Turkey soup

Although we’re going to a different place this year, the long-running Bourbon Street Restaurant and Oyster Bar, owned and operated by a New Orleans native, is arguably the most popular Bangkok Thanksgiving venue. Doug always includes turkey gumbo on the menu, and it’s quite good.

One of our favorite recipes - but usually I make this Christmas Day with the leftover turkey and broth (frozen) from Thanksgiving Day.

Butterball’s Turkey Tortellini Soup.

You can easily double or triple this recipe to make a huge pot - fairly easy to make, smells great, tastes great, and yes - you can freeze the leftovers for those dreary January days.

I think I’m going to make some turkey a la king this year. Haven’t had it in ages. Served over some fresh biscuits. . .yum. Maybe a pot pie or two, also.

I need to find a couple of cans of chicken a la king. I have a bunch of MRE crackers, and it’s the only thing that makes them edible.

Consider adding the wings (as has been suggested) and the legs. IMO, the leg meat is stringy and has all those tendons to work around. The tendons work great in stock, though.

Agree with making the broth separately, with adding aromatics, and with refrigerating it to remove the fat. If it doesn’t gel when refrigerated, it’ll need to be reduced (boiled until . . . well, if it doesn’t gel, I’d reduce it by half).

When you go to make the soup, adding a bay leaf is nice.

As a warning - I’ve found that using a turkey that has been brined yields very salty stock. In years when my son really wanted a brined turkey, I’d cook a bare-naked turkey a day or two ahead, for the stock. If you save the fat, too, you can make turkey gravy without having to wait for the Thanksgiving turkey to be done. One less thing to juggle.

As a side comment, I have to say that cooking ramen noodles in well-reduced turkey stock, and then letting it boil down to a glaze, makes the ramen decadent. There’s kind of a trick to getting glazed noodles instead of overcooked noodles, but it’s worth it. Haven’t managed it with regular noodles, yet.

That would be a negative on the leg meat. There’s not enough dark meat on a turkey as it is!

But I can add the non-edible parts.

When I make turkey stock I use bay leaves, fresh thyme, garlic, fresh parsley, cilantro and peppercorns in addition to the usual carrots, onions and celery. I put in every part of the turkey that isn’t immediately edible: bones, skin, tail, cartilage, neck.

The longer you simmer the stock, the more gelatinous it will be. It’s a good idea to make the stock a day ahead of time and let it settle so you can skim off the fat. This is easier if the stock is really cold, as the fat will solidify.

For vegetables I often add carrots, rutabaga and Swiss chard. I generally don’t add starchy stuff like noodles or potatoes - it just seems like filler to me.

Tiny star-shaped pasta instead of noodles.

The turkey is in the oven. I use a cooking bag, so it should be done by 1400. (And yes, I do use stuffing – Alton Brown can have his substandard dressing!) I have a bag in the fridge with celery leaves and parts, some onion, some carrot sticks, and some garlic.

So the plan is to eat turkey, stuffing, dressing, mashed potatoes, giblet gravy, green bean casserole, and rolls. Rest a bit, take the meat off the turkey, and put the carcass in a stock pot to simmer with the veg, a couple of bay leaves, peppercorns, dried thyme and parsley (I don’t have fresh, and don’t feel like going to the store), sage (if I have any in the cupboard), skin, and pope’s nose. (I used the neck to make stock for the stuffing.)

Monday the high temperature is expected to be 39ºF, dropping to 25ºF on Friday. Sounds like a good week for soup.

Anyway, I have an hour or so before I have to think about boiling Uncle Hymie.

Well, I forgot the herbage, but the stock tastes good. And it all handily fit in a 64-oz. potato salad pail we’ve had lying about in case we wanted to put stuff in it.

I was going to dig this up and bump it, since I figure more than a few of us might be making soup today. Mine is on the stove top. It’s my first! I’ve got the carcass, along with some carrots, celery, thyme, rosemary, garlic, bay leaf… Also the neck and giblets, since I didn’t use them in the gravy or anything.

It already smells great.

The other day I skimmed off the fat, melted the stock (lots of collagen in that carcass!), and added a large carrot sliced into discs and a couple of stalks of chopped celery, and some leftover turkey. I threw in some parsley flakes, too. I cooked the egg noodles separately, and the results were tasty. I reheated the soup today, and the SO put most of the noodles in it. (They were just a little al dente.) It tasted better with freshly-ground pepper.

Considering I don’t make a lot of soup, I’m quite pleased.