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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Chervil
Created by Chef Juliette
Based on No. 177, Chervil, from Le Guide Culinaire (1907) by Auguste Escoffier
Three classical preparations, haché, concassé, and pluches, preserve chervil’s fleeting anise perfume for sauces, eggs, salads, soups, and consommés. Dry it well, cut it late, and keep it off the heat.
Sauces & Condiments
French
Meal Prep
Quick Meal
20 min
Active Time
0 min cook•20 min total
YieldAbout 1/2 cup haché or concassé chervil, or 1 cup pluches
Cerfeuil haché, concassé et en pluches teaches one true thing: chervil’s perfume belongs to the final moment. The leaves should reach the table green, feathery, and quietly fragrant with anise. Heat and waiting steal that fragrance, so prepare the herb only when everything it will finish is ready.
The professional formula assumed a brigade hand available at service to strip, wash, dry, and cut separate trays for several stations. At home, one fresh bunch, a salad spinner or two towels, and a sharp knife do the work. The quantity has been reduced to what four bowls of soup or one family supper might need, because a large batch would fade before you could use it.
Separate plates for several stations are brigade scaffolding and can go. Complete drying and the last-second cut are the preparation itself, and both must stay. Before the knife touches the leaves, make certain no water remains.
At the Parisian table and across France, cerfeuil became a favored finish for potages, consommés, eggs, salads, and fines herbes, the traditional mixture of tender fresh herbs. Classical kitchens developed haché, concassé, and carefully torn pluches so one delicate herb could provide different textures without being cooked into dullness. Chervil may resemble parsley, but its faint anise perfume is more fragile, which is why generations of cooks have treated last-minute preparation as part of the seasoning itself.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
fresh chervil
Quantity
1 bunch, about 2 loosely packed cups (475 ml / 28 g)
stalks removed
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| fresh chervilstalks removed | 1 bunch, about 2 loosely packed cups (475 ml / 28 g) |
Equipment Needed
- •Large bowl for washing
- •Salad spinner or 2 clean kitchen towels
- •Sharp 20 cm chef's knife
- •Cool ceramic plate
Instructions
- 1
Strip the chervil
Inspect the chervil and discard any yellowed or crushed leaves. Pinch off the coarse stalks, keeping the tender serrated leaves and their finest stems. Use the whole bunch for one preparation, or divide it into three loose piles if you want haché, concassé, and pluches together.
- 2
Wash and dry
Float the leaves in a large bowl of cold water and move them gently with your fingers. Lift them out rather than pouring away the water, leaving any grit on the bowl floor. Spin in short, gentle bursts, then toss the leaves lightly between clean towels until completely dry. If droplets remain, do not chop yet. Ça se rattrape: spread the leaves on a dry towel, cover them with another, and wait five minutes. Wet chervil bruises, clumps, and loses its perfume.
Handle the leaves by lifting and tossing, never by squeezing. Chervil shows every rough touch as dark, bruised edges. - 3
Make the haché
For haché, gather the chosen leaves into a loose mound and chop finely with a sharp knife, making measured passes rather than grinding the blade repeatedly through the herb. Stop when the pieces are fine but still green and dry. Use at once to finish eggs, salads, or a sauce after it has left the heat. If service is delayed by a few minutes, spread the haché on a cool plate and refrigerate it.
- 4
Cut the concassé
For concassé, compress the leaves lightly between your fingers and slice across them with close, parallel cuts, after the action of a chaff-cutter. Concass means to chop roughly, so leave narrow ribbons and visible fragments rather than making a mince. If the edges darken, stop pressing and use a sharper knife. Add the concassé at the last moment and off the heat wherever a slightly fuller herb texture is wanted.
- 5
Tear the pluches
For pluches, tear away only the serrated outer portions of each leaf, leaving no coarse central vein attached. Drop the delicate pieces into cold water as you work. At the last moment, lift them from the water, shake gently, and blot once if necessary. Add the pluches raw to bowls of soup or to boiling consommé just as it leaves the fire. Serve immediately. À table!
Chef Tips
- •Choose chervil with upright, bright green leaves and a clear fragrance when the bunch is disturbed. Yellow edges and wet black patches mean the herb is already fading.
- •Dried chervil cannot stand in for fresh here. The preparation depends on a perfume so fleeting that even fresh leaves must wait until the last moment to meet the knife.
- •Use haché when the herb should disappear into the finish, concassé when you want visible green texture, and pluches when delicate leaf tips should float intact on soup or consommé.
- •A dull knife crushes chervil before it cuts. Sharpen the blade first, then wipe it dry, because moisture on the steel is enough to make finely chopped leaves clump.
Advance Preparation
- •The whole leaves may be stripped, washed, and dried up to 6 hours ahead. Wrap them loosely in a dry towel, place them in a partially closed container, and refrigerate. Chop only when the dish they will finish is ready.
- •Haché and concassé should not be treated as ordinary meal-prep ingredients. If absolutely necessary, hold them on a cool plate for no more than 15 minutes.
- •Pluches may rest in cold water during the final minutes of cooking. Lift and drain them only as the soup or consommé is being served.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 28g)
Calories
10 calories
Total Fat
0.2 g
Saturated Fat
0.1 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
0.1 g
Cholesterol
0 mg
Sodium
5 mg
Total Carbohydrates
1 g
Dietary Fiber
1 g
Sugars
0 g
Protein
1 g
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