a flavoured liquid intended for the cooking of eggs, vegetables, or seafood, and in use in France and elsewhere for many centuries. In modern times its use is reserved almost exclusively for seafood, especially fish. The ingredients include salt; an acid element (lemon juice, white wine, vinegar); spices (notably peppercorns); and aromatics such as onion, shallots, garlic, celery, a bouquet garni). Court bouillons prepared with wine are the most common. In early English cookery books the term is often spelled in strange ways, e.g. corbolion (May, 1685). However, there was little difference between early English recipes for the preparation and early French ones. La Varenne (Le Cuisinier françois, English translation 1653) gave several recipes for fish cooked in a court bouillon. That recommended for a perch consisted of ‘wine seasoned with all sorts of spices, such as salt, pepper, clove, peel of orange or lemon, “chibbolds”, and onions’.
Stobart (1980) points out that:
Meats and vegetables are less often cooked in court-bouillon for an obvious reason. A court-bouillon is prepared in advance by boiling the flavouring ingredients before the food is put in to cook. This is necessary with fish, and shell fish, as they spend only a short time in the cooking liquid. But with meats and vegetables, which take longer to cook, the flavouring materials can usually be boiled while the food is cooking.
Alan Davidson was a distinguished author and publisher, and one of the world's best-known writers on fish and fish cookery. In 1975 he retired early from the diplomatic service—after serving in, among other places, Washington, Egypt, Tunisia, and Laos, where he was British Ambassador—to pursue a fruitful second career as a food historian and food writer extraordinaire. Among his popular books are Seafood of South-East Asia, North Atlantic Seafood, and Mediterranean Seafood. In 2003, shortly before his death, he was awarded the Erasmus Prize for his contribution to European culture.
May, Robert (1685), The Accomplisht Cook, repr, Totnes: Prospect Books (1994).
Stobart, Tom (1980), The Cook's Encyclopaedia, London: B. T. Batsford. Also repr 1999, London: Grub Street.
