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Cold Ravigote Sauce
Place a cold, fresh egg yolk in a bowl with a tablespoon good vinegar, three saltspoons salt, one saltspoon cayenne pepper and half a teaspoon French mustard; briskly mix with a small wire whisk for one minute, then add, drop by drop, a gill of oil, continually mixing briskly while adding and for four minutes after it has been added. Finely chop together one small branch parsley, one of chervil, two of chives, four of tarragon leaves and one shallot; add to the sauce with the juice of a quarter very sound lemon, sharply mix again for one minute, transfer the sauce into a cold saucebowl and serve as required.
This is a herbed mayonnaise built by hand, and the whole thing stands or falls on the emulsion. Everything else is seasoning.
- Drop by drop means itThe first tablespoon or two of oil decides whether the sauce holds. Add it a few drops at a time while whisking constantly; once the mixture has visibly thickened and gone pale you can pour in a thin steady stream.
- A gillHalf a cup, 4 fluid ounces. With one yolk that is a generous but workable ratio; a single yolk will carry up to about a cup of oil if you are patient.
- SaltspoonsA saltspoon is a quarter teaspoon. So three-quarters of a teaspoon of salt and a quarter teaspoon of cayenne, which is assertive heat for half a cup of sauce. Start with half that cayenne and correct at the end.
- French mustardDijon. It is there as much for emulsifying power as for flavor, so do not leave it out.
- OilThe recipe does not specify which oil; olive oil would have been the usual choice for a sauce of this kind. A strong modern extra-virgin can turn bitter when whisked hard; a mild olive oil, or half olive and half neutral oil, gives a cleaner sauce.
- The herbsParsley, chervil, chives and tarragon are the classic fines herbes. Chervil is the hard one to find fresh; if you cannot get it, add a little more parsley and a few more tarragon leaves rather than substituting dried. A "branch" here means a small sprig.
- ShallotOne whole shallot in this quantity of sauce is a lot of raw allium. Use a small one, chop it very fine, and consider rinsing it briefly in cold water to take the edge off.
- If it splitsStart a fresh yolk in a clean bowl and whisk the broken sauce into it drop by drop, exactly as you did with the oil.
- Raw yolkThe egg is never cooked. Use a very fresh egg, keep the finished sauce refrigerated and use it within a day or two; anyone cooking for pregnant, elderly or immune-compromised eaters should use pasteurized yolks.
- YieldAbout two-thirds of a cup, enough to dress cold poached fish, boiled beef, chicken or a plate of cold vegetables for four to six.
Ravigote takes its name from the French ravigoter, to revive or perk up, and that is its job at table: a sharp, herb-loaded sauce set beside cold poached fish, boiled beef, calf's head or plain cold fowl. Classical French kitchens kept two versions, a hot one thickened with velouté and a cold one, which is either a herbed vinaigrette or, as here, a mayonnaise carrying the same quartet of parsley, chervil, chives and tarragon that the French group as fines herbes.