That sounds really good after all the heavy food consumed during yesterday's holiday. Nice way to use up the turkey carcass and way better tasting and much healthier than the canned soups found at the grocery store.

Started mine yesterday and finished it this morning before work. My oldest son's favorite part of Thanksgiving. I add petite diced tomatoes, mixed vegetables, potatoes, lots of butterbeans and all the turkey meat minus the breasts. It is more of a turkey vegatable soup and so delicious.

I usually always make soup with the turkey carcass but the half turkey deal I got at Costco had only one leg bone but I will use it and left over meat and gravy to make a soup with vegetables .

I don't usually have the bones, the girls have it. I would just make broth when I had one and then freeze and make up more noodles for another time. Your soup does sound good.

Sue

I just deboned the turkey and threw it on the stove for some broth. We like turkey noodle soup. I found a recipe for Zesty chicken and rice soup with lime and cilantro some time back. I think I like it even more. It has cumin, coriander, and cayenne pepper in it so it has a bit more flavor. I make my rice using chicken bullion cubes instead of salt. It's quite tasty and my crew loves it.

I saved the bones and some meat for soup next week when I'm off. Worked today and have 3 more 12 hours to do so won't have time till Tuesday. I use carrots, onion, celery and wide egg noodles.

I've had the carcass simmering all day with a couple is onions, bay leaf, peppercorns and a bit of salt, adding more water as necessary. At about 7:00 tonight, I'll pull it off the burner and set it on the washing machine in the garage to cool a bit, then before I go to bed I'll strain everything out and toss it in the trash and put the broth in the fridge. After simmering so long, I've got all the flavor out of the bones and stuff, but any bits of meat will be like straw, not worth eating. Tomorrow I'll scrape the fat of the broth, then bring to a simmer and add meat, veggies and noodles and that will be probably be lunch and dinner. My husband says I'm the only woman he knows who takes two days to make a pot of soup.

I agree with OP straight forward recipe. I just can't bring myself to toss bones without making something ith them. I pretty much do the same thing but not adding the gravy. If gravy is great *and plentiful), it goes into freezer. Honestly, I could have gravy over toast and say that was my lunch. Never did get around to trying to make "cornbread" waffles... maybe tomorrow?!?

We'll be having turkey wild rice soup this weekend. Can't wait.

I put the broth in the refrigerator or freezer and skim the hardened fat off also. This particular turkey had a lot of fat. The original juices from just cooking the 18 pound turkey had at least three cups of fat. I'm still cooling the other. I can see a layer of fat there too.

I'm another one that takes two days to make turkey or chicken soup. Its just so much easier to skim the fat after it raises to the top and hardens.

Yup, putting the broth in the refrigerator tonight to skim it in the morning. So good.

The Boston Globe had a story about Michael Dukakis, who gathers turkey carcasses from everyone he knows after Thanksgiving and freezes them to make soup all year long.

It was cute!

Sounds like he has a few screws loose.

Can't comment on Dukakis' mental health, but I wouldn't turn down a turkey carcass from someone I know. I'd compact the bones with a hefty cutting board, then put them all in a large stock pot, or in my canner. I now have two gallon containers of stock with the left-over diced meat, in the freezer.

After I cook the bones and the rest of the leavings, I remove all the skin, neck bones, cartilage, and the 'mush' left in the pot, sifted for small bones, for the dog. She also gets the neck and giblets on T-Day, after they've been simmered for stock for the dressing, because no one in my family would touch a heart, gizzard, or liver. They don't even want them diced in the gravy. BTW, I don't use onion when I simmer the carcass, because of the dog. I use a quartered onion in the turkey roasting bag, but I make sure that the pieces don't go in the dog's treat.

My friend used to make hams for holidays, and once I learned she threw out the bone, I asked for it to make split pea soup. I was happy to take her hand me downs. Alas she moved away, but we are planning a ham for Christmas.

The skin, fat and cartilage (after used for broth) can be diced and either added to winter suet-peanut butter mix for birds (put securely in a wire mesh cage or suet holder), or just chopped into pieces and put out onto a bird table (keep the extra in your freezer. I also do this with salmon skin or any of the fat I trim from cuts of meat or fowl or fish. A few days ago I was surprised to see a titmouse fly off with a good sized piece.

Wednesdays NYT had an article and recipe for CChicken Soup. The author pointed out that, yes, use the skin and fat for broth. It adds flavor and collagen & other. And, as folks here do, after the fat has hardened at the top of the broth, it can be removed -- but reserve some for tweaking the soup's flavor or for other culinary uses.

Often we make what I call thin beef soup - I pretty much remove all the fat after it cools. The soup is very clean and thin-broth, but very flavorful.

Thanks for the tip, Petalique. I'd like to try feeding that to the birds, but I'll have wait till the bears go into hibernation.

I freeze whatever meat is left on the bones, along with pieces of skin, and bring it with my other scraps and cooked egg yolks to the dogs at our animal shelter.

Alisande, that's a good idea. Dog shelter.

We only put a bit out and close to house and during the day until into January or when we are confident that the black bear have gone into hybernation. I am not eager to meet up with Smokey or have any feeders and siding torn off. Last spring I lost a very nice feeder because we left it out at night in late March. The bear must have just walked off into the woods with it. Darn! It was a pretty feeder!