Updated: Top Round Roast au Jus

THIS post is not about the roast, which turned out bad, rather it is about the wonderful au jus. But the pictures look nice.

Looks good, but was dry and stringy.

Post mortem: Dad attempted to make a top round roast the same way he makes a chuck pot roast, i.e. he browned it and pressure cooked it. The meat, while not tough, was stringy and dry. The cut has too little connective tissue and fat.

Concurrently he made au jus using Better Than Bouillon, water, seasoning, and unflavored packaged gelatin. Since he is fond of pork and beef gelatin for adding body to dishes that need it, and rendering it out of meat takes time and money, he wanted to experiment with unflavored gelatin. He wondered if it would perform as well.

The au jus is better than any he has ever had. Typically Italian beef juice is too salty and too thin. To compensate, some add a little fat to it, but Dad doesn't care for it. It just pools there on top in a greasy sheen. He likes the body that the fat delivers, just not the taste. So to get that mouth feel without the bad flavor (not to mention everything else) he tried substituting Knox unflavored gelatin instead.

It is wonderful.

Au jus that holds its shape when chilled.

And it is far easier to make. The picture above shows the au jus chilled. All of the seasoning has settled to the bottom (top in the orientation). From this, he can simply heat and serve it with the roast. Alternatively, he can whisk in flour for a more traditional gravy look and feel.

He used half the portion pictured as lunch. It was savory and satisfying, needing only fresh ground black pepper and a splash of Tabasco to liven it up (not that it needs livening up, Dad is just weird. He'd put Tabasco on ice cream to liven it up).

Not only does it taste fantastic, one cup has thirty calories, nine grams of protein, one carb, 680 mg sodium, and zero fat. Moreover, the gelatin cost $1.37 for four envelopes. Dad used one envelope and one tsp. of Better than Bouillon per cup of water.

Going forward he might halve the gelatin to water ratio and see if there is any loss in mouth feel. At 36 degrees, the gelatin was approaching Gummy Bear hardness.

For his next experiment, he is going to try making roast garlic ice cream for dessert. That is a month away yet so check back around Turkey Day to find out how it goes.

Update: "au" is french for "with,"  therefore "with au jus" is redundant. Sorry for the error. (Dad still refers to it as an ATM machine. Get it? Automated teller machine machine? He also has a penchant to say something is doubly redundant)