So I finished rendering the turkey carcass into stock yesterday. In my world, it’s the Best Leftover Of All from Thanksgiving.
I’ve found that 3 cups, approx, of stock goes nicely in a quart-sized Ziplock freezer bag. Technically you should get four cups in there, but honest to dog, sometimes the seams split when you do that. So I go for three. Safer.
And it came to me that there might exist people who do not make use of the Best Leftover. Possibly this is because they do not know what to do with it or how to use it once it’s stock. So, here are directions.
Making Stock From A Turkey Carcass. De-meat your turkey carcass. Take off the breast, the leg meat, the big pretty pieces that will become sandwiches or whatever. Reserve the bones, the skin, the icky bits. Take all the bones/skin/ickybits and put them in a large stock pan. If, for some reason, gravy is anathema to your people or you use the jarred stuff, and you STILL HAVE THE PAN DRIPPINGS, add them too. You will NOT regret it. Then, pour in enough water to cover the bones/skin/ickybits. Boil, for about two hours. Make sure you don’t run out of water, but seriously, about two hours. Your goal is to Boil The Yumminess out of the bones and crap.
Once the two hours are up, you’ll need a large bowl and a colander. Allow the stock to cool to where you are comfortable putting your hand flat on the stock pot. Then, put the colander in the bowl and strain the stock. Your stock doesn’t have to be perfectly clear to make perfectly good soup. (If you’re going all consoumme or whatever and you might be graded on the quality of your dice and the clarity of your stock, then you don’t need the beginner tutorial. Go do your Iron Chef shit elsewhere and leave me to this.) Your stock does need to be free from bones and skin bits and stuff, and that’s what the colander is for.
Ziplock bag the stock, three cups to the bag. Before I fill them, I label the baggies with ‘turkey’ and the year. (So that you know how old it is and don’t keep it for the next six years in your freezer or something.) You might need to know that it’s turkey stock instead of pork stock or mushroom stock or shrimp stock. Not now, when you are just learning, but later, when you are Master Chef or whatever and you have all sorts of stock like veal and beef and pork. It could happen. So label your shit. It’s a good habit to get into.
Because I don’t have a microwave (no room in my micro-kitchen), I freeze my Ziplocks flat so that they stack nicely in the freezer. Putting a piece of cardboard down on the freezer shelf makes a good flat surface for your floppy Ziplocks.
Okay, so you’ve rendered your turkey into luscious stock and it’s in freezer bags in 3-cup amounts. That was easy, but what now?
Now, you are ready to whip up soups on short notice. Let’s go! What soups can you make?
Potato Leek Soup This is a thick, creamy soup. It’s good. Leeks are kind of like onions and you will probably like them if you like onions. Potato leek soup is great with croutons, and you can Make Your Own Croutons At Home (scroll down to the end and I’ll tell you how) and they’re even better than bought ones. How to do potato leek soup? Buy a bunch (like three) leeks at the grocery. They’re in the produce section and they look like oversize, comically-large spring onions. You’ll also need six to eight fist-sized red-skinned potatoes, real butter (not margerine), and salt and pepper.
At home, set out your stock to thaw in a soup pan. Run the Ziplock under warm water to loosen it up from the stock inside so that you can get the baggie off easily. If you’re in a hurry, you can also turn the burner on low to help melt the stock. While you are waiting for the stock to thaw, clean the leeks and chop them as for soup. If you’re not sure how to do that, here’s a nice illustrated guide Once the leeks are cleaned, you sautee them until soft. In a large frying pan, put a knob of butter. Probably like 2 Tbsp. Or 3 Tbsp. Set heat to medium, put in your chopped leeks and stir ‘em around occasionally until they’re soft and slightly transluscent on the white parts.
When leeks are ready, set them aside. Scrub your potatoes clean and slice them thinly into the stock. You want the potato slices to pretty much use up all the stock you have. So, slice potatoes until the stock is all filled up with potato slices. (You can peel the potatoes if you want but I do not find it necessary and also the vitamins and stuff in potatoes are in the skin.) Cook at medium until the slices are tender and break apart easily with a fork. Using an immersion blender, handheld potato masher, or hand mixer, puree the soup to be more creamy and less chunky. Once that’s done to a texture you like, add the sauteed leeks and any melted butter, just everything in the frying pan. Stir it in. (You can puree the leeks too if you want but I like the texture of them un-pureed. Experiment and see which you prefer.) Add salt and pepper. You will be alarmed at how much salt a soup needs. Start with a teaspoon (yes, really) and then taste. Stir well after every addition. Pepper can be pre-ground, but for a brighter, fresher taste you can grind it on the spot. And that’s it, you’re done. Home-made soup. Go you!
Troubleshooting: You want thicker soup? Add more potatoes. Thinner soup? Add more stock or a smidge of water. Next time add fewer potatoes. Some folks add real cream to this soup but I do not do that because it makes it tricky to reheat. This potato-leek will reheat beautifully.
But you hate onions and potatoes. Or you’re doing some kind of no-potato diet or you just don’t like creamy soups. How about chicken noodle soup? (Turkey stock is pretty similar to chicken stock. You’ll be able to get by with it for ‘chicken’ noodle soup.)
