How To Get The Most From Your Your Turkey Bones

After the delicious meal has been prepared, the delicious food eaten and the leftovers put away don't throw out the Turkey  or Roasting Chicken carcass. Cover the picked over bird with alluminum foil or the lid to whatever you cooked it in.

Take a break and go have your coffee and dessert. Converse with your guests for a bit.. Save some for the Turkey stock though.I usually or have been buying two turkey's so that I can do this more that once througout the winter months. There is nothing like having a bowl of hot home-made Turkey soup on one of those wintry, cold, wet, bone chilling days.

When they have all left and or doing other things go back to the kitchen. Get a glass of wine and sipo on it. If your guests want to help get them a glass of wine too. Now you are ready to make stock from that Turkey Carcass. You will also be amazed at the different recipes you can make with the stock and how long you can stretch the Turkey into many meals than the one big one you just had.

Break that bird in half between the ribs and back.

Put them in your crock pot or stock pot with any of the juices that were in the bottom of your roaster and a cup or two of wine.

If you have a large metal colander or basket put the carcas in that first. This will make it easier to get all the bones out of the stock later.

Add enough water to cover the carcass. If doing it in a stock pot: Bring to a rolling boil and boil for about 15 minutes, then turn it down to medium-low and let it cook for about 2 hours.

If you are doing it in a Slow Cooker,: put it on low and let it cook the entire night.

If you have it in a colander or basket just take it out and sit it over another pot that is large enough to hold it in.

Let it cool for aout an hour because it will be quite hot to the touch.

Take the meat off the bones. It will be a delicate process as you don't want the smaller bones to get into your stock. Once you have the turkey meat off the bones you can throw it out because there isn't much left to it then. Pour the stock that drained off your turkey carcus back into the stock pot.

Now you have the stock.

To this you will ad Galric (powder, fresh or minced --your preferrence)

Onion (powder, fresh or dried --again your preferrence)

Celery (seeds or fresh --again your preferrence)

Salt and Pepper to taste.

Boil this for another 1/2 hour..

That's It!

Now you can ladle this into freezer container--NOT bags. Experience has taught me that those bags will get pinholes or something in them and when you go to defrost it you will have it all over the place. I have even put it in a bowl and to get the rest of it out of the bag, well it is more of a mess then just putting it in containers.

Below are some recipes for you to try with your stock. If you desire you can add more of the seasonings to the other recipes below to suit your preferrences.

Depending on how many people you are feeding would depend on how much stock to use. It is about 1 cup of stock per person if you need something more exact. Put in a pot and bring to a boil.

To this you would add

1 small potatoes that has been cubed.

1 small diced carrot

Boil for about 15 minutes then add about 1/2 cup of noodles, and this can be wide egg noodles to thin Chicken soup noodles, it is your preferrence.

Boil for 5 - 7 minutes

You can add crackers or bread to sop the juice us.

I cup of Stock per person.

1 can of mixed vegetables (juice and all)

1 can cream of mushroom or chicken soup (better if 2 or more cups of stock is used and no need to add any other liquids)

Bring to boil and boild for 3 - 5 minutes.

1 cup stock per person

1 small potatoes diced

1 small carrot diced

1/2 cup White Rice

Bring to boil and boil for as long as the directions on the Rice tells you.