TheBanyanTree: Cooking the carcass

[Russ Doden]

Ahh, Thanksgiving.  The time of feasting on turkey - and a table full of
other goodies.  It is so easy to overdo everything.  As I have done for a
number of years now, I spent my Thanksgiving with my "adopted family".
They don't want me to be sitting home alone on Thanksgiving (or any other
"family" holiday for that matter).  It isn't that they don't want me
sitting here eating a bologna sandwich because they know I can cook.  Man,
can I cook.  I can cook only too well - and as a result have to be careful
to keep from really expanding my girth as my metabolism slows down as my
age goes up.  Well, that must be the reason because I'm eating less, but
not dropping any pounds.  I guess what they say about becoming really
friendly with my fat cells, making it really hard to part as we get older
is true.

Back to Thanksgiving.  My host family ALWAYS makes enough for 3 times more
people than are there.  I understand why.  Many years ago, especially for
my friend Susan, things were very tight growing up.  Food was often scarce
to even non existent.  Having an overflowing pantry and freezer is part of
her makeup.  So is really going over the top on big meal days.  I've
learned to take a bunch of freezer bags with me when I go over, in addition
to what ever small offerings I'm taking over to make the table groan.  This
year was no exception.  I figured I'd bring home enough for 2 or 3 days.
Hah, As if.  Every time I would think I was finished putting something in
the freezer bag, as I was reaching over to get another bag, Sus was
stuffing more in the bag just finished with more of whatever that bag
contained.  It was embarrassing - but her family doesn't like leftovers!
Maybe one meal of leftovers, but that is it!  How can a person not like
leftovers?  I grew up looking forward to leftover meals.

OK, so back to the subject.  I seem to have a bad case of distraction
today.  I have one big freezer bag I call my "carcass bag".  It is a two
gallon or more freezer bag.  I can fit most turkey carcasses in it, after
doing a bit of disassembly.  Every year, Sus and I seem to flip a coin to
who gets the carcass.  This year she said I get it by default because her
freezer is full.  I think she may just want me to be sure and have plenty
of soup stock.  People watch us fussing over the carcass and when we tell
them we "cook the carcass" the usual response is "ewwwww gross"!  Well, it
doesn't look pretty, but oh the goodie a person gets!  This year as we were
"bagging the bird" she kept tossing bits of odd pieces of turkey meat that
was still laying on the cutting board into the bag.  Like I hadn't taken
enough already!  Sheesh.

Friday I did the "first cooking" of the carcass, after picking out the big
chunks of meat and putting them in a second container for leftover turkey
sandwiches.  Some friends of mine stopped by to drop off a tool they had
borrowed and when they came in the house, the aroma of something yummy
cooking filled the house.  She took the lid off the pot to see what I was
cooking - and started to laugh.  He came over and looked visibly shaken.
She's the strong one of that family - I always have questions about him
anyhow.  A nice person, but  strange.  They are a nice young couple that
have begun to look to me as a mentor for how to do things around the house
(they never learned) as well as metaphysical stuff.  They had fun teasing
me about cooking a turkey skeleton.  They asked why I was doing that
because they knew I had a reason.  She had never cooked a turkey carcass or
even chicken carcass before!  After most of the meat was off, in the trash
it would go.

When I told them that I was making soup stock you could see the light start
to glimmer.  When I explained that the yummy soups I make are made from
home made stock that results from cooking the carcass, they started to
connect the dots.

Soooo, after the carcass cooled off Friday, into the fridge it went.  I
didn't think it would thicken up when I first put it in the fridge because
it was still so "liquid".  Well, when I pulled it out of the fridge this
morning to start getting the small bones removed from the "liquid", I found
I didn't have any liquid.  It was like jello.  YEA!  Good stock!  After
removing all the small bones and pulling any remaining meat out of the
nooks and crannies of some of the bones, I have a HUGE bowl of jelly like
soup stock.  Then I cracked the bones of the remaining large bones and
tossed them back in the pot with fresh water to cook a bit longer.  Getting
that goodie out of the bones adds more to the stock!  Yeah, it looks pretty
disgusting when making, but it is soooo good when it turns into soup
stock.

As a sidelight, I talked to a couple medical types about this, and they all
say that everyone should do this because the stock you get is not only rich
in nutrients, but it also has a lot of glucosomine and other needed things
that are missing in the commercial stocks a person buys!

After I let things cools a bit, I'll mix the "jelly" from Friday's cooking
with the new liquid from the second cooking and then package it all up in
quart freezer bags.  I'm thinking I'll have 4 or 5 quarts of soup stock
when I'm all done.  Into the freezer it will go.  One quart of stock is so
rich and thick, and has so much meat in it, that I have to add 2 quarts of
water to it when I make soup!  I'll enjoy some good eating on the cold
winter days that are coming - all thanks to taking a little time to cook
the carcass of the Thanksgiving bird!

Soup anyone?

Russ


-- 
Enjoy Life By Living In Joy

Well Being Consultant
www.rldwbc.com