Clear Meat Jus without Flour

This is what chefs mean when they say a sauce should be thickened by nothing but itself. The body comes from gelatine and the shine from a little cold butter beaten in off the heat. It is naturally gluten free, it tastes cleaner than any thickened gravy, and once you have made it you will understand why restaurants bother.

Ingredients

Makes about 300ml of intense jus, about 50ml a plate

• 2.5kg (5lb 8oz) beef or veal bones knuckle and joint bones for maximum gelatine
• 500g (1lb 2oz) beef shin trim for flavour
• 2 tbsp beef dripping
• 2 onions halved
• 1 carrot
• 1 stick celery
• 4 litres (7 pints) cold water
• 3 sprigs thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 shallots finely sliced, for the finish
• 40g (1.5oz) very cold butter diced
• 1 tsp red wine vinegar
• flaky sea salt and black pepper

Kit

• Roasting tin
• Stockpot
• Fine sieve
• Muslin
• Wide sauté pan
• Balloon whisk

Method

1. Heat the oven to 220C fan (240C conventional, gas 9). Roast the bones and shin trim in the dripping for 50 minutes until dark brown, adding the onions, carrot and celery for the last 20. With no flour to hide behind, this browning has to be right, so take it further than you would for a normal gravy but stop well short of black.

2. Move everything to a stockpot, deglaze the tin with water, then cover with 4 litres of cold water and bring up slowly, skimming carefully. Every bit of scum you leave in will show in a clear jus.

3. Add the thyme and bay and simmer at a bare tremble for 6 hours without ever letting it boil. Knuckle and joint bones are essential here because they carry the collagen that will do all your thickening.

4. Strain through muslin without pressing, then chill overnight. Lift off the fat cap completely. The stock beneath must be set like jelly, because if it is liquid there is not enough gelatine in it and no amount of reduction will give you a proper jus.

5. Soften the sliced shallots in a wide sauté pan with a teaspoon of the reserved fat until translucent but not coloured, about 4 minutes.

6. Add about 2 litres of the jellied stock and reduce at a steady simmer, skimming the edge every ten minutes, down to around 350ml. Expect 90 minutes. As it concentrates it will start to look glossy and the bubbles will slow and thicken.

7. Strain out the shallots. Test the consistency by drawing a finger across the back of a coated spoon. The line should hold cleanly, which chefs call nappe. If it runs, keep reducing.

8. Off the heat, whisk in the cold butter a few cubes at a time so it emulsifies rather than melting into a slick. Add the vinegar, season with flaky salt and pepper, and serve at once. Do not boil it again after the butter goes in or the emulsion will break.

Tips worth knowing

• Cold butter, off the heat, added in stages. Warm butter or a boiling sauce will split every time and you cannot bring it back.
• The whole thing lives or dies on gelatine, so buy knuckle and joint bones rather than plain marrow bones, which give fat and flavour but far less body.
• Skim the edge of the pan during the reduction. Any fat left in the sauce will stop the butter emulsifying at the end.
• If you need a gluten free gravy in a hurry and cannot do the full reduction, thicken instead with 2 teaspoons of cornflour slaked in cold water. It is not the same but it is honest.

Keeping and reheating

The unbuttered reduced jus keeps a week in the fridge and six months frozen. Once the butter is in, use it straight away, because it will separate on reheating.

Questions people ask