This adaptation of the Home Jus Gras recipe from Modernist Cuisine at Home substitutes store-bought chicken stock and rendered duck fat in place of the homemade chicken jus and pressure-rendered chicken fat called for in the original. To illustrate the point that this is a very stable, very flavorful emulsion, feel free to substitute other water-based liquids in place of the chicken stock. Apple cider and beer are both great choices. Unlike the original recipe, here we add gelatin to the water component of the emulsion to give it the same mouthfeel as if it were made from the highly gelatinous pan drippings of roasted chicken wings and feet.
Scott Heimendinger, Director of Applied Research
Charlotte • November 12, 2012 •
I have a question. I try to avoid soy as much as I can. Is there something else I can use in place of soy lecithin? Maybe whole egg yolks?
Thank you..this is fascinating. I’d love to try it!
MikeJ • November 15, 2012 •
Your best bet would be Sunflower lecithin. I’m allergic to soy, so I tried to avoid it as much as possible too!
Ali • November 12, 2012 •
Is it ok to use soy lecithin powder instead of liquid?
Ali • November 12, 2012 •
Just saw the note that it cannot be substituted – why is that? Just curious
Henry • November 13, 2012 •
Can this be refrigerated or frozen? How do you reconstitute it if you do?
Sam Fahey-Burke • November 13, 2012 •
Liquid Lecithin is used as an emulsifier, the powdered variety is better for making foams. If you substituted powdered lecithin in this recipe you’d end up with a frothy sauce, not a silky smooth emulsion.
Dave K. • November 14, 2012 •
doh! i just threw out some duck fat from a sous vide duck i did a couple days ago. oh well. next duck.
dave • November 16, 2012 •
can you sub sunflower lecithin for soy?
Drew • November 19, 2012 •
May I use the defatted drippings of the turkey as the jus and the fat from it as the fat? I feel like the answer must be no if it’s not the default technique, but curious as to why.
Sam Fahey-Burke • November 28, 2012 •
Yes. Thatll work, provided the turkey drippings are the same consistency as the chicken jus.
Drewstarr • November 19, 2012 •
I wasn’t clear in my above question. I’d like to use the xanthan and lecithin method along with my turkey’s juice & fat drippings (and maybe chicken stock as necessary). Can I? If so, how best to go about that? Thanks!
underpressure • November 20, 2012 •
I would guess they suggest duck fat because it is simply amazing tasting and great to cook with. I don’t see why another animal fat would not work just fine. The important pieces here are the xanthan gum and the lecithin.
What is unclear is whether another variety of lecithin could work. Lecithins are a class of compounds with different structures (and presumably slightly different chemistries). I have seen pea lecithin and egg lecithin on labels. As for allergies, this is not a protein but that is not to say it is pure and contains no soy or egg protein.
james_pagdon • November 21, 2012 •
if you are trying to stay true to the taste why is their chicken and duck in my turkey gravy?
Jake • January 19, 2013 •
I just used this to make a sausage gravy. It was pretty fantastic. If I did it again, I would wait until I have some bacon fat in the fridge to use. As it was, I used just over 20g of fat from the sausage, and then I filled in with about 60g of butter. It still had a lot of sausage flavor and was pretty great.
I used chicken stock. After it was done, I added the sausage back in. I can’t see ever making gravy any other way… so darn good.
Rbfields • January 19, 2013 •
Could you use agar agar instead of gelatin? If so how much would you use?