[Sca-cooks] OP - roast beef accompaniment

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Dec 21, 2009, at 9:45 PM, Antonia Calvo wrote:

> Johnna Holloway wrote:
>> The phrase [an au jus sauce] turns up in lots of cookery books...
>> 
> 
> It still doesn't make any sense-- what you prepare to serve with the meat is not 'an au jus sauce', but simply 'jus'.

Yes. I've got an established bee in the bonnet regarding the blurring of presentations, dishes, and sauces, of course -- see previous rants on Caesar Salad Dressing and Alfredo Sauce. Make a jus, serve it with beef. You don't take jus and make it into a sauce, and if you make a sauce that is _like_ jus, it is still not jus, but something else.

It's a little like serving thick slice of beef, steak-like style. Either it's steak or it isn't, and if it is, the descriptive term (adverb?) "like" is redundant, as is "au" in the "au jus sauce" usage.

I blame the people who think all sauces are made from stuff in envelopes.

Adamantius (who made an unabashedly phony jus with red wine reduction and glace de viand on Sunday, to serve with steak, a.k.a. slice of beef au steak)






"Most men worry about their own bellies, and other people's souls, when we all ought to worry about our own souls, and other people's bellies."
			-- Rabbi Israel Salanter