Put all extraneous stuff into the pot....bones, skin , stuffing gravy etc...
add watere to cover and an onion in 4ths, some celery tops and a couple of carrots and a couple of garlic cloves.
Simmer for about 4 or more hours. Straihn, remembering to catch the broth....toss all the bones and veggies...if there is some meat youw ant to pick out, then add that to the broth.
Then put the broth back into the opt and add a couple of sliced onion s, 3 or 4 stalks of celery and about 5 or 6 carrots, a bay leaf some parsley and simmer until the veggies are done, add any leftover meat too.
The stuffing and the gravy make a nice rich stock....and if you wish you can add some wild rice to the broth with the veggies, you can add some parsnips, cubed potatoes....most anything you can dream of....but don't add the candied sweet potatoes
Linda C

just curious ~~ why couldn't all the vegetables that are in the stock pot be pureed & salvaged in a blender instead of thrown away ~~ i've never done that; but i always wonder: why not? ~~ seems such a waste to throw all those good veggies in the garbage (?)

I had to laugh at Linda's directions.... "Strain, remembering to catch the broth" .. I can't tell you how angry I've gotten at myself for pouring the broth right down the drain! ARG!

Phyl....the veggies sure could be saved and put into the soup....but after you have cooked that already cooked carcass of the turkey, it will be little bits of riblets and vertibrae and gristle and skin, with those veggie bits mixed in....and in the interest of my sanity, I have learned to sacrifice an onion a few stalks of celery and some carrot. It's just easier.
Linda C

We like this recipe - after you've made your stock according to Linda's method - especially the remembering to catch the broth and not draining it down the sink part.

TURKEY CHOWDER

5 tablespoons butter
2 cups chopped onions
5 tablespoons all-purpose flour
5 cups turkey stock (or chicken broth)
1-28 ounce can whole tomatoes
2 cups diced raw potatoes
1 cup diced red bell pepper
2 bay leaves
3/4 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 cups diced, cooked turkey
1-10 ounce package frozen corn, thawed

In large pot, melt butter. Sauté onions until softened, all flour and cook for 2 minutes, stirring. Add turkey stock, stir until smooth and thick. Add remaining ingredients, except turkey and corn. Cover and simmer 15 minutes or until potatoes are tender. Add turkey and corn and bring to a boil and serve.
6 servings

I loved the part about catching the broth, I think everyone has dumped it down the drain at least once....
We like to have a spicier turkey soup to kind up break up that Thanksgiving taste. I try to pick off all the meat and save it in a bowl before boiling the carcass. Then bring the carcass to a boil and simmer for a few hours, strain, and throw out the bones. Then I put the broth in the refrigerator overnight. The next day I scrape off the turkey fat. Then I add celery (especially the leaves),onions, and green and jalapeno peppers and any other fresh vegetables I am using. Cook until done. Add a can (or two) of diced tomatoes and 1-2 cans of rinsed and drained black beans (pinto beans are also good). Then add any leftover vegetables like corn, green beans, carrots, broccoli,cauliflower and some frozen mixed vegetables (Don't use anything pureed or squash, sweet potato, or turnips) until you have enough to make a soup to the right thickness. When it is done, add black pepper and tabasco sauce to the degree of spiciness you like. Add the turkey meat and heat. You can add any leftover cooked noodles or spaghetti (cut up)if you want to, but I like it with the vegetables and black beans only. Sprinkle parmesan cheese on soup when serving.

When I carve the turkey I leave lots of meaty bits on it. Put all the bones (broken up some) into a stockput. Cover with water, add 2 med/large onion diced small, 2-3 bay leaves. Simmer 3 hours or so. Let cool so the bones can be handled. Remove the bones, pull off any meat still attached. Discard bones. I don't put it through a sieve, I just spend about 10-20 minutes picking out bones. Add celery and more onion if you want. Add carrots. Add rice.

I do not add anything to my turkey carcass but water. I remove all the meat that I can, then simmer the carcass, in water to cover, overnight in my electric roaster. In the morning, I drain off all the liquid, pick out any chunks of meat that has separated from the bones, cover with water again, then cook that all day. By the end of the day I've got a second batch of good broth that is maybe a little weaker and maybe a little cloudy because of the marrow in the bones. I remove the fat from the first broth that has been in the fridge, and combine all the broth. Refrigerate this and then remove the fat when it's cold and pack the broth in quart containers for the freezer. By the time they have cooked this long, the bones are soft and can be crushed. My dog loves to eat the crushed bones mixed with the skin and tiny bits of meat that were left. His vet says this is safe for him to eat as long as the bones are thoroughly crushed.

