…and I’m considering using it to make stock.
However, I have never done so before.
And I have no idea what to do with the stock once it’s made.
Help? Easy recipes, please??
This was in my America’s Test Kitchen newsletter today
Creamy Turkey and Wild Rice Soup
10/2007
Leftover turkey wings, thighs, or drumsticks can be used in place of the carcass.
Serves 6 to 8
Turkey Broth
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 onions , chopped
1 celery rib , chopped
1 smoked turkey or chicken , chopped into 4 pieces (see note)
3 cups white wine
6 cups low-sodium chicken broth
Soup
1 cup wild rice
2 carrots , peeled and chopped
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup heavy cream
3 cups chopped cooked turkey
Salt and pepper
-
For the turkey broth: Melt butter in large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Cook onions, celery, and turkey carcass until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Add wine and chicken broth and simmer over medium-low heat for 1 hour. Strain broth, discarding solids.
-
For the soup: Wipe out Dutch oven and toast rice over medium heat until rice begins to pop, 5 to 7 minutes. Stir in turkey broth, carrots, thyme, and baking soda and bring to boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, until rice is tender, about 1 hour.
-
Whisk flour and cream in bowl until smooth. Slowly whisk flour mixture into soup. Add turkey and simmer until soup is slightly thickened, about 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Serve.
Any kind of good stock works wonders in simple risotto. I made some mushroom risotto with home-made chicken stock today and it was delicious.
Mushroom risotto (about 2 people’s worth):
1.5 cups of dry risotto rice
one small onion, chopped finely
one large clove of garlic, chopped finely
at least 3 cups of good stock (chicken works well) - MUST BE HOT - keep it on the stove in a separate pan.
some hot water and/or wine if you run out of stock.
a bunch of nice mushrooms. I like oyster mushrooms and shiitakes. cut into chunks.
fry the mushrooms in some olive oil on medium to high heat until tender but not soggy (about 10 minutes depending on taste). turn off the heat.
In the mean time:
Heat a bit of olive oil in a pan, add the onion and garlic, sweat on a low heat until the onion is soft.
add the rice. stir well to mix the oil and the rice. about one minute.
set the heat low to fairly low.
add a ladle of stock to the rice. stir it in. keep stirring at least once a minute (to prevent burning) until the stock is almost absorbed, then add a new ladle of stock. repeat until the rice is tender but not yet completely mushy (about 25 to 40 minutes - you’ll have to taste it).
if you run out of stock, or it starts to taste too strong, you can switch to boiling water.
add some dry white wine instead of the last ladle of moisture.
add the mushrooms to the rice and stir until they’re hot.
Serve with some grated Parmezan and/or chopped parsley and drink the rest of the wine.
tip: don’t be tempted to dump in all or a lot of stock at once. for whatever reason the rice turns out much creamier and richer if you do it ladle-by-ladle.
Make the stock, you won’t regret it. Freeze it in one cup portions. Use it like chicken stock.
I just made a pot of vegetable soup (from a packet of mixed beans and veggies by Manischewitz) with chicken stock instead of the water. Any time you make beans, cook them in chicken stock, and they’ll be better.
When you’re feeling under the weather, thaw some stock, add in a small amount of noodles or macaroni, and simmer until the pasta is done. This will be comforting.
Or just make some turkey soup, if you have leftovers…use onions, carrots, celery, and potatoes, at least, and possibly add some noodles at the last quarter hour of cooking.
Making stock is pretty easy.
Put the carcass in a big pot with some coarsely chopped carrots and celery. Add some herbs wrapped in cheesecloth, if you want. Add water until it covers the carcass. Bring to a boil. Skim the scum and let it simmer for a few hours. Strain, and store in the fridge. The next day, scoop out the fat-- it’ll be easy to see it on the top. If your stock is good and thick, it’ll be kind of gelatinous.
I know not everybody agrees with this, but I recommend removing as much fat and meat as you can. Neither adds much flavor to the stock and the fat will just add grease that you will likely have to remove later.
When you make soup out of the stock, don’t cook the rice or pasta in the soup pot. If you want the flavor in your starch, ladle out some stock into a separate cooking pot and then cook your rice or pasta in that. Rice and pasta that is left in liquid eventually turns into a mushy mass from absorbing all that liquid. Also, add any fresh herbs at the very end. Fresh herbs lose their potency when cooked.
Okay haters, let me have it. 
I always remove as much meat from the carcass as I’m able to. There’s still plenty of bits and pieces left on the bones to flavor the stock. I’ve found that if I leave meat on the carcass, that meat is worthless for eating later on…so I pick the carcass very clean indeed.
The fat comes off with the meat, and I have a nice gravy separator which will take care of any fat left in the stock pot.
Thank you all!
