How Butter Works in Beurre Blanc and Other Sauces

Sometimes called beurre nantais (after the city of Nantes, where it supposedly originated), beurre blanc—a light, creamy sauce made almost entirely with butter—was once rarely known outside Brittany. In the 1960s, a restaurant was opened by a certain Mère Michel, who whipped it up as a sauce for poached fish. Before and during Madame Michel’s restaurant reign, preparing a beurre blanc was considered beyond the abilities of mere mortals. The late Richard Olney, in his great book Simple French Food, describes the attitude of the times: “The utter simplicity of the thing, the paucity of elements, the absence of a binder … have engendered a wariness, distrust, or unbelief, than which there are no solider foundations on which to construct a myth. The story goes that only a very special kind of culinary genius with an inborn and mysterious twist of the wrist can produce a successful beurre blanc….” After reading this passage, practically 30 years ago, I walked over to the stove and, following Olney’s recipe and encouragement, whipped up my first beurre blanc—perhaps the easiest sauce I’d made until then or have made since.