I'm a baby when it comes to preparing big meals. Like Michael Chiarello on Easy Entertaining, I take the meal and divide the duties between days. Yesterday I shopped for any remaining ingredients that I hadn't purchased yet. I also put the turkey overnight in a brine in a heavily iced cooler. Today was the day to prep everything and make pumpkin pies. The prep included many vegetable and herb discards which I placed in a bag into the fridge for boiling with the turkey carcass. My stuffing is mixed,the turkey is baking, and the pies are in the fridge waiting for the big meal. When the turkey comes out of the oven I will let it cool and then refrigerate it. I like to roast it the day before so on Thanksgiving I can concentrate on the gravy and side dishes. I'm actually bummed because my largest refrigerator isn't keeping the right temperature. Usually it is a perfect 35 degrees Fahrenheit. Today it is 52! I have to use ice chests instead. The largest fridge is the garage; I set up a card table in the garage every year and place all my pies and extra food on it. Can't do it this year!
Don't forget to save all your vegetable garbage for the making of your turkey broth!
Showing posts with label turkey broth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label turkey broth. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Turkey Time!
As Thanksgiving Day is approaching in the United States of America, I am already thinking about turkey bones. Why turkey bones? The bones are some of the great benefits of cooking the whole bird. The turkey bones are left when the meat is all picked off. When boiled, they create some of the best turkey broth ever. Why create great broth? Turkey soup of course!
Planning is crucial during preparation of the great turkey feast to ensure great broth to follow. When preparing your turkey and stuffing, many vegetables and herbs are used. All these have compostable waste. I will give you many examples:
carrot tops and bottoms or skins
onion skins and tough first layers
garlic skins and small cloves unworthy of using
celery tops and bottoms and leaves
herb stems and leftovers
sweet colored (green, red, yellow, orange) pepper tops
other vegetable discards depending on what you serve for Thanksgiving Dinner
Key to great turkey broth: save all these discards in the fridge.
A day or two after Thanksgiving Dinner when the meat has all been picked from the bone, it's time to make the broth. I like to do it on a day when I'll be home; usually before the weekend is over.(If you don't have time, throw it all in a freezer bag to do when you are home.) Get a large stock pot and place all the bones and whatever meat is still left on them, and all the vegetable discards into it. Cover it with water to a couple inches below the top of the pot. Cover the pot and bring it to a boil, then reduce to simmer with the lid askew so that the liquid will boil down. I usually leave it like that for a few hours, or until the broth is a nice caramel color. When I take it off the stove to cool,I usually transfer the liquid into another pot by straining it with a fine mesh colander. When the boiled bones and vegetable discards have dripped most of the liquid into the cold pan, I discard all the solid contents. To do this, I place it in a bag, tie a knot at the end, and place it in the freezer. The knot at the end indicates to me that it needs to go into the garbage on garbage day. At this time of year in Spokane, my garage is usually the temperature of the refrigerator. I have a thermometer in the garage. If it is 35-37 degrees F. I place the covered broth into the garage on the cold cement floor overnight. That lets it cool down and allows the fat to rise to the surface. The next day I skim the hardened fat from the top of the pot and discard it. The lean broth is left for soup! Any broth that I am not going to use right away I put into quart freezer containers, label it, then place in my freezer. If there was any meat left over I usually freeze it in the broth quarts and label it "turkey broth with 1/2 Cup meat".
If you use this knowledge you can make tasty broth of any kind. The possibilities are endless; you can made Vegan broth, fish broth, chicken broth, seafood broth, pork broth, boiled dinner broth and more. Don't ever throw away the water you boil anything in...just add more vegetable discards and you've got a flavorful broth for you next soup or rice dish.
I hope you are prepared for Thanksgiving Dinner and think about creating Turkey Soup with what you might otherwise throw away. I will put some recipes on for soup using this broth later. Any questions or comments? Give me some great recipes!
Planning is crucial during preparation of the great turkey feast to ensure great broth to follow. When preparing your turkey and stuffing, many vegetables and herbs are used. All these have compostable waste. I will give you many examples:
carrot tops and bottoms or skins
onion skins and tough first layers
garlic skins and small cloves unworthy of using
celery tops and bottoms and leaves
herb stems and leftovers
sweet colored (green, red, yellow, orange) pepper tops
other vegetable discards depending on what you serve for Thanksgiving Dinner
Key to great turkey broth: save all these discards in the fridge.
A day or two after Thanksgiving Dinner when the meat has all been picked from the bone, it's time to make the broth. I like to do it on a day when I'll be home; usually before the weekend is over.(If you don't have time, throw it all in a freezer bag to do when you are home.) Get a large stock pot and place all the bones and whatever meat is still left on them, and all the vegetable discards into it. Cover it with water to a couple inches below the top of the pot. Cover the pot and bring it to a boil, then reduce to simmer with the lid askew so that the liquid will boil down. I usually leave it like that for a few hours, or until the broth is a nice caramel color. When I take it off the stove to cool,I usually transfer the liquid into another pot by straining it with a fine mesh colander. When the boiled bones and vegetable discards have dripped most of the liquid into the cold pan, I discard all the solid contents. To do this, I place it in a bag, tie a knot at the end, and place it in the freezer. The knot at the end indicates to me that it needs to go into the garbage on garbage day. At this time of year in Spokane, my garage is usually the temperature of the refrigerator. I have a thermometer in the garage. If it is 35-37 degrees F. I place the covered broth into the garage on the cold cement floor overnight. That lets it cool down and allows the fat to rise to the surface. The next day I skim the hardened fat from the top of the pot and discard it. The lean broth is left for soup! Any broth that I am not going to use right away I put into quart freezer containers, label it, then place in my freezer. If there was any meat left over I usually freeze it in the broth quarts and label it "turkey broth with 1/2 Cup meat".
If you use this knowledge you can make tasty broth of any kind. The possibilities are endless; you can made Vegan broth, fish broth, chicken broth, seafood broth, pork broth, boiled dinner broth and more. Don't ever throw away the water you boil anything in...just add more vegetable discards and you've got a flavorful broth for you next soup or rice dish.
I hope you are prepared for Thanksgiving Dinner and think about creating Turkey Soup with what you might otherwise throw away. I will put some recipes on for soup using this broth later. Any questions or comments? Give me some great recipes!
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