Sauce ravigote is a classic, lightly acidic sauce

Sauce

In cooking, a sauce is liquid, creaming or semi-solid food served on or used in preparing other foods. Sauces are not normally consumed by themselves; they add flavor, moisture, and visual appeal to another dish. Sauce is a French word taken from the Latin salsus, meaning salted...

 in French cuisine, which may be prepared either warm or cold. The warm sauce is based upon velouté

Velouté sauce

A velouté sauce, pronounced , along with Allemande, Béchamel, and Espagnole, is one of the sauces of French cuisine that were designated the four "mother sauces" by Antonin Carême in the 19th century. The French chef Auguste Escoffier later classified tomato, mayonnaise, and Hollandaise mother...

, cut with white wine vinegar

Vinegar

Vinegar is a liquid substance consisting mainly of acetic acid and water, the acetic acid being produced through the fermentation of ethanol by acetic acid bacteria. Commercial vinegar is produced either by fast or slow fermentation processes. Slow methods generally are used with traditional...

, though not classically with Dijon mustard as it is universally nowadays, and the cold is a vinaigrette

Vinaigrette

The word vinaigrette or vinegarette can refer to:*Vinaigrette, the salad dressing or sauce...

 based on a meat glaze. Many other preparations pass under the term ravigote, but in general ravigote sauces are highly seasoned with chopped, sautéed shallot

Shallot

The shallot is the botanical variety of Allium cepa to which the multiplier onion also belongs. It was formerly classified as the species A. ascalonicum, a name now considered a synonym of the correct name...

s or onion, caper

Caper

Capparis spinosa, the caper bush, is a perennial winter-deciduous species that bears rounded, fleshy leaves and large white to pinkish-white flowers. A caper is also the pickled bud of this plant...

s and herbs: ravigoté connotes "reinvigorated", "freshened up". It is generally served with mild flavored proteins or those that have been boiled or poached, such as fish, fowl, egg

Egg (food)

Eggs are laid by females of many different species, including birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish, and have probably been eaten by mankind for millennia. Bird and reptile eggs consist of a protective eggshell, albumen , and vitellus , contained within various thin membranes...

s and, traditionally, with tête de veau, jellied hare, head cheese

Head cheese

Head cheese , or brawn , is a cold cut that originated in Europe. A version pickled with vinegar is known as souse. Head cheese is not a cheese but a terrine or meat jelly made with flesh from the head of a calf or pig , and often set in aspic. Which parts of the head are used can vary, but the...

, pâté

Pâté

Pâté is a mixture of ground meat and fat minced into a spreadable paste. Common additions include vegetables, herbs, spices, and either wine or cognac, armagnac or brandy...

 or calves' brains

Calf's brains

Calf's brains, or cervelle de veau, is a traditional delicacy in Europe and Morocco. It is the brain of a calf consumed as meat. It is often served with tongue, sauteed with beurre noir and capers, or mixed with scrambled eggs ....

.