Au jus
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Au jus is French for "with [its own] juice"; jus is the juice itself. In American cuisine, the term is mostly used to refer to a light sauce for beef recipes, which may be served with the food or placed on the side for dipping.
[edit] Ingredients and preparation
Jus means the natural juices given off by the food. [1] To prepare a natural jus, the cook may simply skim off the fat from the juices left after cooking and bring the remaining meat stock and water to a boil.
However, jus as often prepared in the U.S. is a seasoned sauce with several additional flavourings. U.S. au jus recipes often use soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper, white or brown sugar, garlic, onion, etc. to make something more like a gravy. So-called jus is sometimes prepared separately, rather than being produced naturally by the food being cooked.
A powdered product described as jus is also sold, and is rubbed into the meat before cooking or added afterwards. Powdered forms generally use a combination of salt, dried onion, and sometimes sugar as primary flavoring agents. [2]
[edit] Linguistic use
"Au jus" is often misused to mean "broth" (jus) instead of "with broth". This widespread phenomenon yields grammatically incorrect sentences as "All of our French Dip sandwiches are served on a specially baked French roll, dipped in our au jus."[3]
