Turkey Stock/Broth

[CaliPoutine]

Turkey gravy is the ONLY thing that I make that I brag about. I buy the wings and roast them with oil, carrots, onions, poultry seasoning and a little tomato paste. I roast them very well and then make the stock from that. I make my gravy ahead of time and freeze it. I have WAY too much going on in my kitchen to make gravy at the last minute.

I did mine like this last year and kinda like this on Thanksgiving this year. I used some white wine too. I made the stock the day before, defatted it, used some of the fat to make a roux, I added some drippings when the turkey was finished. I kept it warm in one of those mini crock pots. Everyone raved about it.

[eternal]

I broke down my turkey this year the day before Thanksgiving and used the uncooked carcass to make a stock. I added it to a big stock pot along with mirepoix and a few spices and water and cooked it down. I took a bunch of fat off the top as it simmered for about 5 hours and then I dumped about a gallon of the broth into the fridge. When I went to use the broth the next day, it was really thick. The consistency was almost oil and it was throughout. What happened? Did I not trim enough fat from the bird before using it? I see now I probably should have roasted the bones beforehand to get a deeper flavor and i'm sure that would've rendered more of that fat, but the end product didn't separate when cooling. It is almost an emulsion.

[Shalmanese]

I broke down my turkey this year the day before Thanksgiving and used the uncooked carcass to make a stock. I added it to a big stock pot along with mirepoix and a few spices and water and cooked it down. I took a bunch of fat off the top as it simmered for about 5 hours and then I dumped about a gallon of the broth into the fridge. When I went to use the broth the next day, it was really thick. The consistency was almost oil and it was throughout. What happened? Did I not trim enough fat from the bird before using it? I see now I probably should have roasted the bones beforehand to get a deeper flavor and i'm sure that would've rendered more of that fat, but the end product didn't separate when cooling. It is almost an emulsion.

It's meant to look that way. Gelatin in stock thickens when it's cold.

[rotuts]

in the past Ive deconstructed turkey a la Julia Child and Jacques Pepin: initially they cut out the back, take off the leg and take the thigh bone out and lay the turkey carcass on the stuffing and add stuffing to the boned area of the thigh, this was in Julia and Jacques PBS series (highly recommended as is their book)

I used to take this one step further and boned out that breast.

day one would be the boning out. the meat would be keep very chilled for the next day. the bones would be roasted that day and then added to a stock pot with veg ( I dont like 'sweet veg' in turkey gravy so they were not roasted a priori)

now Im doing some SV turkey: I bone it out and do the bags.

but what about the turkey stock? I save the neck, gizzard etc and now try to get all the meat bits off the carcass and them to a SV bag for freezing as its not a good time to make stock

Long story here is the punch line: is the skin worth adding to the bag for the roasting latter for the stock?

ie all those bits get roasted until brown later ( Fz in SV bag for now ) the added to the pot for stock then

or am I adding just a lot of fat that gets skimmed off?

cheers!

[slkinsey]

The skin will definitely add flavor and body.

Personally I would encourage you to make stock with the bones and trimmings. Aren't you going to want to make gravy? What better to use than turkey stock? If you have a pressure cooker it only takes 1.5 - 2 hours.

Edited November 17, 2011 by slkinsey (log)

[rotuts]

FD re turkey stock:

I get various frozen 'soup bases' from here:

http://www.soupbase.com/

if you sign up for their ( benign ) email, they have discounted shipping several times a year.

they freeze well and I use them frozen: you just hack out what your need. they seem to keep forever frozen Ive

found them better than boxed/canned store alternatives.

Ive decided to add my own salt and try not to get commercial exogenous salt If I can.

there is a low salt turkey base and a low salt roasted chicken base that you can fiddle with and end up with a

decent stock or gravy. I use the stuff in the volume of water I need until I get to the salt point I like.

Edited October 29, 2013 by rotuts (log)

[heidih]

We ate early (Dad is 91) so the carcass is already in the crockpot to burble overnight. I always state up front that I would like it, and usually they are happy to oblige. The turkey was not stuffed and not very heavily seasoned. Still, I will just do water and add seasoning when I use the frozen stock for the soups I live on in the harsh Southern California winters I was also gifted with the last vine ripened tomatoes (bizarro weather)