Yes, I make turkey broth. Pre-Thanksgiving, I use the giblets and excess skin, fat, from the bird to make broth for the gravy (along with the pan drippings). After TG, I make a broth from the carcass and use that in leftover turkey & noodles (as well as any leftover gravy). If there is any left lingering in the freezer, I'll use it in something highly seasoned like chili or a southwestern inspired chicken soup. Even in chicken & noodles/ dumplings where it is only a small portion of the total broth used. i.e., a little turkey broth but mostly chicken broth. So it has it's limitations but you can find ways to use it.

I do find turkey broth stronger than chicken broth, but you can always add more vegetables to it when you are making it, and that will help balance the flavors. The problem is that the bones from an entire carcass take up a lot of space in the pot, leaving less room for the vegetables, and so I would freeze part of them and make more than one batch of broth per carcass.

I love turkey frame soup, as my grandmother called it. So I use it all and make a turkey noodle soup. It doesn't seem stronger to me, but it is a different flavor from that of chicken broth.

I usually add chicken broth to my gravy for turkey dinner. I was quite happy to find turkey broth in a tetrapack container for sale at Walmart last Christmas. It was great! Better than chicken for turkey gravy. I never have enough dripping to make enough gravy without adding broth.

It's not just you. I think it is stronger too.

It has a more distinct taste than chicken broth. I use it only in turkey dishes. Yes, I always make as much as I can, because I can always get turkey breasts or legs quarters to cook inbetween and I have more turkey leftover recipes than I have turkey leftovers. LOL!

I think that turkey has a stronger flavor than chicken, just like beef has a stronger flavor than pork, and venison has a stronger flavor than beef. Yes, they are different, but the intensities of flavors are also different. Salmon has a stronger flavor than swordfish. I agree that adding more water is not the best idea, which is why I suggested adding more vegetables. Free-range chicken will have a more intense flavor than caged chicken also, but that would not mean that you should water down broth made with it.

Yes, I agree with Lars, more water won't make it taste different, it will just make it watery.

I stopped making turkey broth. Just don't care for the taste.

I stopped making turkey broth as I always found it to taste gamy. Fortunately I give my carcass to my son in law's mother, who loves to pick through the carcass.

Funny story, many, many moons against I had a foxhound mix who hated chicken and would only eat turkey. When we mixed the two together in his bowl he would meticulously pick through the food to eat the turkey and leave the chicken.

I agree.

Not too many people like turkey, too gamy. That's why stores only sell turkeys around Thanksgiving. Actually they basically give away turkeys.

dcarch

They sell turkey here all year. Whole turkeys and different turkey parts as well as ground turkey. It cost more than at Thanksgiving for the whole bird. The price for turkey parts stays about the same all year. I usually pick up several whole birds then for the freezer. I do the smaller ones on the smoker. I have had deep fried turkey, but I don't cook it that way. It was good, but I don't want to mess with the oil afterwards!

I suppose I'm in agreement for the most part. But do look forward to a very traditional 'turkey frame' stock and soup. I don't find it interchangeable as a stock base but once/twice a year it has very distinct uses on its own.

No added water needed. I make it rich with just enough water to barely cover and add lots of veg....carrot, celery, onion, the basic stock addings.

Thanksgiving on a Thursday, ...Friday good hearty breakfast, turkey sliders for lunch/brunch using using leftover biscuits and dressing/gravy/cranberry. Dinner light snacking. Saturday is an escarole/leek/garlic/white bean/turkey/veg/sprouted grain(rice)/a tiny pasta variety/soup. (Italian wedding soup?). Done. Turkey over. That Sunday dinner after the holiday is always traditionally a seafood feast as is the few days before the thanksgiving feast. Even the weekend before. A good steak welcome anytime.

We ignore the 'one hundred and one ways to use up leftover Thanksgiving' in all the magazines and on-line food feed fluff.

If just the two of us with a gorgeous D'Artagnan turkey we splurge on these days I can't not make a good stock and have frozen some picked cooled meat and covered with chilled stock in pint containers for the freezer. Really good for a Mexican tortilla soup with lots of lime and avocado and baked tortilla strips. Cilantro stems and leaves....NYTimes recipe.

Our local Italian Mom and Pop grocery has turkey legs year round. We love them grilled/smoked when I think of it. A frozen smoked turkey leg makes a great winter soup. This time of year it is rare as I think the locals start hoarding and fill their freezers. Seems common to roast a dozen legs the day before thanksgiving, then re-heat heavily buttered in a roasting pan the last hour under the turkey. A co-worker says it is an ItalianAmericanNY tradition.

