heat (or turn it off). Add two cubes of unsalted butter and whisk until melted.
4. Continue whisking a couple of pieces of the cold unsalted butter at a time until all the ingredients are incorporated. Remember to make sure the sauce doesn’t get too hot. If it does, alternate between taking the saucepan on and off the fire while constantly whisking. The sauce should have a texture similar to that of hollandaise sauce.
5. For a smooth butter sauce, remove the minced shallot with a strainer. Or, if you don’t mind the texture, leave it as it is. 

1. Season your sauce with fresh herb, salt, and pepper.
2. Keep the Beurre Blanc sauce warm until serving.

Cooking Notes:

• You can substitute white wine vinegar with either champagne vinegar or lemon juice.
• Opt for white pepper instead of black pepper if you prefer not to see any dark specs in the butter sauce. White pepper balances the sauce giving it the right amount of spice.
• For extra spice, switch your white or black pepper with cayenne pepper. If you’re feeling brave, try both white or black pepper and cayenne pepper.
• If you’d like more flavor, first saute your chopped shallot with a bit of olive oil until it becomes translucent. Then, move forward with the other steps.
• Although the recipe says unsalted butter, you can use salted butter as well. When made with salted butter, the sauce tends to be a little thicker.
• If you use salted butter, be sure to taste the sauce before adding more salt.

Nutritional information of Beurre Blanc Sauce:

Per Serving: 

• Calories 421
• Protein 0.6 g 
• Carbohydrates 1 g 
• Dietry fiber 0 g 
• Fat 45.8g 
• Cholesterol 121 mg
• Sodium 46 mg 
• Calcium 17 mg 
• Potassium 42 mg 

Let’s find out what wines will be great for this white wine butter sauce.

How To Select A Wine For Beurre Blanc

How do you perfect the Beurre Blanc sauce? By balancing the fat, acidity, and seasoning. 

That’s why a white wine that has more acidity will be ideal for this white sauce. 

Sometimes, to achieve the acidity balance, chefs may add more lemon juice. But, once you find the right wine, you won’t need lemon juice to strike that balance.

Since you will actually taste the wine in the sauce, don’t automatically veer towards the cheapest option. The recipe only calls for a few tablespoons of wine, so you can serve the rest for you and your dinner companion(s) to enjoy.

To make things easier for you, we’ve compiled a list of white wines that are great for cooking Beurre Blanc:

1. Vinho Verde Wine

• 2016 Anselmo Mendes Tempo, Vinho Verde, Portugal: $65
• 2018 Quinta de Soalheiro Alvarinho Reserva, Vinho Verde, Portugal: $28

2. Trebbiano d'Abruzzo Wine

• 2018 Masciarelli Marina Cvetic Trebbiano d'Abruzzo Riserva, Italy: $33
• 2017 Emidio Pepe Trebbiano, d'Abruzzo, Italy: $50

3. Trebbiano (Ugni Blanc) Wine

• 2017 Amorotti Trebbiano d'Abruzzo, Italy: $37
• 2015 Paolo Bea 'Lapideus' Bianco Umbria IGT, Italy: $61

4. Saumur Blanc Wine

• 2016 Domaine Guiberteau Saumur Blanc Breze, Loire, France: $79
• 2017 Chateau de Breze - Arnaud Lambert Saumur Clos David, Loire, France: $38

5. Albarino (Alvarinho) Wine

• 2018 Agro de Bazan Gran Bazan Etiqueta Ambar, Rias Baixas, Spain: $21
• 2015 Raul Perez 'Sketch' Blanco, Rias Baixas, Spain: $91

6. Melon de Bourgogne Wine

• 2016 Domaine de la Pepiere Muscadet Sevre-et-Maine Sur Lie Clos des Briords, Loire, France: $30
• 2017 Domaine de l'Ecu Muscadet Sevre-et-Maine Sur Lie 'Granite', Loire, France: $21

7. Chablis Wine

• 2012 La Chablisienne Chablis La Sereine, Burgundy, France: $33
• 2016 William Fevre Vaulorent Chablis Premier Cru, France: $65

Here are a few more useful hacks you can use before you make a delicious Beurre Blanc sauce. 

7 More Beurre Blanc Tips And Tricks

These useful tips will take your classic butter sauce to the next level:

1. Add Some Cream

The initial recipe does not call for the addition of cream. But, a little cream added after reducing the white wine and white wine vinegar can help with emulsification and ensure the butter sauce doesn’t split. Plus, the cream adds a lovely hue and intensifies the flavors. 

