Making some turkey pies for the freezer today. I use all the gravy, turkey, and some frozen vegetables, a few partially cooked diced potatoes and cut up carrots. Fill crust lined pie pans and cover with a crust. I like using the throw away aluminium foil "au Gratin' pans. These are a nice 'hearty' size and bake up in about an hour. Before filling each, I spread some margerine on the inside bottom crust to keep it from getting soggy when baking. They get put into Food Saver bags. Nice easy no mess meal for later on.

Sorry for not being clear. The turkey was put in a big metal pan with only a very small amount of water and sprinkled with some seasonings and then covered with a lid. Then this pan along with many others was put in the pit. A pit is a giant hole in the ground lined with rocks and then heated with wood/coals. This is a great way to cook meat. Kind of a pain, but worth the moist smoked flavor. So you put all the pans in the pit and then put on a giant metal cover. Then you burry it with dirt to keep the heat in. They cook like this over night 8 to 10 hours or so. Then unburry them and wah-lah. So when I opened my pan it was full of turkey falling off the bones and lots of juicy stuff. I had to leave town for a family emergency and a friend took care of it for me. He pulled off all the meat which I froze to use in soups. Then he poured all the juice in a big container for me and put it in the fridge (Sadly he threw out the bones). So coming out of the pit it looked like good juice you might make a gravy with and there was a lot of it. After being in the fridge a couple of days it has a white layer on the top which I think is fat and then under that there is a clear yellowish gel (was runny when hot) that I thought was turkey juice that I might use like broth. At the bottom some turkey pieces have settled. So I was wondering if anyone might know exactly what it was. I am an amature cook, aspiring to be more. So I am very ignorant about it all. I was hoping this juicey stuff might be turkey gold that you would tell me I was so lucky to have saved. I might just be worthy of the garbage, but I figured someone might know. Thank you I hope I made more sense this time. Sandy

Thanksgiving is the only day we eat turkey. The rest of the time, give me a roast capon or a duck prepared almost any way at all. DH and I are just not turkey lovers. My niece makes a very fine brined and roasted turkey, but once a year is enough for us. We're sauce and gravy people. Stews, braises, casseroles - we love them. I do a fair amount of cooking and a lot of dining out, and we hold that a fine sauce is a work of art. Even though we eat a lot of steaks and roasts, a great sauce is always to be admired. There are too many bad ones around to not acknowledge when something is done correctly. One of our favorite restaurants does a great poached monkfish. This is the fish known as "the poor man's lobster" for both its taste and texture. It's a great little fish, with wonderful flavor. But nap it with Amoricaine sauce, and it rises to a whole 'nother level. This is a Bretonnese classic, and for good reason. Red wine and marrow Bordelaise on a rib-eye? Absolutely! Black truffle cream sauce on a filet? Yum! Mop that goodness up with a well made starch - roasted fingerling potatoes, barley risotto, fresh pasta, freshly baked bread rolls. Gravy and sauce was the way to extend meat to feed a lot of people. Most of the world still loves sauced dishes as treasured childhood memories. Like soup, they are warmth and comfort, soothing and homey. Chicken strips that are velveted and steamed with lop cheong sausage (classic Chinese technique) are stunningly tender, almost as soft as sous vide but we like the flavor and texture better. Perfect with a roasted garlic-oyster sauce gravy over lots of rice! Far better than stir-frying or roasting. As Charles Phan of The Slanted Door restaurant in SF points out in today's WSJournal, steaming is considered the ultimate test of a professional chef in Asia. Getting back to the NY Times' and Pepin's suggestions for steaming, one of the greatest dishes in Chinese cuisine is steamed sliced chicken breast with thin slices of Hunan ham. My mother introduced me to this dish (she took classes from one of the leading Chinese restaurateurs in San Francisco) and it still ranks with DH and me as one of the three finest poultry dishes we've had in our 45 yrs of dining. A glaze should always be light. Heavy-handedness is the mark of a bad cook. Peking Duck would not be the same without the glaze applied, for example.

Not a stupid question. I think most of us were thinking "no it's not safe" but too lazy after eating all the leftovers to find some scientific proof to provide. And of course I personally was bothered by your declaration that you should not be eating gravy. I felt you reached through my computer and judged me as a gravy eater who has no shame in partaking of the food of the Gods. But tis the season, so I will forgive you. :)