So yes, Linda said it best. Turkey stock will be a bit different than chicken stock. Use it knowing that fact.

We have turkey all year round too, though some stores only have frozen, and some you might have to order a good sized whole one.

I used to feel obliged to make turkey stock, and it was a PITA after a big event. Then I discovered that my people don't like turkey soup. The turkeys I buy don't taste "gamey", but they do taste like turkey, and the stock tastes like turkey, and no amount of vegetables makes it taste like anything but turkey. :)

Restaurants serve beef, chicken, duck, pork, lamb, and fish; I have never seen turkey on the menus, except diners where turkey sandwiches can be ordered.

Come to think of it, I have to use up a year-old turkey bacon in my freezer. Turkey bacon have no turkey taste, not much bacon flavor either. :-)

dcarch

Really? Your part of the country is so different! There are lots of restaurants in the West where roast turkey is a menu staple. In fine dining it's less common because poultry is less common, and usually consists of plain chicken for dieters and some kind of duck dish. They tend to focus on fish/seafood and other proteins that are considered harder to get or more luxurious, but there are turkey sausage, turkey burgers, turkey meatballs, etc. Occasionally, one will see something made from a turkey cutlet, but that's kind of out of fashion. Turkey bacon is foul, not fowl.

The entire Thanksgiving meal is a once a year thing for me. I love it once, but no more. In Texas you can get turkey and dressing year 'round but I would never order it.

I too store my turkey broth as ice cubs, takes up less space in the freezer in a zip bag, and less chance of an explosion. Chicken is milder than turkey. IMHO

Turkey is not "strong chicken"...different thing....nor is duck strong chicken...nor fish with legs.

I will admit that one doesn't often see turkey on the menu in a fine dining restaurant, but a hot turkey sandwich is pretty much a diner staple.
If I am feeding a lot of people informally in the winter, turkey is a good choice. This time of year it's almost always frozen...but simply oven roasted or cooked on the outdoor grill it's an easy and inexpensive meal. No need to do stuffing and gravy but just turkey....and it goes well with potato salad and slaw!

hot turkey sandwich ... hot pork sandwich ... hot beef sandwich ... prefer all three to a hot chicken sandwich ... unless we delve into a pot pie ... or shepherd's stew/pie

We buy turkey often. I think it has more flavor than chicken, so buy it whenever I can find it. Usually thighs or legs. But I am not a great fan of chicken - especially not white meat. I think it is so bland it takes work to make it taste like anything.

I took a trip to Morocco 4 years ago. On the menu everywhere was what amount to a national dish, tagine. On most menus it was listed as chicken tagine (occasionally, lamb was offered). I ordered and ate it many times. Something about it tasted not quite right. I thought it was the lemon and other spices.

Then close to the end of the trip a chicken tagine cooking class at our hotel was part of the itinerary. Tour members showed up to the restaurant kitchen. All ingredients were already cut up for us and on big platters running down the center of the work surface. I took one look at the "chicken" and realized it was turkey. I asked the other women and they agreed it was turkey. The chef came in and I asked, "So the recipe has been changed to Turkey Tagine?" He said, "No, it's still going to be chicken." I explained that the meat I saw was turkey. The other people on my tour also spoke up and said it was turkey. He insisted it was chicken. Oh, well, I thought, maybe their chicken meat LOOKS like turkey meat. Since it was already cut up in cubes, could I really be sure? Maybe it's free range or they are fed something different. So we all made our tagines and sat down to a group meal. Unanimous among our group: it was turkey. We talked it over and realized why what we had been eating so far didn't taste like chicken: we'd been eating turkey all along. It was semantics, I guessed. Some people never ordered it again, saying they didn't like turkey.

I have made tagine several times since at home, and intentionally have always used turkey.

Do they eat turkey in Turkey?

Yes they do. Except they call a turkey a hindi.

dcarch

Sleevendog you made my mouth water! Do you have recipes you can share for all the yummies you described? Assume you're an unsually good cook to be able to combine easily with great results.

dandy ... you ever get your crock pot replaced?

Personally, I've never tried turkey broth. But it sounds interesting. Hopefully, it has less cholesterol than a chicken one.

If properly skimmed of the fat once it is cool, neither chicken nor turkey broth should contain any cholesterol.

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