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Ravigotte Mustard

A mustard condiment made with brown mustard seed, herbs, spices, and white wine vinegar, steeped and sieved.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 Mustard

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a basin, combine brown mustard seed, parsley, tarragon, chervil, burnet, cloves, celery seed, mace, and shallot.

  2. Pour enough white wine vinegar over the mixture to cover it.

  3. Let it steep for 24 hours.

Finish and store

  1. Pound the mixture well and rub it through a fine sieve.

  2. Moisten with a little more vinegar to achieve the right consistency.

  3. Pack into small jars or wide-mouthed bottles and cork tightly.

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. Chervil + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together266 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Tarragon + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together602 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Mustard + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together859 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Parsley + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,563 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

Brown mustard seed
Provides the sharp, pungent heat that gives the mustard its character.
White wine vinegar
Softens the seeds during steeping and adds the acidity that sharpens the flavour.
Parsley
Adds fresh, green aroma and body to the paste.
Tarragon
Contributes its distinctive anise-like aroma to the mustard.

The step that matters

Pound and sieve the steeped mixture. Thorough pounding breaks down the seeds and herbs so the sieved paste is smooth and evenly flavoured. Under-pounding leaves gritty pieces and uneven seasoning.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mustard, parsley, tarragon, chervil, clove, celery, shallot):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Fennelfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mustard, parsley, tarragon, chervil, clove, celery, shallot. 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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