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Ravigote Sauce
Pour one-half pint of stock into a saucepan with a small quantity of white wine; chop fine some herbs, such as chervil, tarragon, chives, and parsley, or whatever are in season, making about three tablespoonfuls in all and mix them well with the stock; season with a small quantity each of salt and pepper, and stew them gently twenty or twenty-five minutes. Mix one tablespoonful of flour with one tablespoonful of butter, then stir this into the sauce, and continue stirring them by the edge of the fire until thick. Squeeze a small quantity of lemon juice into the sauce, and serve it.
A short herb sauce built on stock rather than a mayonnaise base — the hot form of ravigote. Nothing here is difficult, but the herbs and the thickening both need watching.
- Half a pint of stockOne cup in American measure, which is what Oscar means. Use a light veal or chicken stock; nothing but wine and a little lemon is added to it, so the stock should already taste of something.
- Add the herbs late, not earlyThe instruction to stew the chopped herbs for twenty to twenty-five minutes will leave you with a dull olive-brown sauce and no aroma. Simmer the stock and wine to concentrate it for that time, then stir in the chervil, tarragon, chives and parsley in the last minute or two off the heat.
- Chervil and tarragonFresh chervil is the hardest to find; a mix of parsley with a little extra tarragon covers for it. Dried tarragon works at about a third the volume, but dried chives and dried chervil are pointless here.
- The butter-flour pasteEqual tablespoons of flour and softened butter kneaded together is a beurre manié, worked in raw at the end. Add it in small pieces to sauce that is barely simmering and whisk each in fully, or you will get lumps.
- "By the edge of the fire"On a coal range this meant the cooler outer zone of the top. On a modern burner it is a low setting — enough to see the surface move, not bubble. Give it two or three minutes after the last butter goes in so the flour loses its raw taste.
- White wineA dry wine, not sweet; about two tablespoons is a "small quantity" in proportion to a cup of stock. Let it cook with the stock rather than adding it at the end.
- Lemon at the very endOff the heat, a teaspoon at a time. The acid, with the herbs, is what marks it as ravigote rather than a plain velout"},{
- Yield and serviceAbout one cup, enough for four servings. It is a sauce for poached or boiled meats — calf's head, boiled chicken, poached fish — and for boiled or steamed vegetables. Serve at once; reheating flattens the herbs.
Ravigote comes from the French ravigoter, to perk up or revive, and the name was applied to sharp herb-and-acid sauces meant to wake up bland boiled meats. Classical French kitchens kept two versions: this hot one, a velouté finished with green herbs, wine and lemon, and a cold one closer to a vinaigrette or mayonnaise with capers and onion, which is the version most often met today. The herb quartet Oscar names — chervil, tarragon, chives, parsley — is the standard fines herbes combination, and his "or whatever are in season" is a reminder that a hotel kitchen in the 1890s worked from what the markets sent that morning rather than from a year-round supply. The beurre manié finish, raw butter and flour worked in at the end, suits a sauce made to order, since it thickens in a minute without the wait a roux demands.