Infuse Soup With Herbs By Using A Handy Cheesecloth Sachet
Fresh herbs make everything better, especially long-simmered dishes like stocks, stews, and soups. The flavors they impart can provide that little extra boost, taking a good meal and making it great. The only issue is that once all the flavor has been sapped out of those herbs, there's not often a good way to remove the residual stalks and wilted leaves from the soup. Fishing around with a slotted spoon can take forever, and someone may still end up with a bay leaf in their bowl (which can not only be unappetizing, but dangerous).
Luckily, there's an easy fix to this problem: cheesecloth. Fashioning a sachet, or a sachet d'épices as it's called in French, out of cheesecloth and a little cooking twine is easy and keeps all your herbs in one place. The thin, meshy nature of the cheesecloth allows liquid to flow in and flavor to flow out, letting your herbs steep in the soup like a tea bag in water. Then, when you're finished cooking, just fish out the sachet and throw it away — leaving only flavor and none of the less-than-appetizing parts like woody stems and mushy, overcooked leaves.
How to make a cheesecloth sachet
Making a sachet is as easy as cutting a square of cheesecloth, putting herbs on it, and bundling the corners together with some cooking twine (or unwaxed, unflavored dental floss will do). Most specialty food stores will have cheesecloth available, but supermarkets and large retail shops may also have it in stock. Cheesecloth is essentially a gauze; its typical use is in cheesemaking, the texture of the cloth allowing whey to drain out and keeping curds intact. But this same material works nicely for infusing herbs and spices into liquid dishes like soup as well.
If you don't have cheesecloth, but you do have twine (or a substitute like floss), you can make a bouquet garni instead — a bundle of herbs, tied together with twine and left to simmer. Bouquets garnis also allow for easy removal after you've simmered your herbs; however, some of the softened leaves on your herbs may fall off into your soup while simmering, so keep that in mind. Bouquets garnis also don't allow for bundling in small spices like peppercorns or cloves, so if you're trying to infuse a mix of herbs and spices into your soup, sachets are the way to go.
What herb combinations go in a sachet?
When putting together your sachet, the sky's the limit — but working with tried-and-true flavor combinations always yields the best results. Try a mixture of rosemary, thyme, and parsley, especially for classic beef soups. Dill, sage, or tarragon go excellently in a chicken soup. For something more tomato-based, basil can't be beat. Bay leaves can add some subtle herby flavor as well. Regardless of the combination, you can bundle it up in a sachet and let it simmer as long as you need.
Want to get that long-simmered herb flavor, but still enjoy the aesthetic of having the herbs mixed directly into the soup? After using and discarding the sachet, chop up some fresh herbs and sprinkle them on top to finish. Incorporating the herbs at the end will keep them from turning to mush as the soup simmers, while still providing that fresh pop of color. Enjoy all the freshness of a chopped herb garnish and the richness of flavor that a long-simmered sachet infuses.