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Broiled Lobster Ravigote
Cut three small raw lobsters each into two equal parts, taking out the gravel from the head, season with salt and pepper, rub with a little oil and broil the pieces for ten minutes. Remove them from the fire, take the meat from the heads of the lobsters, put them in a salad bowl with half a pint of ravigote butter and mix them well together; take the rest of the meat from the lobster, dip it in the sauce and return it to the shell; then replace and warm it again for a few minutes in the oven and serve on a folded napkin, garnish the shells with parsley and serve the sauce in a boat.
A hot ravigote, meaning the herb butter is worked into the picked meat rather than served as a cold vinaigrette. Two things decide whether it works: dispatching and splitting the lobsters cleanly, and not letting the shells dry out under the broiler.
- Split the lobster properly"Cut into two equal parts" is normally read as lengthwise, head to tail, through the shell. Kill the lobster first by driving a heavy knife through the head behind the eyes, then split; a chilled or briefly frozen lobster is easier to handle. The recipe does not give a size; "small" would probably mean something in the region of a pound apiece.
- The gravelThat is the stomach sac just behind the eyes, along with the grit it contains. Lift it out along with the feathery gills. The green tomalley and any coral are not gravel and are usually kept.
- Half a pint of ravigote butterOne cup, which is generous for three small lobsters; half that will coat the meat without swamping it. Ravigote butter is softened butter beaten with finely chopped chervil, tarragon, chives and shallot, often with a little blanched herb puree for colour and a squeeze of lemon.
- Broiling timeTen minutes cut side up under a hot broiler, as the recipe directs; larger lobsters will need a little longer. Cook until the tail meat is opaque throughout. Overshooting turns it fibrous, and the shells scorch before the meat catches up if they sit too close.
- Oil the cut facesThe oil rub is not optional. Brush the exposed meat again halfway through, or it dries and shrinks away from the shell before the butter goes in.
- The oven finish"A few minutes" in a moderate oven is enough to warm the filled shells through. This is a reheat, not a second cooking; the butter should soften and gloss, not separate and pool.
- ServingSix halves, so three as a main course or six as a first course. "A boat" is a sauceboat of the remaining ravigote butter, kept just warm so it stays emulsified. The folded napkin on the platter is period presentation and keeps the shells from sliding.
Ravigote takes its name from the French ravigoter, to revive or perk up, and in nineteenth-century French practice it covered two related preparations: a cold vinaigrette sharp with capers, onion and herbs, and a hot version built on a velouté. Oscar Tschirky's book, published in 1896 while he was maître d'hôtel at the Waldorf, draws heavily on that French repertoire because that was the language of American luxury dining at the time, and lobster was its most reliable showpiece. Serving the meat back in its own broiled shell on a folded napkin belongs to the same era of table display as lobster Newburg and the chafing dish.