We always go to my Dad’s for Thanksgiving, along with some ever-changing combination of my siblings and their families, and Dad cooks the turkey. The bad news about that is that we never have leftover turkey for sandwiches; the good news is we always bring home the carcass for soup.
This year we bought a turkey for Christmas dinner, so we have tons of turkey for sandwiches on homemade challah bread in addition to the wonderful smelling cauldron of soup simmering on the woodstove.
So to make carcass soup, you first pick as much of the meat off the bones as you can. Set that aside in a covered bowl in the fridge—the meat just isn’t very good anymore after it’s been simmered for hours and hours. Next, break up the bony carcass so that it will fit in a stockpot—my current batch is in a three gallon cheapo stainless steel pot. Cram it down in there and mostly cover it with water. Put it on the stove on high, and while you’re waiting for it to come to a boil, throw in some celery ribs and leaves—maybe two ribs? Or the leaves from a whole bunch. Add a large carrot, broken into a couple of pieces; a whole small onion, unpeeled—the skin gives your broth a nice color. Throw in a head of garlic, and don’t worry about peeling it, either. Add six or eight whole cloves, a generous sprinkle of salt, a handful of fresh thyme (or a teaspoon or two dried), a bay leaf, and a smallish glug of vinegar, which will help extract the minerals from the bones. Oh, and lots of black pepper, either whole peppercorns, or freshly and coarsely ground. So now bring to a boil, turn down really low, and simmer for a few hours. Mine often goes 24 hours: I’ll assemble it in the late afternoon, simmer all evening, turn it off for the night, and then simmer it until suppertime the next day.
When you’re ready to make soup with this wonderful smelling turkey stock, there are a couple of directions in which you can go. The first thing you do is strain the stock through a wire mesh strainer, giving the solids to your dogs and cats (except for the long bones: legs, thighs and wings—those go in the woodstove or garbage). Now , in a soup pot, saute in a bit of olive oil or butter, a chopped onion, a bit of chopped celery, and a couple of cloves of minced garlic. Oh, and a little more thyme or other herbs. Saute them gently, or even sweat them with a lid on the pot—we’re not aiming so much for brown here. Once that’s all soft, add a diced carrot, maybe a parsnip, a potato or sweet potato if that sounds good, or any other vegetable that rings a bell. Add the reserved turkey meat and the broth, and simmer until the vegetables are tender. Taste for seasoning—you’ll probably want salt and maybe some freshly ground black pepper.
Some variations and additions:
- Noodles, homemade or otherwise
- Dumplings
- Canned tomatoes (This is especially good with cumin and chipotle peppers)
- Quenelles