Chef Juliette
Ordinary or White Consommé
Beef shin, lean beef, and fowl begin in cold water and rise slowly toward a tremble. Skim before the boil, and you learn the quiet discipline that gives every clear French broth its backbone.
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Faggots (Bouquets Garnis)
Created by Chef Juliette
Based on No. 176, Faggots (Bouquets Garnis), from Le Guide Culinaire (1907) by Auguste Escoffier
The classical 8:1:1 bundle of parsley stalks, bay, and thyme, tied tight for a clean pot and a clean finish. Make six now, then lift each spent bouquet garni with one pull.
Sauces & Condiments
French
Meal Prep
Make Ahead
15 min
Active Time
0 min cook•15 min total
Yield6 small bouquets garnis, for six 1½ to 2 quart pots
Bouquets garnis, bound aromatic bundles traditionally called faggots in English, teach a small rule with a long reach: perfume the cooking liquid, then leave it clean. The one true thing to know before touching a pot is that loose herbs are not the same preparation. Tie them firmly enough to survive a long simmer, because retrieval is the technique.
The source formula makes a full ounce of aromatics in an exact 8:1:1 proportion, parsley stalks and roots first, with bay and thyme in supporting roles. That suited a professional stockpot and the hand preparing bundle after bundle. Your saucepan needs less, so I keep the original ounce and its proportions intact, then divide it into six home-sized bouquets garnis. Repeated weighing before every pot is brigade scaffolding and can go; orderly alignment and proper stringing are the preparation itself and must stay. One cook, one stove, one evening, though the stove gets this quarter hour off.
When the bundles are right, the thyme and bay sit protected inside the parsley stalks, every end is even, and the knot holds when tugged. The step that matters most is the last turn of the string: wrap twice, tie firmly, and leave nothing free to stray into the pot.
Bouquet garni belongs to the classical French sauce kitchen, particularly the Parisian professional pot and the cuisine bourgeoise saucepan, where herbs had to scent a stock, sauce, or braise without remaining loose in the finished liquid. The formula here is more exact than a casual handful: eight parts parsley stalks and roots to one part bay and one part thyme, bound for complete retrieval. In this culinary usage, faggot simply means a small tied bundle and not the British meat preparation bearing the same word.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
flat-leaf parsley stalks and any fine roots attached
Quantity
About 1½ loosely packed cups (355 ml / 22.7 g)
leaves reserved and roots scrubbed
whole bay leaves
Quantity
About ½ loosely packed cup (120 ml / 2.8 g)
fresh thyme sprigs
Quantity
About ½ loosely packed cup (120 ml / 2.8 g)
unbleached cotton kitchen twine
Quantity
6 lengths, each 12 inches (30 cm)
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| flat-leaf parsley stalks and any fine roots attachedleaves reserved and roots scrubbed | About 1½ loosely packed cups (355 ml / 22.7 g) |
| whole bay leaves | About ½ loosely packed cup (120 ml / 2.8 g) |
| fresh thyme sprigs | About ½ loosely packed cup (120 ml / 2.8 g) |
| unbleached cotton kitchen twine | 6 lengths, each 12 inches (30 cm) |
Equipment Needed
- •Digital kitchen scale accurate to 0.1 g
- •Kitchen shears or a small knife
- •Unbleached cotton kitchen twine
Instructions
- 1
Prepare the aromatics
Strip the parsley leaves and reserve them for another dish. Keep the stalks and any fine roots attached, scrubbing the roots carefully so no soil remains. Rinse the parsley, bay, and thyme only if needed, then dry them thoroughly. Damp herbs become slippery under the string and spoil quickly in storage; if they are still wet, spread them on a towel until their surfaces feel dry.
Do not discard the parsley leaves. Chop them for a persillade, fold them into butter, or hold them for finishing the dish that receives the bouquet garni. - 2
Weigh the ratio
Weigh 22.7 g parsley stalks and roots, 2.8 g bay leaves, and 2.8 g thyme sprigs. This is the source formula reduced to its grammar: eight parts parsley, one part bay, one part thyme. Weight matters more than the number of sprigs because one bay leaf may be twice the size of another. If your scale cannot read such small amounts reliably, weigh the full quantities exactly as given before dividing anything.
The combined herbs weigh 28.3 g, essentially the original one-ounce measure after metric rounding. The proportions have not changed; only the final bundle size has. - 3
Divide six bundles
Divide each kind of aromatic evenly among six groups. Lay the parsley stalks parallel in each group, place the bay and thyme in the middle, then cover them with the remaining stalks. Trim ragged ends so the aromatics are roughly 4 to 5 inches (10 to 13 cm) long and no thyme sprig or bay tip projects beyond the parsley. Do not chop the herbs, since cut fragments are exactly what the bundle is meant to keep from the liquid.
- 4
Tie them firmly
Slide one length of cotton twine beneath each bundle. Wrap it twice around the middle, pull until the herbs are held snugly without being crushed, and finish with a firm square knot. Leave one tail several inches long if you want to hook the bouquet garni easily from a deep pot. Tug the bundle once to test it. If the knot slips or a sprig escapes, do not rebuild everything. Ça se rattrape: add a second tie crosswise, tighten it, and trim the offending tip.
- 5
Store or infuse
Use one bouquet garni for a 1½ to 2 quart (1.4 to 1.9 litre) saucepan of stock, sauce, marinade, soup, or braise. Add it whole as the liquid approaches a simmer, let the particular recipe determine the infusion time, then lift out the spent bundle before straining or serving. If a bundle ever opens in the pot, pass the liquid through a fine-mesh sieve. Never apologize at your own table; remove the evidence and carry on.
Chef Tips
- •Use a scale that reads to 0.1 g. Bay leaves and thyme sprigs vary too much for counting to preserve the source formula, while weighing keeps the 8:1:1 proportion honest.
- •If your parsley comes without roots, use stalks for the full 22.7 g parsley share. The aroma will be slightly greener and less earthy, but this is the honest home equivalent for market bunches sold rootless.
- •Use plain, unbleached cotton kitchen twine. Synthetic string may soften or carry unwanted odors when heated, and sewing thread is too fine to grip the stalks securely.
- •One bundle suits a modest home pot. Use two in a 4 quart (3.8 litre) stockpot, but do not compensate by adding loose bay or thyme; the balance of the three aromatics is the point.
Advance Preparation
- •Make the bouquets garnis up to 3 days ahead. Keep them in a sealed container lined with a dry paper towel and refrigerate them; replace the towel if it becomes damp.
- •For longer storage, freeze the bundles separately on a tray, then transfer them to a sealed container for up to 3 months. Add a frozen bouquet garni directly to the pot without thawing.
- •The parsley leaves can be washed, dried, and refrigerated separately for another preparation. Keeping them out of the bundles prevents loose leaves from clouding a sauce or stock.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 5g)
Calories
5 calories
Total Fat
0 g
Saturated Fat
0 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
0 g
Cholesterol
0 mg
Sodium
2 mg
Total Carbohydrates
1 g
Dietary Fiber
0 g
Sugars
0 g
Protein
0 g
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