Chicken Noodle Soup is a bit harder than Potato Leek, with more steps and ingredients, but it’s still worth doing. I make my own noodles but you DO NOT have to do that. You can buy dry noodles and use them. I won’t judge. (There was a time when I would have judged, but honestly, do what works for you.)
Thaw out two bags of stock, about 6 cups. While that’s going on, you will chop a fist-sized onion into small dice. Also do two stalks of celery, same dice. Sautee them until soft in a lump of butter. A little browning on the onion won’t hurt but basically you’re going for transluscent, soft onions. Put the sauteed stuff into the soup pot with the thawed stock. Turn burner onto medium heat. Add two bay leaves. Clean and chop two cooked chicken breasts or one leftover cooked turkey breast, fairly small dice. (If you plan ahead, you can just bake the chix breast extra one night when you do other ones for dinner.) Do not include any cartilage, no icky bits, no skin. Just clean, white meat. Nothing gross goes in the soup. Add the diced meat to the stock. Peel and slice two carrots into thin coins and add those as well. Cook. When carrots are about halfway soft, bring soup to rolling boil, add one bag (pound?) of purchased noodles (Kluski makes nice ones, or you can do bow ties if that’s your jam) or make your own egg noodles and add them.
Egg noodles from scratch are, omg, so much better than bought ones. Use 1 egg per 2/3 cup of flour, or 3 eggs / 2 cups of flour. Add salt, not much. A tablespoon of olive oil for the 3-eggs batch. Knead for ten minutes, let rest ten minutes, run through pasta machine to #4 notch (or roll out to 1/8″ thick with rolling pin), cut into noodles with pizza cutter.
Cook until noodles are almost soft. If you will be reheating this, don’t cook the noodles to all the way done b/c then they will mush when you reheat. Salt and pepper to taste. Start with 1 teaspoon salt, but you will probably need more. And again, fresh ground pepper makes a difference.
You can omit the chicken or turkey meat in this soup and it will be just fine. The meat is not necessary. You can add a small bag of frozen sweet corn to the soup for “chicken corn soup” if you want.
Butternut Squash Soup This is another thick-n-creamy soup. Like the potato-leek soup, it’s dead fucking easy and yet still impressive to people who don’t know how to cook. Get yo’self a butternut squash. Him look like dis:
Now, the rest of the internet, which is full of assholes, tells you that you should peel and dice and boil this fucker. They are wrong. They are so fucking wrong. DO NOT listen to that shit. DO NOT. Here is what you do with the butternut.
1. Cut the butternut in half longways, from the stem end (top) to the flower end (bottom).
2. Scoop the seeds and pulp out of the seed cavity using a spoon. If you want to do extra-special fancy, SAVE THESE AND DO NOT THROW THEM AWAY.
3. Put the squash halves cut-side-down on a foil-lined cookie sheet and bake them at 325F for like an hour or until super-tender and kind of browned on the skin at the tops. Poke with a knife to see if it’s soft. You’ll smell it cooking, too.
4. Remove squash from oven, set on counter to cool. (Take foil off cookie sheet, throw away. Cleanup over.) When cool, scoop out softened flesh with spoon, discard skin. Use softened flesh in soup.
Thaw a bag of stock. In small frying pan, melt a knob of butter, add a small onion in fine dice and two cloves of garlic pressed through a garlic press. Sautee until onions are soft. Add to stock. Also add the softened squash flesh to the stock. Using immersion blender, puree. Or using a blender, puree. You’re looking for a velvety, smooth liquid. Salt to taste, add a small amount (start with 1/4 teaspoon) of ground red pepper and a similarly small amount of ground cumin.
If soup is too thick, thin with water OR coconut milk OR real cream. If soup is too thin, add more squash or (if an emergency and you have no more squash) one peeled, boiled potato, mashed.
Extra special fancy garnish Clean seeds from pulp. Pat dry with paper towels. Toss with 1 tbsp olive oil and a liberal sprinkle of salt. Bake at 325 on a cookie sheet, stirring occasionally, until they start to pop and are crispy brown. It doesn’t take long. Sprinkle some seeds on top of soup when it is served.
Other soups you can make with turkey or chicken stock: Broccoli, Corn & Hominy, Lentil, Cauliflower, Carrot... the mind boggles. If you don’t like my suggestions, google that shit.
HOME MADE CROUTONS SO DELICIOUS AND SO BAD FOR YOU I told you I would cover this, so here it is. Get the best bread you can. For home-made croutons, I use my own home-made sourdough rye bread. Ordinary cheap ass white bread in the big pre-sliced loaf is probably not your best bet. Get something a little sturdier than that, possibly sold in a whole unsliced loaf from a bakery. Slice bread into sort of oversized croutons. You still want them to fit on a spoon unless you’re doing Crouton Dunkers (like toast soldiers) which is a level of decadence that you really deserve given that you’ve made from-scratch soup and all. In a heavy frying pan, melt about half a cup of lard. You want it pretty hot, to where a drop of water sizzles right away. I use medium heat. Cook bread cubes until brown on each side, flip as needed. When done, remove from fat and drain on paper towels. That’s it. Seriously. Croutons are fried bread. That’s how they’re made. You can also make your own croutons for salads, if you want.
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