Au Jus Sauce

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Amelia, and I’m calling from Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Well, hello, Amelia.

What’s going on?

Well, I have something that’s both a question and a pet peeve.

Oh, well, okay.

And it’s about food.

All right, what is it?

Okay, well, so I live in the Midwest, and I’ve seen on a number of menus throughout Wisconsin, mostly at, like, kind of down-homey type of restaurants.

Beef served with au jus sauce or served, something served, you know, as a side of, with a side of au jus sauce, which I know is wrong.

I mean, because you can’t say with au jus sauce.

What’s the sauce called?

-huh.

And how high were you?

We weren’t at all.

Oh, okay.

Oh, Amelia, Amelia.

So let’s just clarify here because it might be hard for the listeners to understand what you’re saying, but you’re talking about the French phrase A-U-J-U-S, two words, right?

Yes, that’s correct.

And I’ve seen it a couple of different ways.

It’s either the real thin, brothy sauce that comes with roast beef, or here in the Midwest it’s also like a thicker gravy that’s served with sliced beef and mashed potatoes all in one plate.

Are you a French speaker from way back? Do you speak French?

I don’t speak any French.

Okay. Well, that puts you in league and in agreement with most of America.

So right there, we’re on to something.

The reason that you have a problem with this, it’s a peeve, is because you know, though, even though you don’t speak French, that au jus already means with the juice or with the sauce, right?

Right.

So you’re saying with the sauce sauce.

Right. So it’s redundant.

Yeah, with sauce sauce.

Yeah, it’s like ATM machine, right?

Exactly.

Because the machine is in there twice, and you’re like, oh, wait a second, you can’t do that.

The other one like that is mesclun mix.

Oh, right.

It’s another French one.

Right, because mesclun, it’s a Provencal word, already means mixed salad, right?

Right.

So that’s why I say it twice.

But there’s two things happening here with au jus and with mesclun.

And the first one is that they’re no longer French.

So we borrowed them into English, and now we’re doing English things to them, evil English things to them, American things to them.

Well, the English, the French, you know, they don’t get along.

Yeah, they don’t.

So the French language no longer really has too much of a say on what happens to these words.

And it’s a good thing, too, because au jus, for example, now actually is often treated as a noun and actually means meat sauce.

Wow.

Right.

So it doesn’t just mean, you know, with sauce or with juice.

It actually is the thing itself.

Really?

You’ll find this in established cookbooks.

That’s creepy.

By professional, by people who’ve actually trained in France.

Yeah, I think of English as the language that goes around at a party and takes things off of everybody’s play.

Right, I’ll have one of those snail crackers, and I’ll have a little bit of your soda and some of this whiskey.

The other thing that’s happening, the second thing that’s happening here, let’s just talk about au jus and not mesclun, is it’s what we call, and here’s a little wonky term for you, a post-positive adjective.

Oh.

Yeah, but what that means is it’s really simple.

The adjective comes after the noun.

And we usually don’t have that in English.

There are only a handful of words that most people, that that can happen to in English.

And so when people encounter that, there’s a problem.

Beef au jus might actually be such a thing where the beef is the adjective and the au jus is the noun.

Because you might say, today’s special is the beef au jus thinly sliced.

So it’s kind of unclear if you don’t speak French what the heck the au jus is doing after the beef.

Maybe it’s the noun and beef is describing the noun.

Okay.

Oh, my gosh.

Wow.

So you could see how somebody would go, I don’t know, I’m making the best sense if I can with the normal English rules because a post-positive adjective, that is an adjective that comes after the noun, is a really rare beast.

So in other words, Amelia is right about the French, strictly speaking.

I mean, if you’re saying au jus sauce, you’re saying…

It’s redundant and it’s not necessary.

Right, but what you’re saying is that it’s already here in English.

It doesn’t matter anymore.

Yeah, it’s sort of second generation.

Yeah, and when you look at it, instead of being peeved, what I would encourage, and this is the way I think about all the stuff that peeves me, is just say, hey, look at that.

There it is again, this cool thing that English did to this foreign word.

Just say that here’s evidence that we’ve borrowed again and just kind of accept the fact.

Now you have a story to tell when you see it instead of just peeving and seething.

Right.

Okay.

And then you order the ratatouille or something.

Right, right.

Right, but something else.

Okay.

Well, Amelia, thanks for an interesting question.

I’m hungry now.

Yeah.

Thank you for clearing up for me.

I appreciate it.

You’re welcome.

Take care.

Thanks for listening.

Bye-bye.

Okay, thanks.

Bye-bye.

Bye.

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