"cybercat" > wrote in message
...
>
> "James Silverton" > wrote in message
> ...
>> cybercat wrote on Wed, 14 Jan 2009 15:53:33 -0500:
>>
>>
>>> "Melba's Jammin'" > wrote in
>>> message ...
>>>> In article
>>>>
>>>> .com>, Goro > wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> A friend of mine recently made a standing rib roast and
>>>>> attempted to make the accompanying jus for it and it didn't turn out
>>>>> at all. He used the Emeril recipe (i don't have
>>>>> it, sorry) and the result was terrible. The liquid in the
>>>>> roasting pan all evaporated and burned and the result was a quite
>>>>> nasty bit. My friend used a pyrex pan (I guess
>>>>> instead of a proper roasting pan he used a 16x9 baking
>>>>> dish). I thought that might be the problem, though I'm not sure.
>>>>>
>>>>> Does anyone have any insight into this that I could pass on?
>>>>>
>>>>> thx
>>>>> -goro-
>>>>
>>>> I made some for Christmas dinner's beast roast. I used beef base with
>>>> water in a small saucepan and simmered a grated
>>>> carrot and some celery and some onion, I believe, for maybe
>>>> 5-10 minutes, then strained out the vegetables. It was very good.
>>>> Dilute it with water (and a wee dram of red wine,
>>>> maybe?) so it's not overly salty-tasting. --
>>
>>> How weird. Why didn't the roast make its own?
>>
>>
>> I guess people use terms like juice and gravy differently. If I had
>> something "au jus" I would expect the stuff to have been produced from
>> the meat and not thickened tho' I'd allow some seasoning. Anything else
>> is "gravy" to me.
>> --
>
> I love "jus" (I still call it au jus, I'm an amurrikan dagnabit) because
> it is just meat juice and seasoning. I HATE fake beef flavor, or anythihg
> dried or in a bottle claiming to be beef anything. It always has that
> gross bouillion taste to me. I had not gotten past the "beef base" to
> address the idea of thickening.
Just to clarify the French, au jus is not an 'it'. In other words, you
cannot make 'au jus', because it means 'with the juice', so you can only
have it that way.

I think the problem is that, with a smaller roast that is cooked rare, there
just isn't enough blood until you've sliced it, and if you stop there to
season and heat the juices, things go awry.elsewhere.

There aren't a lot of choices at that point, but you can buy the real thing
in concentrate, add water, and let it warm with your seasonings (the core of
an onion is what I like) while your meat roasts. Your other option is to
cook the meat to medium, and you'll have plenty of juice.