How to Make Turkey Broth for Soup

Don’t throw the bones away.

Ever.... of any animal bones you cook. They are so nutritious and full of protein and calcium (best calcium supplement for bones).

Even if you are a dinner guest, you can ask... "Are you going to throw those away?"Then offer your services to clean off that carcass and take it home if they won't use them.You can make a nutritious, flavorful broth from any bones. But this week, of course, we are talking turkey.You can start your broth RIGHT after dinner while you are doing the dishes, or you can pop the carcass in the freezer for when you aren’t sick of turkey. Either way, I’m going to give it to you now.

MAKING TURKEY BROTH 

Cook the bird as you like. Any way you like. Period.  This can be done with a pre-cooked bird from the store.Pick all the meat off the bird. Save as much as you can for leftovers and even some for your soup. It’s fine to leave meat on it for the soup. But it gets tough and you’ll prefer eating it without the additional cooking.

Things that go into the soup stock:

• Skin, Bones, Joints, Neck, Wing Tips, and Feet

Things that don’t go into the stock:

• Offal (liver, heart, kidneys)

Here's me showing you how to clean a chicken carcass and start a pot of stock. 

Same deal...  But you'll have WAY more bones with a turkey. You might even make stock out of HALF your bones now, and half later.  (My mom and I usually split them between us.)

Instructions:

1. Shove it all into your soup pot (or use half now and freeze the rest).

2. Cover with water. Optional: Add 1 cup of white wine

3. Bring to a boil

4. Skim off foam/crud

5. Reduce to low burble

6. Let simmer for 12-24 hours. You can leave it on the stovetop with the lid on, turn the burner off overnight, turn it back on in the morning, bring it back to a boil and turn back down to that burble.

Different cooking methods:

• Stovetop, as I’ve just described

• Pressure cooker: Low pressure for 3 hours-ish

• Crockpot: 24-48 hours on low

Once it’s cooked:

1. Strain out the solids into a container with a lid and chill overnight. This can be outside if it stays below 40oF all night long.

2. In the morning, skim off the solidified fat. Discard it, save it for cooking or feed it to your chickens.

3. Use for your soup.

4. If you won’t use it all or need to wait, freeze it. Divide it into multiple containers and freeze for multiple soup days. **Caution, if you freeze in glass, leave ample air space and lay the jar on its side to give the liquid room to expand without breaking the glass.

Need some inspiration for that soup?

Here's a video of making chicken soup. Same idea but with turkey.