Herbs · Profile
Bouquet Garni: What Goes in the Classic French Herb Bundle
A bouquet garni is a little bundle of herbs that simmers in a soup, stew, sauce or poaching liquid and comes out before you serve. The classic French version is parsley, thyme and a bay leaf, but there’s never been one fixed recipe. Pierre de Lune’s 1656 bundle had cloves in it, and on meat days a piece of lard or bacon went in with the herbs. Escoffier, for his part, put one in each of his fundamental stocks.
At a glance
| What it is | A bundle of herbs cooked with a dish and removed before serving |
| Classic contents | Parsley, thyme and a bay leaf |
| Common additions | Celery, garlic, fennel, orange peel, marjoram |
| Form | Tied together if fresh; wrapped in cheesecloth if dried |
| Typical uses | Soups, stews, sauces, poaching liquids, stocks |
| First appears | In French cookery in the 17th century; in English in the mid-19th century1 |
What goes in it
The classic bouquet garni is sprigs of parsley and thyme and a bay leaf, with celery, garlic, fennel, orange peel and marjoram as common additions. There’s never been one fixed recipe, and the old versions show just how much it’s varied:
| Version | Contents | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Classic, per Britannica | Parsley, thyme, bay leaf | 2 |
| Pierre de Lune, Le Cuisinier (1656), as given in The Oxford Companion to Food | A strip of bacon, chives, thyme, cloves, chervil, parsley | 1 |
| Pierre de Lune, per food historian Christianne Muusers | Thyme, chervil, parsley, cloves, with lard or bacon on meat days | 3 |
| Escoffier, brown stock (English edition) | A little parsley, a stick of celery, a small sprig of thyme, a bay leaf | 4 |
| Escoffier, white veal stock | 1 oz of parsley, 1 bay leaf, a small sprig of thyme | 4 |
Two things jump out. Bay is missing from de Lune’s 17th-century bundle but central to the later classic. And in Escoffier’s veal stock, parsley rules: an ounce of it against one bay leaf and a small sprig of thyme.4
What each herb brings
A bouquet garni tastes like the sum of its herbs, so it changes with the recipe. For the flavor and chemistry of each, see the profiles for parsley, thyme, bay leaves, chervil and marjoram, and for spices that sometimes get tucked in, cloves and black pepper. Peppercorns and tarragon get suggested as additions now and then, but none of the sources above include them.
History
The Oxford Companion to Food says the bundle started showing up in French cookery in the 17th century, as cooks moved away from heavily spiced medieval dishes toward subtler flavors. Even in 1656, Pierre de Lune felt he had to explain what it was. The term reached English in the mid-19th century.1
De Lune’s Le Cuisinier (1656) is the best-documented early source. Christianne Muusers of Coquinaria, which publishes historical recipes, notes that he called the bundle a paquet, counts it among the book’s important innovations, and says little is known about his life. Two details set it apart from the modern idea: it had cloves in it, and on meat days a piece of lard or bacon went in with the herbs. Both accounts list the bacon or lard as part of the bundle. Neither says the herbs were wrapped in it.13
You’ll often read that the bouquet garni was used in the Middle Ages to mask the taste of food. We couldn’t find a source for that. The Oxford Companion actually frames its arrival as part of the move away from heavily spiced medieval cooking.1
The bouquet garni belongs to French cooking as a whole, not to one region. The sources above tie it to French cookery and classic stocks, not to Provence in particular.1
How to make and use one
The method: tie fresh herbs together, or wrap dried herbs in cheesecloth, drop the bundle in the liquid, and take it out before serving. Escoffier puts one in each of his fundamental stocks.
A few practical tips:
- Leave a long tail on the string and tie it to the pot handle so the bundle’s easy to fish out.
- Dried-herb bundles in cheesecloth are handy for long braises, where loose leaves would scatter.
- Add the bundle with the liquid, let it cook as long as the dish does, and taste before you pull it.
Pulling the bundle also gets rid of the whole bay leaf. That’s a good thing: case reports describe whole bay leaves lodging in the esophagus, and one leaf going through the bowel wall.56
Bouquet garni, fines herbes and herbes de Provence
These three French herb terms get mixed up a lot:
- Bouquet garni is a bundle that cooks in a dish and comes out.
- Fines herbes is a mix of herbs, usually parsley, chives, tarragon and chervil, used as a seasoning or garnish.
- Herbes de Provence is a blend of dried herbs; the French Label Rouge specification requires them to be dried.7 It stays in the food.
Health
You take a bouquet garni out before serving, so it’s there for flavor, not nutrition, and we’re not making any health claims for it. Nutrition figures for the individual herbs are on their own profile pages.
Substitutes and related pages
No fresh herbs? A pinch of dried thyme and a bay leaf added loose, or a dried blend, will get you partway there. See bouquet garni substitutes.
Footnotes
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“Bouquet garni”, in Alan Davidson, The Oxford Companion to Food, Oxford University Press, via ckbk. app.ckbk.com · Reference work ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6
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“Bouquet garni”, Encyclopaedia Britannica. britannica.com · Reference work ↩
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Christianne Muusers, “Salmon in red wine sauce”, Coquinaria. coquinaria.nl · Publication ↩ ↩2
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A. Escoffier, A Guide to Modern Cookery, Project Gutenberg. gutenberg.org · Reference work ↩ ↩2 ↩3
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Ahmed and McCormick, “Bay-leaf: an unusual oesophageal foreign body”, Journal of Laryngology & Otology, 1993. cambridge.org · Peer-reviewed ↩
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Bell and Mustard, “Bay leaf perforation of Meckel’s diverticulum”, Canadian Journal of Surgery, 1997. canjsurg.ca · Peer-reviewed ↩
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Cahier des charges du Label Rouge LA 02/03 “Herbes de Provence”, INAO. extranet.inao.gouv.fr · Regulator ↩
Also drawn on
- Fines herbes, Encyclopaedia Britannica. britannica.com