Don't Throw Away That Turkey Carcass!

With Thanksgiving right around the corner, most of us will be roasting/frying/smoking turkeys. When you are done with your family meal, don't throw away the bones but make soup stock with it.  If you do not have the time right away, do what I do and put all of the bones in a Ziplock bag and throw it in the freezer.  You will thank yourself, I promise!

When you have a free couple of hours, throw in the bones in a stock pot and cover with water.  You can throw in some carrots, celery, garlic and parsley for more flavor, but I usually do without.  Some die hard chefs might frown, but I feel that when the time comes to use it, you will more likely than not use those same vegetables anyways, why waste it to throw away?

After you have simmered it for a couple of hours, let it cool to room temperature and then strain the bones and other gunk in there from the golden liquid. Put the liquid in the fridge overnight and skim off the fat that rises to the top if you are health conscious as I am.  What I do at this point is to ladle the now cooled and gelatinous liquid into Ziplock sandwich bags and lay them on its side on a cookie sheet in the freezer until frozen. This amount is approximately 1 cup, and you can then pull them out when preparing recipes that call for stock, or you can replace it for water to add additional flavor to a recipe that calls for water.  It is amazing how much flavor comes out of the bones! The best thing is that it was free!

I do the same with chicken bones, but you need the bones from 5-6 chickens to make it worth your while, so definitely keep that Ziplock bag in the freezer and keep adding to it until you have enough!