The bouquet garni (French for “garnished bouquet”) is a bundle of herbs usually tied together with string and mainly used to prepare soup, stock, and various stews. The bouquet is boiled with the other ingredients, but is removed prior to consumption.

There is no generic recipe for bouquet garni, but most recipes include parsley, thyme and bay leaf. Depending on the recipe, the bouquet garni may include basil, burnet, celery leaves, thyme, chervil, rosemary, peppercorns, savory and tarragon. Sometimes, vegetables such as carrot, celery, celery root, leek, onion and parsley root, are also included in the bouquet.

Sometimes, the bouquet is not bound with string, and its ingredients are filled into a small sachet, a net, or even a tea strainer instead. Traditionally, the aromatics are bound within leek leaves, though a coffee filter or butcher twine can be used instead of leek leaves.

Dishes made with a bouquet garni include:

Beef Bourguignon
Pot-au-feu
Poule-au-pot
Carbonnades flamandes
Lapin du brasseur
Roseur de Blanchettes