Editor’s Note: this post was originally posted right after Thanksgiving
Yesterday, I was thrilled to serve my family simply the best turkey I’ve ever made. It was a brined turkey and it was tender, juicy, and had subtle spice tones and broth flavors. This was my first year to brine the turkey and I’m a convert. I’ll brine the turkey next year for sure.
Last night, Chris and I each spent time carving and scraping off every last bit of meat from the turkey carcass. We got as much as possible and even gave a few scraps to the dogs (much to their delight). Yet there still seemed to be good turkey meat left on the carcass and I was sorry that we had to throw it away.
Normally, we toss the carcass in the field behind our house for the racoons and who-knows-what other animals to feast on. This year we decided not to do this, because we’ve heard coyotes howling across the field and we did not want to attract them to our area.
This morning, I realized that there are delicious uses for the turkey carcass and all those tasty bits of meat that we could not cut off. A fellow personal finance blogger, Eyes on the Dollar, has a great recipe for making turkey soup from the carcass. How I wish I had read this a day or two ago! I’d be making turkey soup right now.
Here is the blog post Leftover Turkey Recipe just in case you can still make use of it.
Even if you don’t want to make turkey soup, you could make turkey stock. (Why, oh, why didn’t I read this blog post yesterday!!)
Here are a few more sources for recipes:
Next Day Turkey Soup – Food Network
The vegetables and seasonings may add as much as $1.00 to the cost of your stock. If you make a habit of collecting leftover veggies in a freezer bag in the freezer, you could use those for your stock, reducing the cost even more.
Keep in mind that you can use most any vegetable to make stock – be creative!
The 3-4 hours of heating on a gas stove will cost about $.35 *.
The cost of the vegetables, spices and energy for the heat would then make the turkey stock cost $1.35 or less for 6 -10 cups of stock.
Immediately make your turkey soup with the stock and then put the extra stock in containers in the freezer and use it for soups and other dishes. You could also make a large batch of turkey soup and put the extra soup in the freezer for ready-made dinners.
Mmmmm… I can hardly wait for my next turkey. I may even watch the grocery store ads and pick up a turkey on any after-Thanksgiving clearance sales.
Do you have any recipes or ideas for that turkey carcass? Share them with us in the comments below!
*estimated cost of energy from Duke Energy of Ohio Editor’