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Ravigotte Sandwiches

A sandwich made with butter mixed with tarragon, chervil, lemon juice, pepper, salt, and cayenne, spread between bread slices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Tarragon and chervil 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 ↓

Ravigotte Sandwiches

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the herb butter

  1. Place the butter on a plate and squeeze the juice of half a lemon over it.

  2. Chop the tarragon and chervil finely, then mix with salt, pepper, and cayenne.

  3. Combine the herb mixture with the butter using a knife until well mixed.

Assemble and serve

  1. Spread the herb butter on very thin slices of bread.

  2. Cover with another slice of bread spread with fresh butter.

  3. Cut into squares and serve.

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. Tarragon + cherviltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together824 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Tarragon + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,137 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Chervil + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together358 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Tarragon + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Provides richness and a smooth spreading base that carries the herbs and keeps the sandwiches moist.
Tarragon
Adds its distinctive aniseed aroma, the main flavour of the ravigotte butter.
Chervil
Contributes a delicate, fresh herbal aroma that brightens the butter.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that lifts the flavour of the butter and herbs.

The step that matters

Chopping and mixing the herbs finely. Finely chopped herbs distribute evenly through the butter and release their aroma. Coarse pieces leave bitter, chewy bites and uneven flavour across the sandwiches.

“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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