Need Help with Turkey Soup

[Kerry Beal]

Every year with the turkey carcass I make stock and some years I even try to make soup with the stock.

The stock smells wonderful, it should make a soup that I like but so far I just haven't hit on the right recipe.

So into the freezer it goes, to be used to make the gravy for the next turkey. Some of it gets boiled down to demiglaze which is great in sauces.

I need suggestions (and recipes, because I am not a natural soup maker) for great soups based on turkey stock.

Anyone have any ideas?

[dockhl]

Kerry~

I always throw in a few extra thighs when I make the stock so it has lots of flavor, and then make a chowder.

Usually it involves potatoes, corn, cheddar cheese, H/H and chunks of turkey. (Stock and onions and celery, of course.) Great bread or biscuits.

No one ever complains about leftovers.......

[MelissaH]

I'd also look for soups where you're tasting the "stuff" in the soup more than whatever stock you use. Look for recipes where it says you could substitute water if you don't have stock on hand, or for recipes that call for water instead of stock; this is usually a good tip-off that the stock's flavor isn't so important to the soup as a whole. IIRC, Julia Child's potato soup recipe is one of these. I think I found her recipe on line here if you don't have Mastering.

I made a soup last night that might also fall into this category. I was sort-of following a recipe from the new Alice Waters book. You start by cooking some beans (she said white beans, I used Rancho Gordo's Red Nightfall beans because that's what I had) in a 50/50 mix of water and chicken stock. She said to soak overnight, and then cook the beans on the stove, but I cooked my beans without soaking in the oven (of course) and I used water alone because we're having vegetarian guests at the end of the week. Then, you slice a couple of onions, and saute them, a few sage leaves, and a bay leaf (I suspect she meant fresh, but I used dried) in a couple of Tbsp of olive oil (no duck fat in the house at the moment) till the onions are soft. Then you add a medium butternut squash, which you've peeled and cut into half-inch cubes. My squash was huge, so I just cubed up the neck, leaving the lower portion with seeds intact. Anyhow, you saute with the squash for another few minutes. If I'd been thinking ahead, I would have probably tossed the squash with a little more oil and thrown it under the broiler for a few minutes to get some color, or maybe just oven-roasted the cubes, because I couldn't tell that cooking the squash in the same pan with onions did anything to it.

Once the squash has gotten its headstart cooking, you add liquid. She has you drain the beans and add 6 cups of their cooking liquid, but I just used a container of nondescript chicken stock from the freezer, plus a container of water, which seemed like about 6 cups worth. The soup simmers till the squash is soft. The instructions say to add the beans when the squash starts to get tender, but I waited till nearly the end of the cooking process, and then I scooped in a few ladlefuls of the beans, with a little of the cooking liquid. (The recipe calls for a cup of dried beans, but as long as I was oven-cooking them, I went ahead and did the whole pound. I have leftover beans to do something with later this week now.)

The soup was very autumnal, and could easily be taken in a number of directions. With a little chile, it could be turned in a Mexican direction. Add corn in some form, and you'd have something along the lines of a Three Sisters soup. We went European and ate ours with a grating of Romano and some toasted bread. Puree it, maybe with a potato added to help thicken it, and it's more elegant; maybe play up the fall-sweetness aspects with a pretty little fan of apple or pear up top?

MelissaH

[Lindacakes]

My absolute favorite soup is turkey soup. I'm afraid I can't help you with a magic recipe, I make it like chicken soup. Adding an extra thigh or two is a good idea. I like to use a brown and wild rice mixture in it. Mmmmm. I can't wait for Thanksgiving -- even when I'm invited to someone's house, I make my own turkey so I can have the soup!

[BarbaraY]

You are not alone! I detest turkey soup can barely stand the smell of it.

Probably goes back to my first cooking job in a small hospital where we had turkey almost every Sunday. Then we were required to make turkey soup with the carcasses. Still smell that stuff. Yuck!

[Abra]

I think this is the most delicious turkey stock in the known universe. Adding a few extra turkey necks makes it even better. It's the fennel that really does it for me.