If you live where it's cold outside you can put your broth in a container with a lid and cool it outside rather than filling up your refrigerator. Saves KWH.

My next door neighbours gave me their Thanksgiving turkey carcass yesterday and I put it on to simmer last night, on very low heat. The only ingredients that go into my turkey/chicken stock are the carcass and chicken broth. Not water. This morning I have a huge pot of very rich broth. Thankfully Clif cooked the stuffing separate from the turkey. I don't like bits of dressing/stuffing clouding up my broth. Once the broth is strained it will be refrigerated and when cold I'll remove the fat. Now the broth is ready to make soup. Or frozen for future use.

For regular turkey or chicken soup, I add chopped onion, celery, a little carrot to the broth, sometimes a garlic clove, left whole to give just a subtle taste, fresh thyme and parsley. If I want more meat in the soup I'll toss in a boneless chicken breast. If I'm adding rice, I add it directly to the pot. If I"m using noodles I cook them separately and add to each bowl just before serving.

Since I made a large pot of chicken noodle soup with homemade noodles on Thursday, I'm going to freeze most of this turkey broth. Some of it will be destined for a pot of potato leek soup. The richer the broth the better the soup.

{{!gwi}}

"If you live where it's cold outside you can put your broth in a container with a lid and cool it outside rather than filling up your refrigerator."

Or if you live in Florida - do this ......

My carcass this year has been simmering in the pot all night long because I was to lazy to do anything with it yesterday. Turkey was grilled so I have a very rich smokey broth going this morning. Probably just pull out the unwanted stuff and make chili out of it. I simmer the neck and gibblets in a smaller pan because the neck bones are so small but have lots of meat and flavor. That broth gets added after eating the gizzards, treating Dolly Dog, and picking the little bones out. Really meaty this year because a the back and a thigh went in the pot.

Other different "soup" is to make curry by adding coconut milk, curry paste, and cumin... spoon over rice or lentils.

: )
lyra

I use Linda C's method, but am just wondering -- my turkey stock is always completely cloudy. Is that just the nature of the beast when using a cooked carcass?

Think I'm going to make some homemade egg noodles and do turkey noodle soup for dinner... Hopefully that will help cure this cold I've been stuck with for the past four days!

Em

Oh how I am envying all of you right now for having that carcass. My very, very loving husband decided to help me out with cleaning up while I was still sitting in the dining room talking away with family. I came into the kitchen and he had picked the carcass clean and threw it in the trash before I knew what was going on. I said, "honey, I have been talking for about two weeks now about how excited I was to be able to make turkey stock since I didn't get to do it last year." I said, "do you remember what I need to make that stock?" He looked at me with this sad face and said I am so sorry, I will buy you another turkey so you can do that! What a sweetie, but I declined.

Maybe I will get a couple while on sale and put in the freezer downstairs.

Shaun, Cool--literally--I never thought of that!

dixie dog, you can make a very good turkey stock with turkey parts you buy at the store...generally, the wings & tails are pretty inexpensive. This year, I bought a pack of wings and a pack of wing drumettes that were marked down and made a good stock before Thanksgiving so that I would be sure and be able to make a LOT of gravy. I love gravy, and made it up ahead of time with the stock, extra thick, and then beat the turkey drippings in just before dinner. You get a wonderfully rich gravy that way.

I pick the meat off the carcass and set it aside. Then I break the carcass up and cover it with water in a stock pot. I usually chop one onion up and put it in, but I'm a bit cheap about the celery & carrots. I peel a bunch of carrots and cut the tops off...then the peeled carrots go back into the fridge for other uses and the peelings and tops go into the stock pot. I cut the small, branching ends and leaves off a bunch of celery, and use that, along with the scrubbed-clean base and the bunch of tiny stalks in the heart that really can't be used for anything. Then the main stalks go back into the fridge, again for other uses.

A couple of bay leaves, a handful of herbs from my garden, a couple of garlic cloves and some peppercorns, and it simmers all night long.

Then I decide how much actual soup I want, and whether or not I feel like making turkey pot pies!

