Bouquet garni, sachets, and oignon brules are herb, vegetable, and spice mixtures commonly used to add flavor and aromatics to stocks, sauces, and soups.

The Bouquet garni is commonly made with a sprig of thyme, parsley stems, a bay leaf, 2 or 3 leek leaves, and a celery stalk. After cleaning the leeks, lay them down and place the other ingredients on the leeks, roll the leek leaves around the other ingredients and tie them with a piece of string. Tie one end of string to the pot handle and the toss the bouquet garni into the stock, sauce, or soup. Pull it out when you feel enough of the flavor has infused into the dish.
Julia Childs uses a bouquet of just parsley, thyme, and bay leaf then wraps them in a cheesecloth for easy removal. The Joy of Cooking gives an optional suggestion of using cloves in the bouquet and provides a suggestion if you only have dried herbs available, converted measurement for one bouquet, 1/2 teaspoon dried parsley, 1/4 tsp dried thyme, 1/4 tsp dried marjoram, 1 bay leaf, 1/2 tsp dried celery leaves. A sachet usually contains spices, herbs, and vegetables. A common sachet includes parsley stems, thyme, bay leaf, peppercorns, and garlic cloves. These ingredients are commonly tied up in a cheesecloth for easy removal, but can be added without a cheesecloth if the sauce or stock will be strained. The sachet is basically like a teabag for stocks and other flavors can be added to create new flavors. Also, for beef based stocks in the Provencal tradition orange rind and marjoram is added to the bouquet garni.

CIA suggests adding bouquet garnis and sachets in the last fifteen minutes when making small batches of less then a gallon and an hour before for larger amounts. They also recommend tasting the dish before, and after the bouquet is added to realize the effects the bouquet has on the dish so the flavors do not overwhelm the sauce. James Peterson's book sauces suggests adding to bouquet garni in the last hour of the sauce making process and if the sauce, stock, or soup tastes bland add another bouquet garni at the end of the cooking process to provide more flavor.

The oignon brule, or burnt onion is commonly used in bechemel sauce (cream based mother sauce). But was not used in the bechemel recipe in the CIA textbook. To make a oignon brule, cut an onion in half or quarters depending on how much sauce your making. Quickly char the edges of the onion in a dry skillet or grill. Stick a toothpick through it and add garlic cloves, bay leaf to the onion, then add it to the sauce.