How do you use the giblets?

The giblet pack of the gizzard, liver, heart, and neck get cooked with celery and onion for stock to moisten the stuffing/for the gravy along with the drippings. The neck meat gets minced and added into the stuffing. The rest gets fed to the cats.

Some folks add the chopped organs to the gravy/stuffing (blargh) or just toss out the whole giblet package without using any of it.

What do you fellow Dopers do?

As I said in the how-to-cook-a-turkey thread, I chop up the neck meat and gizzards (taking care to remove the gristle) and put it into the stuffing. Sometimes I’ll put the heart in too. The liver (and sometimes heart) get chopped up and put into the gravy.

I use everything but the liver in the gravy. I usually throw the liver away but I guess I ought to be giving it to the cats - I used to resist giving them ideas, but they have ideas of their own anyway.

I put all of it into the stuffing. It’s all good.

Pan fried in olive oil for my snack while cooking! My wife and her sister hate the concept of gizzard or liver in the gravy, so I cook it and split it with my son.

The liver gets cooked and eaten to keep up my strength and spirits while cooking. The rest goes into the stuffing, if I’m doing stuffing. Otherwise, they get saved for stock, especially if it’s a turkey. I love the after-turkey stock. The leg and the wings go in, along with the carcass bones. Mmmmmm.

My husband likes it all, but I make him Share with the cats, because otherwise they will get designs on the actual bird if they are not full of giblets.

If he’s willing to open a can of cat food and give it to them instead, he can have all the giblets. Normally the cats get dry food, and only a very occasional bit of canned food.

Dog food. Duchess gets a treat for the holiday, too.

Chop them all up; put half in the dressing, and half in the stock to make the gravy, but I strain it out. Most of my guest dont like gravy with chunks in it.

I might think about pureeing the whole thing, but that might change the color. Hmmmm…

Cook with veggies to make stock for the gravy. Discard the gizzard, mince up the rest, including some neck meat to add to the gravy.

We use them for stock as well, along with the usual veggies, turkey carcass and neck. It was good enough for my grandma, so by gum, it’s good enough for me.

When I was younger, my sister and I would fight over who got to eat the livers in grandma’s turkey soup. :slight_smile:

I cook them, chop them up, and divide between the gravy and dressing.

The neck goes into the stock for gravy, and everything else goes to the cat. He is usually only really interested in the liver. But boy, does he love the liver. He chows the whole thing down, and then lies in a daze on the floor for several hours with a goofy smile on his face.

I can’t believe how many people throw away perfectly tasty internal organs!

I wish they’d put more filtration units and central pumps in the giblet bag! They could have ‘giblet-free’ turkey, and put the extras into ‘Now with extra organs!’ turkeys.

I cook the heart and gizzard (de-gristled) separately in the roasting pan as treats for myself (they give me the strength and stamina of a chicken!) Sometimes I’ll cook the liver in there too, for the dog. Chicken necks are for crabbing, which I don’t do anymore, so they go in the trash.

Shiftless the Chickenhearted!

I pan fry the liver and eat it – all by myself. The neck, heart, and gizzard are boiled up with some seasonings. I eat the heart – again, all by myself. The neck and gizzard are chopped up and used in the gravy, but I have a heard time restraining myself from eating the neck meat too.

My grandma’s favorite part of the turkey was the that little butt flap thingie.

  1. Boil it all up.

  2. Let cool.

  3. Feed to cats

:wink:

Heart gets chucked, neckbone goes to stock w/ carcass and the liver and gizzards get chopped into the dirty rice.