The day after Thanksgiving, I break up the meaty carcass, put it in a stockpot with all of the skin and drippings, add celery, carrots, fresh parsley, an onion studded with a whole clove, about 5 whole peppercorns and salt - cover with water, bring to a boil, turn to a low simmer and cook all day. It was cold enough here to put it out on the back porch to cool overnight (my stockpot has a locking lid - so no worry about critters).

I fished out all of the big pieces from the pot and put them on a broiler pan tray to pick over, then I strained the stock and picked through the solids. The stock was quite gelatinous. I had a lot of meat on the turkey carcass this year, so I'm going to make turkey and noodles with most of it I think.

Wish I could buy good homemade egg noodles in New England.

seagrass

I took the carcass of the fried turkey and simmered it with onion, celery & carrots, chicken stock poured over that and some water to bring the liquid up to and over the bones a little.

Now my broth is BROWN! Looks like beef broth, not turkey broth.

I guess this is from the fried turkey skin?

Doesnt look good.

Seagrass you can make your own homemade egg noodles.
Quick and easy. I made these the again the other day 1/2 hour before I needed them. Probably didn't take longer than 10 minutes from start to finish.

Home Cookin Chapter: Recipes From Thibeault's Table

Noodles - Homemade Noodles for Soup
===================================
This recipe is more than enough for a pot of soup but the recipe can be doubled.

1 cup of flour
1 egg
1 teaspoon salt
water
. In a processor, add the flour, egg and salt. Mix. Add enough water to
make a dough, not to soft. Knead for 30 to 45 seconds. Wrap in plastic
and let rest for 1/2 hour.

Roll out on to lightly floured board. Cut in to noodles. Let dry
slightly for 1 hour.

Add to soup.

Funny....I was not the "hostess" this Thanksgiving....so no Turkey carcass in my refrigerator...but Christmas is coming.
My daughter was the Thanksgiving hostess this year, and she crushed the ribs and popped that carcass in the freezer before wwe had hardly left the table...
BUT....there was a day when she would be helping to clean up and saying "MOM!! You're saving that? You'll never do anything with it...just buy a couple of cans of chicken broth!"
Well a few years back, I took her a couple of "teacher lunch" sized frozen containers of turkey soup....complete with wild rice!
Now she is very careful to make sure that carcass gets saved!
BTW...I found a ham bone from last spring in my freezer a couple of days ago.... I am rich!
Linda C

Rach, thank you so much for sharing that with me. I have it saved for some day down the road.

BUT, I'm sorry it's not the same without my 24+ carcass that I have been dreaming about for about the last two weeks. I love my husband for cleaning BUT he cleaned up a bit too much:) My freezer is empty without my turkey broth.

Linda, you taught your daughter well!

Just checking back in to say I did the turkey soup with the home made egg noodles and OMG it was fantastic. Perfect comfort food since I've been felled by a nasty virus since Wednesday. I really like how the bits of flour clinging to the egg noodles help thicken up the broth just a little bit to make it taste even heartier...

Emily

for years i worked as a banquet waitress, and many holidays i did private waitressing at homes on Thanksgiving. my last 4 years i worked for the same family and every year they made the same thing, a presentation turkey, a turkey they cut up for warming to serve at the table, the whole turkey for extras, and all the fixings. every year, everything was tossed into the trash. the first year i asked the domestic why she didn't take home at least the whole turkey for her family. she said she was told she would be charged with stealing. the last year i worked for that family, i had made a 20lb+ turkey and all the fixings, somne dishes were either prepped or cooked 2 days ahead, the turkey was cooked the day before. leftovers were to be frozen for soups, cassaroles, salads, enchiladas, sandwiches, pot pies or just for omelettes for the coming months. during that last party i found out that domestic, with 4 kids and no father in sight since the last born, had 3 kids sick and had exhasted all her holiday funds for the season. i talked her into coming to my apartment after the party ended and cut my turkey in half, and packed up some of my fixings for her to take home so she could have her Thanksgiving dinner with her kids the next day. i even gave her some Xmas gifts i got for my own kids so at least she had a start on the Santa season. that year my Saint Bernard went with less dog food and had to do with more prime rib left overs from banquets for a while, i don't think he minded much tho.
it's great to see that many don't toss the turkey and try to make the most of it.
for my turkey stock, i pull off what meat i possibly can and roast the bones, then slow cook them and pick the bones again then freeze. i never gave the bones to BoBo, was just too afraid of another Dr bill of my own.

I like to roast the bones first, before adding everything else. I do this with beef and chicken too. I think it makes a stock with a much richer color and flavor.