Recipe: Turkey jus

I love a good gravy, but if you want to elevate a holiday meal a bit you may want to try serving a delicious and refined turkey jus instead.  The major difference between a jus and a gravy is that a jus is not thickened with a roux, rather is is thickened through the reduction and concentration of a stock.  A jus will be a bit thinner than a gravy, but very rich.  If it is a concern for you, it is also nearly fat free and quite nutritious for you as you've taken a large amount of stock with all its nutrients and removed a significant portion of water. 

This recipe is an extension of the recipe for turkey stock in the previous post, so you can even start to prepare the wine reduction simultaneously as the stock is cooking.  Keep in mind that it is easier to take the fat out of a stock when it is cold, but it can still be done when warm with some careful ladling.  You don't need to start with a chilled product at this stage so if you need, you can go straight from straining the stock to the reduction of the stock to a sauce.  It's not an exact science or anything, so how far you take it down is up to you - you can have it thin like an au jus, or bring it right down to a syrupy consistency.  Depending how much sauce you need for the meal, it wouldn't hurt to have a bit of good chicken stock on hand to help stretch the final product if you intend to reduce the sauce quite a bit.  It's not really going to dilute the product too much as they are both birds and the flavour of the turkey stock will naturally override the chicken flavour.

How much do you reduce the stock?  Remember that you will serve it warm, so you can monitor the consistency as you go.  A good test is to spoon a little on a plate and watch how it behaves.  It should not run like water, but be able to hold itself in a clean little pool - it should also have left a nice even film on the spoon.

In the end, the quality of the jus will largely depend on two factors.  The first being the care taken in making the initial stock, and during the reduction process - wash your mirepoix, take care in skimming it, and never boil it - just let it gently simmer away.  The other factor is the level of refinement in the straining process.  Strain the initial stock well, but when straining the finished jus, go the extra mile.  You can start by straining through a rough mesh seive to take out the vegetables, but then you want to move on to a fine chinois, then to a cheesecloth lined chinois and even repeat that stage - you'll be surprised how much fine sediment keeps coming out, but in the end, your sauce will shine and be as smooth as glass.  

Final note, although I put a touch of salt in the initial stock to help the clarity, save all the seasoning to the very end.  In the reduction process, water is evaporated out, salt is not, and if you added it too early, your only option is to dilute the sauce to even things out.

You will need:

3                 onions

454g / 1lb   button mushrooms

2                 shallots

1L / 1qt      white wine

as needed   vegetable oil

Method:

 - julienne the onions and shallots

 - wash the mushrooms well and slice thin

 - with the smallest amount of oil possible, sweat off the onions and shallots (use a non-stick pan even)

 - add the mushrooms and sweat down

 - after the mushrooms have released their water and it has reduced out, add the wine

 - let the mixture simmer (not boil) and reduce until there is only a small amount of liquid left

 - add the mixture to your stock

 - simmer and reduce the stock to a jus - the thickness is up to you

 - strain well, really well

 - season

 - serve, or cool down and store in the fridge