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Sauce

Ravigote Sauce, or Vinaigrette

A vinaigrette sauce made with oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, capers, and finely chopped herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Chervil and tarragon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 824 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Ravigote Sauce, or Vinaigrette

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a bowl, combine the oil and vinegar.

  2. Add salt and pepper to taste.

  3. Stir in the capers and fine herbs. Mix thoroughly until well combined.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Chervil + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together824 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Chervil + chivetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together370 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Capers + cherviltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together135 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Capers + chivetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together245 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Capers + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together379 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Oil
Forms the body of the sauce and carries the flavors of the other ingredients.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the sauce and balances the richness of the oil.
Capers
Add briny, sharp bursts of flavor that stand out against the oil and vinegar.
Fine herbs
Contribute fresh, aromatic flavor from onion, parsley, chervil, tarragon and chives.

The step that matters

Mix thoroughly until well combined. Oil and vinegar naturally separate, so thorough mixing creates a temporary emulsion that keeps the sauce evenly blended and prevents pooling of oil or vinegar.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, pepper, capers, parsley, chervil, tarragon, chive):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Lettucefits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, pepper, capers, parsley, chervil, tarragon, chive. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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