KITCHEN PRACTICE 3 — Tying a Bouquet Garni
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Chapter: French Cookery 1 — Foundations & the French Pantry

TASK
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Tie a bouquet garni from fresh thyme, a bay leaf, and a few parsley
stems, using kitchen string — practising the bundle once now, before
Chapter 3 needs one built quickly alongside a real stock.

WHAT TO DO
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1. Gather a few sprigs of fresh thyme, one dried or fresh bay leaf,
   and a handful of parsley stems (the stems specifically — the
   leafy tops aren't needed for this and can be saved for garnish
   elsewhere).
2. Lay the herbs together in a small, tidy bundle, with the bay leaf
   tucked in among the thyme and parsley stems.
3. Wrap a length of kitchen string around the bundle two or three
   times, then tie it off with a secure knot, leaving a short tail
   of string long enough to tie to a pot handle later if you like
   (makes it easy to fish out afterward).
4. Once tied, set it aside — you can refrigerate it for a day or two
   if you're not using it immediately, or simply examine it now and
   then discard it, since this exercise is about the technique, not
   about producing something to cook with today.

WHAT TO EXPECT
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- A properly tied bouquet garni should hold together as one compact
  bundle when picked up by the string — no herbs falling loose out
  of the sides.
- If the bundle feels loose or the herbs start slipping out when you
  lift it, the string wasn't wrapped tightly enough, or wasn't
  wrapped enough times around the bundle.

WHY THIS WORKS AS AN ANSWER
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Tying a bouquet garni is a small, fiddly piece of prep that's much
easier to get right the first time when there's no simmering stock
or braise waiting on you to finish. Practising it here, with no time
pressure, means Chapter 3's own stock-making session isn't the first
time you've ever tied one — a direct parallel to how Chapter 1's own
pantry audit gets ahead of Chapter 3's real ingredient needs before
they become a bottleneck.