**You can make béarnaise with ordinary melted butter.** Clarifying it mainly gives you control over the sauce’s fat-to-water ratio and changes its flavour and appearance.

Clarification removes **water as well as milk solids**, leaving almost pure butterfat. Béarnaise is an emulsion of tiny fat droplets suspended in a watery mixture, stabilised by egg yolk. Using clarified butter lets you adjust the butterfat and liquid separately. With whole butter, you introduce extra water, so the same weight can produce a thinner, less concentrated sauce.

The milk solids contribute a dairy flavour and a paler, more opaque appearance. Clarified butter gives the traditional glossy finish; which flavour you prefer is a matter of taste. [RecipeTin Eats describes this appearance difference](https://www.recipetineats.com/bearnaise-sauce/).

**The higher smoke point has little relevance here:** béarnaise needs gentle heat, and its yolks will overcook well before butter would scorch. Clarified butter still requires careful temperature control and gradual incorporation. [Kenji López-Alt’s explanation and recipe](https://www.seriouseats.com/foolproof-bearnaise-sauce-recipe) cover those failure modes and use whole butter successfully.

For your recipe, try melted **unsalted** butter, whisk it in gradually, and judge the consistency before adding any optional water. Expect a slightly different texture and flavour.