au jus

[Laurence Horn]

On Aug 18, 2012, at 7:30 PM, Arnold Zwicky wrote:

> On Aug 18, 2012, at 4:23 PM, Victor Steinbok wrote:
>> 
>> Arnold Zwicky posted an item on "French Dip", prompted by the Zippy
>> strip. Among other tidbits, the post mentions that a French dip sandwich
>> can be "served au jus".
> 
> http://arnoldzwicky.wordpress.com/2012/08/18/french-dip/
> 
>> OED dates the usage to 1865:
>> 
>>> Cookery (chiefly U.S.). A. adj.
>>> As postmodifier: designating a dish, usually meat, prepared or served
>>> in a gravy containing its own juices. Cf. jus n.
>>> 1865 Mrs. Goodfellow's Cookery as it should Be 150 (heading) Endive au
>>> jus.
>>> 
>>> B. adv.
>>> With gravy or jus; in its own juices.
>>> 1866 N.Y. Times 11 Jan. 2/4 The bill of fare for Tuesday was: Potage,
>>> julienne; fish, broiled,..quail, larded au jus.
>> 
>> The first variant is simply a part of the name of a dish, attached to
>> the ingredient "swimming" in the sauce. The second refers to the style
>> of cooking or serving.
>> 
>> There is also a third, somewhat hacked use:
>> 
>>> C. n.
>>> = jus n.
>>> 1930 Reno (Nevada) Evening Gaz. 23 Aug. 4/6 (advt.) Choice of
>>> Fricassee of Chicken With Italian Suchini, Roast Prime Beef With Au Jus.
>>> 1969 Amer. Speech 44 92 An informant in Kansas reports that a
>>> cafeteria server asks customers if they want the au jus‚ with their beef....
> 
> another variant, often mocked along with "with au jus": "with au jus sauce".  and then there's "ju sauce" etc.
> 


OK, I was going to say I remember being offered roast beef with au jus (or with au jus sauce) in dining halls, but I was also curious about another possible reanalysis, so I tried googling "roast beef" + "Jew sauce", or just "with Jew sauce", and there were indeed some hits, although mostly not serious ones. One sample:  "tomorrow will be roast beef in all jew sauce".  The Bosphorus Turkish Restaurant in Cardiff, Wales does offer an item "Served with jew sauce, mixed vegtables and cherry tomato", but I suspect from the broken menu English that the dish really does involve some sort of Jewish sauce and not a reanalyzed "au jus".
  
What was more interesting to me was a note from Google I've never encountered that accompanies my search, beginning:
==========

If you recently used Google to search for the word “Jew,” you may have seen results that were very disturbing. We assure you that the views expressed by the sites in your results are not in any way endorsed by Google. We’d like to explain why you’re seeing these results when you conduct this search.

A site’s ranking in Google’s search results relies heavily on computer algorithms using thousands of factors to calculate a page’s relevance to a given query. Sometimes subtleties of language cause anomalies to appear that cannot be predicted. A search for “Jew” brings up one such unexpected result.

If you use Google to search for “Judaism,” “Jewish” or “Jewish people,” the results are informative and relevant. So why is a search for “Jew” different? One reason is that the word “Jew” is often used in an anti-Semitic context. Jewish organizations are more likely to use the word “Jewish” when talking about members of their faith. The word has become somewhat charged linguistically, as noted on websites devoted to Jewish topics such as these: ...

==========
and ending, even more curiously, with:
==========

We apologize for the upsetting nature of the experience you had using Google and appreciate your taking the time to inform us about it.
Sincerely,
The Google Team 

==========

But of course I hadn't reported any upsetting nature of any such experience, much less informed Google of the upsetting experience I didn't have.  Curiouser and curiouser.


LH

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