No. 39

Court Bouillon with Wine

Court Bouillon au Vin

The court bouillon is a most necessary auxiliary in all kitchens, where it plays an important part; it is prepared fresh every day, and special care is taken to have it good, for in it the principal fishes are cooked, and with it the sauce Normande is made, so useful for hurried work.

First prepare a broth with the heads of large, fresh fish, some roots, onions, a bunch of parsley and a little salt; let it boil very slowly for half an hour, then strain and skim off the fat, and leave it to settle until clear. From the bones and heads of bass, sheepshead, blackfish, etc., the best fish stock is obtained.

Cook a mirepoix composed of sliced roots, shallots and onions, add to it the fragments of fish as explained above and cook these together for a few moments on a good fire; moisten with two or three gills of white wine and let it fall to a glaze over a brisk fire; moisten it again at once with two gills of fish broth and also let this fall to a glaze, then remoisten to their height with good fish broth and a little white wine, add a bunch of aromatic herbs, a bunch of parsley, and some fresh mushroom peelings, boil the liquid while skimming and set it on one side of the range to despumate for a quarter of an hour, skimming it carefully. Strain the stock through a sieve, let it settle, and pour off the top into a glazed vessel, and if it be not succulent enough, then reduce it again; keep it in a cool place.

This stock may be easily kept from one day to another, if care be taken to keep the vessel and its contents incrusted on ice. This court bouillon may also be moistened with red wine; in either case, it must be prepared with the greatest care possible.

← No. 38 Court-Bouillon, Plain Elementary Methods No. 40 Almond Cream →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer is describing two things at once: a plain fish broth, and the reduced wine-based cooking liquid built on it. Read it as a stock recipe in two stages, and the sequence makes sense.

The hinge: reduce twice before the final wetting"Let it fall to a glaze" means boiling the wine, then the first addition of broth, down to a syrupy film on the bottom of the pan before adding more liquid. Skipping these two reductions gives you a thin, sharp-tasting stock; they are the whole point of the method.
GillsA gill is half a cup. Two or three gills of white wine is 1 to 1½ cups; two gills of fish broth is 1 cup.
"Moisten to their height"Add liquid just level with the solids, no more. Fish stock is not meant to be flooded and then boiled down for hours.
DespumateAn old kitchen term for skimming: the pot is held at a bare simmer with the pan pulled to one side of the heat, and the scum and fat that rise are lifted off. The quarter-hour given here is short by design; fish bones are generally reckoned to give bitter, gluey results with long cooking.
Roots and mirepoix"Roots" here means carrot, parsnip, turnip and celery root, sliced thin. Ranhofer's mirepoix in this instance carries no bacon, so keep it lean.
The fishSheepshead and blackfish (tautog) are still caught, though less often seen in markets outside their home waters; any lean white fish frame works — bass, snapper, halibut, sole, cod. Remove the gills and any blood, and rinse the bones. Avoid salmon, mackerel and other oily fish, which make the stock rank.
Mushroom peelingsTrimmings from white or cremini mushrooms, saved from other prep. A handful of chopped stems does the same job.
Keeping it"Incrusted on ice" was the 1890s equivalent of a hard chill. Cool the strained stock fast in a shallow pan and refrigerate; use within two days, or freeze. Fish stock spoils faster than meat stock.

A Little History

Court bouillon is literally "short broth" ecause same day, unlike the long-simmered meat stocks that anchored a nineteenth-century kitchen. Charles Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's in New York for more than thirty years, published The Epicurean in 1894 as a complete record of that kitchen's practice, and its opening "Elementary Methods" section exists so that the several thousand numbered dishes that follow can simply refer back by number. This entry sits beside No. 38, the plain version without wine; the wine version is the richer one, doubling as the base for sauce Normande, the cream-and-fish-stock sauce that carried much of a French-American restaurant's fish service. The named fish \are and blackfish \are a reminder that Delmonico's bought from local Atlantic waters, not from a global supply chain, and that these were then everyday market fish rather than curiosities.