How to Make a Classic Standard Bouquet Garni

A bouquet garni is a bundle of herbs and flavorful vegetables. The herbs and other ingredients are generally bundled together and tied with kitchen or butcher’s twine. Bouquet Garni is a standard culinary component in many classical stocks and sauces, and can be removed easily whenever it has finished its job.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• 1 celery stalk, optional
• 1 leek leaf, green and white part, optional
• 3 full fresh parsley stems with leaves, optional
• 1 full fresh thyme stem with leaves, optional
• 1 full fresh rosemary stem with leaves, optional
• 1 full fresh savory stem with leaves, optional
• 1 full fresh sage stem with leaves, optional
• 1 bay leaf, optional
• Kitchen or butcher’s twine

1. The first step is to look at the item needing the Bouquet Garni to determine the aromatic vegetables and the herbs to be combined and tied together. A basic combination is celery, leek, parsley and thyme. A Bouquet Garni with only herbs is often used as well. The standard production is shown below and if only using herbs, simply tie snugly together at the bottom of the stems and use.
2. Take your choice of fresh herbs and bunch them together. Place in the center of the celery stalk.
3. Where the bundle will be tied place the bay leaf in that position, if using.
4. Put the leek leaf over the celery stalk, covering the parsley and thyme stems and leaves. At the point where the bay leaf is, tie the bundle together. This will keep the bay leaf in with the herbs snugly between the leek and celery.
5. Leave an amount of twine left after the knot to be able to tie to a stockpot handle. If not tying to a stockpot handle, leave enough twine so that it can be pulled out easily.
6. When the stock or sauce has cooked for a period of time, taste. Remove the bouquet garni when the flavors have reached the desired levels.

Tips & Warnings

• Placing the bay leaf, if using, at the point where the Bouquet Garni will be tied keeps the bay leaf in place.
• Use only fresh herbs for the Bouquet Garni, and choose the freshest stems. The flavor will not be the same if using old herbs past their prime.