What is the difference between au jus and beef broth?

Hint: It’s sort of a trick question.

Definition of au jus: served in the natural juices that flow from the meat as it cooks.

Indeed, “au jus” is a French term for “with juice.” You’ll typically find au jus with a French dip or with a prime rib roast. A French dip of course is roast beef or a similar meat served in a sub-style sandwich with a dipping sauce.

Here’s the thing – “au jus” is an adjective, not a noun. Most folks (myself included) think of “au jus” as the aforementioned beef-flavored dipping sauce that is like a gravy, except much, much thinner. 

There are even recipes for an au jus sauce. I have one. But it’s not a sauce, or a juice.

Au jus is “with juice” not *the* juice. 

The idea behind au jus is to serve meat in its own liquids it produced while cooking. With a French dip, the meat is separated from the juices but then dipped back in.

To switch gears here – beef broth is a liquid from which beef has been simmered; often seasonings or other flavorings are added. (Difference between broth and stock is here.)

When cooking a large piece of meat that you would serve au jus, such as a roast, the liquid drippings tend to both stick to the pan and evaporate. Therefore, beef broth is often added to the liquid to stretch it out. Additionally, the pan is deglazed.

Simply put, there can’t really be a difference between au jus and beef broth when one means “with juices” and the other is a juice in and of itself.

For argument’s sake, the difference between what we believe to be an au jus sauce and beef broth is that the “au jus sauce” is the actual drippings from the meat being cooked; beef broth is sometimes added. The sauce is then served with said meat.

Beef broth is a liquid that has had beef and additional seasonings simmered in it. The broth is not usually served with that meat, but instead is used as the base for a soup or stew.

CulinaryLore.com provides us with a final interesting thought on au jus:

“Sometimes the word jus is also used to refer to an unthickened liquid flavored with the essence of a certain ingredient, such as a vegetable or a mushroom. For example, a mushroom jus can be made by simmering mushrooms in stock or broth until the liquid has a strong mushroom flavor and becomes concentrated. This can then be strained. . . and used as the basis of sauce, gravy, soup, etc.”