Talkin' Turkey

So hopefully you have your turkey in the refrigerator safely thawing by now - that is if you are cooking this Thanksgiving. 
 
On Thursday, when everyone is in food coma after enjoying the delicious meal that you prepared and you are looking at the massive clean up, let me encourage you to save that turkey carcass and turn it into nourishing bone broth.  I know, I know - the last thing you want to do is spend anymore time in the kitchen.  Fear not, you can place it in a large Ziplock bag and throw it into the freezer for now if need be.  

However, if you do have the gumption to make some awesome stock, it's a pretty easy process.  And, you can use your turkey roaster before you put it away until next year.   Here's how:

Starting with a clean roaster or crockpot, place the carcass in and add 1/4 cup cider vinegar (optional), 3 - 4 raw carrots (roughly chopped), 3 - 4 celery stalks (roughly chopped), a large onion, a few cloves of garlic, and some spices to taste such as rosemary, oregano, thyme, peppercorns, and salt.  In our house, we collect our veggie scraps and place them in a Ziplock bag in the freezer until we are ready to make broth. And here's a tip:  onion skins will give your broth that nice brown color.   Bone broth is pretty forgiving so you can play around with the ingredients a little.  But definitely keep the salt because unsalted bone broth can taste a little blah.

Now fill it up with water and set it on a low cook setting (that would be about 200° on a roaster), cover,  and let it go to work.  Bone broth can cook anywhere from 12 to 36 hours - it is your preference.  Note: the amount of water you put in will about equal the amount of broth you will get back.  

Strain your finished broth through a fine-mesh sieve or cheesecloth.  Allow to cool and store in the refrigerator for up to a week.  For longer storage, move to the freezer or pressure can. 

Use your broth to cook pasta or rice, make gravy, as a soup or stew base, add to mashed 'taters, or just to sip on.  Yum!

The best part of making bone broth is that you made it!  You are awesome like that! 

Happy Thanksgiving from our home to yours.