Chivry or Ravigote Butter

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •2-quart saucepan
• •Medium bowl for cold water
• •Fine-mesh sieve
• •Clean lint-free kitchen towel
• •Mini food processor or mortar and pestle
• •Flexible silicone scraper

Instructions

1. 1

   Ready the water

   Fill a medium bowl with the very cold water and set it beside the stove. Bring the blanching water and salt to a full boil in a small saucepan. Pick over the herbs carefully, discarding tough stalks and bruised leaves, and keep the five varieties separate until each weighs 17 grams. Equal weight, not equal handfuls, preserves the source formula.

2. 2

   Blanch the herbs

   Add the chervil, parsley, tarragon, salad burnet, chives, and chopped shallot together. Press them beneath the water, let the boil return quickly, and boil briskly for exactly two minutes. The leaves will collapse into a small, intensely green mass while the shallot loses its raw bite. This blanch is not expendable brigade ceremony; it softens the fibers so they can become a purée and carries their flavor cleanly into the butter.

   Use a saucepan large enough that the water returns to the boil promptly. A cramped pan cools too far, leaving the herbs to stew slowly and lose their clear green character.
3. 3

   Cool and wring dry

   Drain immediately and plunge the herbs and shallot into the cold water. Swish them until no warmth remains, then drain again. Gather the mixture inside a clean lint-free towel and twist hard, pressing until no water drips from the bundle. Open it, loosen the compacted herbs, blot, and squeeze once more. If the bundle still feels wet, repeat the pressing rather than hoping the butter will absorb it. Ça se rattrape here, before the water reaches the butter.

4. 4

   Make the green purée

   Break the squeezed herb bundle into a mini processor and pulse, scraping the bowl often, until it becomes a very fine dark-green purée. Add no water to help the blades. If the quantity sits beneath them and refuses to move, transfer it to a mortar and pound firmly instead; patience, not extra liquid. The purée is ready when no distinct pieces of chive or shallot remain.

5. 5

   Work in the butter

   Put the butter in a heatproof bowl and set it briefly over barely warm water. Stop when roughly half has liquefied around soft, opaque pieces, then stir it into a thick cream. Add this half-melted butter to the herb purée in three additions, beating thoroughly after each, until the mixture is evenly green and glossy. If it looks greasy or begins to separate, it became too warm; set the bowl over cold water and beat until creamy again. If it clumps because it is too cold, return it to the warm water for only a few seconds. Ça se rattrape.

6. 6

   Refine and chill

   Force the butter through a fine-mesh sieve with a flexible scraper, then collect every smooth green ribbon from the underside. This sieve is the honest home equivalent of the tammy, and the refining itself stays because it removes fibrous fragments that would mark a finished sauce. Pack the butter into a small covered jar or shape it into a parchment-wrapped log and chill for 30 minutes. To use it, whisk the quantity required by the prepared Chivry or sauce Vénitienne into the completed warm sauce off the heat. Do not boil afterward, or the green dulls and the butter may separate.

Chef Tips

• •The source measures all five herbs in equal weights. Trust the 17 grams for each; the cup measures are guides because a loose cup of chives and a loose cup of parsley do not weigh alike.
• •The pimpernel here is salad burnet, Sanguisorba minor, whose tender leaves have a cool cucumber edge. Dried burnet and mint are not honest substitutes. If fresh burnet is unavailable, wait for it or grow a small pot; the fresh herb is part of the butter's identity.
• •Use real unsalted butter so the salt from the blanching water remains under your control. Standard butter works if handled carefully, though a higher-fat butter stays especially smooth. We don't apologize for butter.
• •This is a concentrated sauce-finishing butter, not merely a green spread for bread. Chivry and sauce Vénitienne each supply their own foundation; this butter enters at the finish to give them their herb perfume, color, and final gloss.

Advance Preparation

• •Prepare the butter up to 5 days ahead and keep it tightly covered in the refrigerator. Let only the amount you need soften briefly before working it into a sauce.
• •For longer storage, roll the finished butter in parchment, chill until firm, and cut it into 1-teaspoon (5 ml / 5 g) coins. Freeze the coins in an airtight container for up to 3 months and take out only what the sauce requires.
• •The herbs may be washed and picked a day ahead. Dry them well, wrap them loosely in a barely damp towel, and refrigerate; chop the shallot only when the blanching water is nearly ready.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 15g)