With your help (and that of a wonderful friend who was able to offer me on-the-fly tips) I now have a buttload of turkey stock! Well, I will in the morning, after it chills overnight and I take the fat off.
Now…finding ways to use it…
Can’t really imagine who’d argue with that, particularly the fat removal part.
The rice and pasta bit is just all around good cooking advice.
Hm.
After chilling the stock all night in the fridge, it is the consistency of…chicken soup. Shouldn’t it be thicker?
I think I added too much water when it had boiled off too far.
I’ll put it on the stove again to reduce it, is that the right thing to do?
It won’t hurt it, just concentrate it.
I don’t do that. The leftover turkey is fine, it just has no fat. I also like a little fat in my stock. I work very hard to prevent it from separating. If it separates, I stir it back in.
Since I didn’t have a proper thermometer and tried a new method of cooking (spatchcocked), my turkey was underdone. Alot of it was not worth the risk of eating, so a whole lot of turkey went into my stock today. I’ll use the boiled meat o. Sandwiches and things. It’s not quite as tasty as unboiled turkey, but it works if you add enough mayonnaise.
I dump the whole thing in there. Meat, fat, organs - the more nutrients the better. I add onions, carrots, celery, bay, oregano, lots of salt, and black pepper and I prefer to boil off a lot of the water so it’s nice and concentrated. I don’t skim the fat (which, after you boil it enough, mostly incorporates) or strain the meat bits, although of course I’m sure to pick out bones. I bag and freeze it in gallon Ziplocks.
As for what to use it for - I use it as the base for every soup and stew I make, whether it calls for a stock base or not. Do you have a crock pot? They are the best. I just made a Manhattan clam chowder with chicken stock from last month (my turkey carcass is waiting in the freezer) and several people said it was the best they had ever had beams with pride. It’s also great for cooking a variety of rice dishes, or couscous.
I used last years stock for this years stuffing. It was very good.
I have the perpetual turkey going too. I had a huge carcass this year and got about 2 gallons of stock. (Yep, I have a pot that big!) I make stock all the time from chicken bones and it’s not any different for turkey.
I toss the carcass in the pot with as much meat removed as possible, but I put the skin and every piece of gristle in there too. Next, I grab a couple of stalks of celery and break them into pieces and toss in the pot. I grab my always handy bag of baby carrots and toss a couple handfuls in (only one handful for chicken). Then I throw in a tablespoon or so of peppercorns, a sprig or two of fresh rosemary, some fresh sage leaves for turkey stock, an onion just roughly quartered, then cover with water. Add a generous amount of salt. I start with a tablespoon or so and add more, a teaspoon at a time, after it’s cooked a while.
I simmer my stock for several hours, then strain out all of the solids and store in the refrigerator after it’s cooled off. I froze 14 cups for use next Thanksgiving and I still had a ton to use this week. I made turkey pot pie yesterday. I’m getting my wisdom teeth out tomorrow, so I’m keeping the rest on hand for sustenance this week while I heal. I love plain homemade stock though, and frequently steal a mug full for sipping while the latest batch is cooling.
When you get ready to make soup, just bring your stock to a slow simmer, toss in some veg - I like chopped celery and carrots. After they are softened, add the meat, a cup or so of frozen corn, and a bag of egg noodles. When the noodles are done, toss in a quarter to a half cup of frozen peas. Ladle into the serving vessel of your choice and enjoy.
I’d just like to add that I made stock for the first time this past weekend, and figured out the basics without even needing to look it up. It’s simple enough that it’s hard to screw up. Basically, I noticed a couple of weeks ago that I was eating a fair number of things with bones, so I saved them up for a bit (ended up with the bones from a half-rack of pork ribs, two pounds of chicken thighs, and a turkey drumstick). I tossed them all in a big pot, and boiled it all for about nine hours (replenishing the water every so often, until the last couple of hours when I just let it all reduce). I really should have had an onion or two in there, too, but I didn’t have any lying around, and I figure I’ll be adding onions directly to whatever I use the stock in, anyway. And I also had a half-dozen bay leaves in there, since those you can’t necessarily add directly. I didn’t make any effort to separate out the fat, but that’s OK, since I like fat.
EDIT: I ended up with about a pint and a half of thick, milky-brown stock at the end, which I figure will probably be enough to add some nice flavor to about three big dishes (each enough for a big Saturday supper and a week of lunches).
Oooh, can I? Can I?
Any fat in the mixture will form a layer (or if there’s enough, a disk) of fat during the chilling phase. You want as much of that as possible, because poultry fat is the greatest frying medium on Earth for things like potatoes and vegetables – and I include bacon grease in that assessment.
Leave all that fat on the carcass, let it render out during the stock making… After it chills, take off the lovely disk of goodness, freeze it, and use it instead of shortening or lard whenever a solid or semi-solid fat is called for. You can thank me later.