Court-Bouillon
This is a favourite term of the French kitchen for which we have no corresponding term in English. More than two hundred years ago an English cook tried to translate it, and he rendered it short broth! (See a translation of La Varenne's "French Cook," 1653.) It would be better English after the analogy of small beer to say "small broth." But anyway the phrase has an odd sound. It really means the thin liquor in which fish is boiled, made up of water, vinegar or white wine, which has been seasoned with pepper, salt, onions, carrots, and a faggot of herbs. But the term is by no means exact.
There is a Court-Bouillon called after the town of Nantesà la Nantaise-which is half water, half milk, with pepper and salt. And often to cook fish in a Court-Bouillon means Crab no more than to cook it au bleu. If the reader will turn to see what is meant by cooking fish in the blue, he will find that it may mean nothing but vinegar and water. For a fair example of Court-Bouillon, see the Sole au Vin Blanc.