Louisiana Court Bouillon
Let’s get one thing straight from the start—what Louisianans call court bouillon (coo be yon) is not that delicate clear fish stock that is used as a base for sauces and stews in France. Yes there is fish in it. Tomatoes too. But court bouillon in LA is a hearty autumn soup. It’s got chunks. It’s got heft. There were micro-regional versions that were developed in the 1800s. There was the lake resort style. Out at the Shell Road Hotel on Lake Pontchartrain, Lucien Boudro (1811-1867, a naïve of Quimper in France), defined the style. He died in the Yellow Fever epidemic of 1867, and his obituary in the New Orleans Times-Picayune declared “No other man has ever arrived at such perfection in the art of cooking fish. Pompano were not pompano without Boudro cook them. Court-bouillons were tasteless unless seasoned by Boudro.” Irene H. a New Orleans transplant to St. Louis, published her recollection of the dish a generation after Boudro had died. Boudro’s disciple and successor Philippe Billman kept the dish a fixture of resort cuisine at the Milneburg Arcade. It came into the city too. Billman partnered in various city restaurants and in the 1870s and 1880s, imparting his knowledge and Boudro’s formula to Andre Camors, Jules Marchal, Arthur Jary and upon Jary’s death in 1876, Jean Galatoire.
Court Bouillon as Served at the Lake – Clean thoroughly and wipe dry either a medium sized red snapper or a half dozen slices of fish. In the bottom of a fish kettle put three or four carrots, peeled and sliced; two medium sized tomatoes, also peeled and sliced; a large onion, peeled and chopped fine; a sliced orange and a sliced lemon, a bouquet garni, made of a spring or two of parsley, one of thyme, two bay leaves tied together, a half-dozen tiny red pepper pods, or a large one mashed, spread these ingredients in the bottom of the kettle, lay the fish upon them, and cover with half white wine and half water, add a saltspoon of salt, set the kettle over a moderate fire and boil till the fish is done through. Take out the fish and lay upon a hot dish, and simmer the vegetables a little longer, then removed the bouquet garni, and pour the contents of the kettle over the fish. Serve at once, with croutons—small squares of bread fried pale brown in boiling fat—slices of lemon and springs of crisp parsley garnishing the dish. If wine is not used add large wineglasses of vinegar to the water instead. Irene H., “Creole Cookery: Another Dainty Dish,” St. Louis Republic (August 10, 1890).
The citrus was one of the distinctive features of the Lake style of this soup.
The optional substitution of vinegar for wine speaks to the cultural war being waged in America over alcohol in the late 1800s. Even in the Catholic stronghold of Louisiana the campaign of the temperance crusaders had turned people against alcohol. Certainly Boudro never made such a substitution, but in the 1890s, when his recipe was finally published, temperance was in the air, and even in New Orleans customers asked for dishes without “intoxicating ingredients” in them.
Numbers of nineteenth-century New Orleans chefs of French nativity remained true to the simpler recipes for fish stocks of the places of their birth. Antoine Alciatore (1813-1877), founder of Antoine’s, had been trained at the Hotel de Noailles in Marseilles. Antoine’s long treated Courtbouillon as a fish stock, rather than as a stand alone soup. “Mrs. Washington,” compiler of a trove of Creole recipes in her Unrivaled Cook Book of 1885, preserved this conservative alternative approach:
Creole Courtboullon for Fish No. 2 — Clean your fish and draw it through the gills; put it in a fish boiler; cover it well with water ; add a glass of vinegar, salt, pepper, clove, laurel leaf, onions and carrots sliced, thyme, and parsley; let it boil until the fish is done; remove the fish boiler to the back of the stove, and leave your fish in the courtbouillon till you are ready to serve it. The same courtbouillon can serve as often as it keeps good. You can substitute wine for vinegar — using half wine and half water. Fish au courtbouillon should be served very hot on a folded napkin on a dish surrounded by bunches of parsley [62].
Mrs. Washington recommended that if the Courtboullon was to be used as a base for “highly seasoned sauces,” a half milk half water base be used. Another school of cooking held that you lay down your tomatoes, lemon slices, fish, peppers etc. and not cover it with water but simply cook it low and slow, letting the liquids in the ingredients weep out and poach the mix. Wine would be added for flavoring an hour in. This thick Courtbouillon was served on rice or macaroni noodles. [“Cooking of Courtbouillon,” Times-Picayune (April 18, 1963), 39]
Early in the twentieth century an insistence emerged among New Orleans cooks that redfish must be the fish used in Courtbouillon. No such nicety existed in the 19th century, when the fish that was available was what into the pot. Another 20th century innovation was making courtbouillon with a roux. The seasoning, too, began to be specified with increasing insistence. Consider this early 20th century instruction:
A Cajun counter-courtbouillon using catfish rather redfish emerged during the last third of the 20th century and is now a standard fish dish in that tradition.