2. How To Fix A Split Sauce

A split sauce has cracks in it, and you can see the separation of the butter from the rest of the ingredients. 

A split sauce can happen due to several reasons:

• You used warm butter: Make sure you use cold butter. If you’re cubbing it ahead of time, keep it in the refrigerator until you’re about to make the sauce. The combination of the cold butter and the pan’s heat will lead to emulsification. 

• You added the butter all at once: Start with a couple of cubes of cold butter and whisk well until melted, then repeat the process until you finish all the pieces of butter. Remember to whisk properly, too!

• You allowed the butter sauce to cool and then reheated it: Since the sauce is meant to be warm, allowing it to cool and then reheating it will result in it breaking. 

So how do you fix a split butter sauce?

• Take it off the heat, add a few chips of ice, and whisk well. Eventually, the emulsion should amalgamate.

• Another option is to whisk in reduced heavy cream. On medium heat or low heat, reduce a little heavy cream in a saucepan. Once it thickens up, re-emulsify it with the split butter sauce, whisking it until the heavy cream is incorporated with the sauce.  

3. A Luxe Sauce 

Feeling a little extra? Add Champagneinstead of white wine to make your Beurre Blanc sauce more luxurious.

4. Making The Sauce Ahead Of Time

Ideally, you need to make the sauce just before serving your meal. But, there are a few ways to work around this:

• One day ahead: The Beurre Blanc sauce won’t taste the same if you make it so far in advance. But if you’re okay with the change in flavor, pour it into an airtight container and refrigerate. Don’t reheat the sauce before serving as it will split. Just take a spoonful of the sauce, put it onto hot food and watch it melt.
• One hour ahead of serving: The easiest way to keep your sauce at the right temperature is to pour it into a bain-marie or smaller container and submerge it in a warm water bath.Alternatively, you can keep the sauce on your stove (without turning the heat on) and use the ambient heat to keep it warm. Whisk occasionally to ensure it doesn’t separate. 

5. Try a Variation - Beurre Rouge

Substitute your white wine and white wine vinegar with red wine and red wine vinegar, respectively, to make beurre rouge. Beurre rouge (translates to “red butter”) is a variation of the classic white sauce. 

6. White Chocolate Beurre Blanc

Add a bit of sweetness to your Beurre Blanc sauce with some white chocolate. Just strain out the solids, then, right before serving, whisk in white chocolate pieces. Delicious!

7. Lemon Beurre Blanc Variation

You can add lemon juice or lemon zest at the last step for a tangy twist. The lemon Beurre Blanc sauce is a fun variation that’s still undeniably buttery but has a bright flavor.

Is your tummy rumbling from all this talk of food? 

Let’s explore the different dishes that will work well with the Beurre Blanc sauce.

Beurre Blanc Food Pairing Suggestions

The decadent Beurre Blanc sauce pairs well with just about every savory dish, and it’s perfect for a weeknight meal. 

Spoon the sauce over these dishes:

• Steamed vegetable garnish
• Roasted vegetables
• Shellfish like shrimp, lobster, and crab
• Poached fish (baked, steamed, or grilled)
• Scallops
• Chicken (grilled, fried, or baked)
• Steak

Now all that’s left to do is to pop open a bottle of wine (or finish the white wine or Champagne you used to make the sauce), and you’re ready to indulge.

You can make the Beurre Blanc sauce with both affordable and expensive wines. The wine adds a distinct flavor to the sauce. 

Going for an affordable wine will do the trick. 

However, using a luxurious fine wine will instantly take this white wine butter sauce to the next level. Since you’ll only use a little bit of the wine in the sauce, you can enjoy the rest of the bottle with your meal. 

Now that’s a win-win!

You can easily buy fine wine and build an impressive wine portfolio through an online investing platform like Vinovest.

Buy Delicious Whites And Other Fine Wines Through Vinovest

Vinovest is a wine investment company that helps you source, manage, store, and grow a portfolio of globally sought-after wines.

When you sign up, you can also enjoy these spectacular benefits:

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• All your wines will be stored in safe, bonded warehouses under optimal storage conditions.
• Vinovest’s fees are pretty reasonable. You only get charged a 2.85% annually, which is reduced to 2.5% when your portfolio balance exceeds $50,000. 

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The Secret Is In The Sauce

The creamy, decadent, and velvety Beurre Blanc sauce will put you front and center as a top-notch host(ess). Your guests will be begging for more, for sure.  And, if you want to stack up on some collectible wines in your portfolio, you should go the Vinovest route. Just sign up today and get ready to build an exciting wine collection!