[snowangel]

I think one of the problems with most post-Thanksgiving stocks is that they tend to be made only with the carcass. IMHO, a stock can have some roasted carcases, but definitely benefits from some raw bones and meat, as well as a neck (or four or five) and some feet. And, if the turkey was stuffed, you will bring all sorts of strange tastes to the stock which might be fine for one application, but not for others.

[janeer]

Turkey stock is my favorite stock for getting a rich flavor without a beefy taste. One of my favorite things to make with it is the Italian soup pasta e fagioli. Here is my recipe, and there is a photo on my blog as well: Little Compton Mornings

6 oz lean salt pork or prosciutto end (see Note), chopped to ¼” dice

1 T olive oil

½ cup onion, chopped fine

¼ cup carrot, chopped fine

1 large clove garlic, chopped fine

2 cups shelled cranberry beans (about 1 ½-2 lbs unshelled)

4 cups stock or water, preferably rich turkey, beef, or chicken stock

1 cup imported Italian plum tomatoes

a sprig of fresh oregano or ¼ tea dried oregano

1 cup ditalini

salt if needed

freshly grated parmeggiano reggiano

freshly ground black pepper

chopped flat-leaf parsley (optional)

Put the salt pork or prosciutto and the olive oil into a large open pan over medium-high heat. When it begins to render, add the onion, carrot, and garlic; sauté until the onion is translucent, reducing the heat if needed to avoid burning. Add the tomatoes and cook a few minutes, chopping with the edge of a wooden spoon. Add the shelled beans and the stock or water. Cover, leaving a tiny crack, and cook over moderately low heat, enough to maintain a slow boil, for 45-60 minutes; the beans should be soft, but just soft. Taste for salt; you will probably not need to add any unless you used water.

In a separate pan, boil the pasta in lightly salted water until it too is just done, about 9 minutes; drain. To serve, place about ½ cup of the cooked pasta in a shallow soup bowl, and ladle in the beans and broth to the rim. Garnish with a generous amount of freshly grated parmesan and black pepper, and a little chopped flat-leaf parsley if you like.

[maggiethecat]

I'm suggesting the heretical: a turkey stock makes a great base for onion soup. The caramelized onions, in quantity, provide a fresh rich sweetener, the rich stock is a fine substitute for beef broth. With the addition of the croutons, the cheese and the cognac that turkey stock is gonna hold it's wattles high.

Come to think of it, turkey stock would work well in the peerless Mushroom Soup recipe from Bourdain's "Les Halles" cookbook. The mushrooms and sherry would provide the important flavor notes and the turkey stock an anonymous basso profundo.

[Anna Friedman Herlihy]

I'm a big post T-day turkey soup fan. I make mine in the usual way for stock (although I do make sure to scrape out any stuffing still sticking to the carcass--too many flavors) and without added salt. Then I reduce it quite a bit so that it's very flavorful (you can adjust the salt later--sometimes there's enough in the carcass--I always brine our turkeys--to be fine in the finished product).

Then I strain and reheat the broth with chopped turkey meat, cubed carrots and parsnips, corn niblets (frozen is fine), lima beans (fresh or frozen--not canned), and some orzo pasta (be careful--absorbs a lot of the stock, so err on the meager side). Check for seasonings before serving, and...voila!

This has become a family staple as a first course for turkey casserole!

[Pam R]

If the stock is flavourful, I like to simmer some diced carrots and celery and wild rice in it. That's it.

Of course, you can go all Minnesota Turkey and Wild Rice on it and do a creamy version. Delicious.

[Peter the eater]

We celebrated Thanksgiving last weekend and had a big turkey. Although my mother-in-law strongly discouraged me from making stock (it was her house) from the roasted carcass I defied the esteemed elder and went ahead with it anyway. I understand her POV - there must have been a dozen frozen bulging plastic containers of stock in the deep freeze. Half of the new stock went into pumpkin soup and the other half became turkey pot pie.

No recipe from me, just don't throw it out.

If you make it, they will eat.

[Curlz]

I concur that the key to good turkey soup is to use both the carcass and some raw turkey...thighs and wings work particularly well, in my experience. I'm also a fan of wild rice and corn in my turkey soup, which receives raves! Can't say that I have a recipe per se, as I tend to make it up as I go, but I can't imagine that it would be any good if I only used the carcass and cooked turkey. My two cents...