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Court Bouillon

A fish cooked in a court bouillon of wine, vinegar, salt, peppercorns, cloves, bouquet garni, onion, carrot, lemon, and cold water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,873 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Court Bouillon

Ingredients

Directions

Make the court bouillon

  1. Combine wine or vinegar, salt, peppercorns, cloves, bouquet garni, onion, and carrot in a pot.

  2. Boil for 15 minutes.

Poach the fish

  1. Rub the fish with lemon.

  2. Place the fish on a tray in the pot.

  3. Cover the pot.

  4. Once cooked, remove the pot from heat.

  5. Add cold water to the pot.

  6. Let the fish sit in the liquid until ready to serve.

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. Clove + carrottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Carrot + lemontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,351 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Clove + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. White wine + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

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

What each ingredient does

French white wine or french vinegar
Adds acidity that flavours the broth and helps firm the fish's surface as it poaches.
Onion
Contributes aromatic sweetness and savoury depth to the poaching liquid.
Carrot
Adds subtle sweetness and body to the poaching liquid.

The step that matters

Let the fish sit in the liquid until ready to serve. Once heat is removed and cold water is added, the fish keeps cooking gently from residual heat and cooling. Leaving it too long can overcook it and make it dry and firm, so it should be served promptly once ready.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (white wine, clove, carrot, lemon):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against white wine, clove, carrot, lemon. 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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