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Court Bouillon

A clear broth made by simmering butter, onion, carrots, cloves, garlic, thyme, basil, ginger, wine, and stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and basil match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,768 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Court Bouillon

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a stewpan, melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. Add the sliced onion, carrots, cloves, garlic, thyme, basil, and ginger.

  3. Cook until the vegetables are slightly browned.

  4. Moisten with 2-3 bottles of wine.

  5. Add stock if the mixture is too thick.

  6. Let it boil until ready for use.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Thyme + basiltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  4. Clove + thymetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Carrot + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Butter
Fat that softens the vegetables and carries aromatics, helping them brown gently.
Onion
Sweetness and savory depth as it softens and browns in the fat.
Carrots
Sweetness and body as they soften and caramelise slightly.
Garlic
Aroma that mellows and deepens as it cooks in the fat.
Wine
Acidity and liquid that lifts browned bits and adds flavour to the broth.

The step that matters

Browning the vegetables. Browning the onion and carrots builds deeper flavour through the Maillard reaction and caramelisation. Pale vegetables give a flatter broth, so cook until they are lightly coloured before adding the wine.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, carrot, clove, garlic, thyme, basil, ginger):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Eggplantfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, carrot, clove, garlic, thyme, basil, ginger. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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