My favourite part of Thanksgiving is the part after everyone has eaten. While someone else does the dishes I make the stock. This fabulous elixir will provide many, many more meals long after the turkey coma has worn off.
It's the easiest recipe in the world.
Take the largest pot you own.
Add the carcass of one perfectly roasted turkey.
Add the trimmings, peels, cores etc from the days vegetables. ( green beans, garlic, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, just go easy on the cruciferous things.)
Add the leftover bunches of fresh herbs. ( The ones you say you will use, that really end up dying a slow death on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator.)
No salt yet, especially if you have brined your bird.
Add any other flavourful thing that is lying around. Rind of a lemon, a few leftover tablespoons of dressing or gravy.
Cover with water.
Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer for as long as you are awake. Ideally four or more hours. Strain, pour into freezer safe containers ( large yogurt tubs or 3/4 filled quart mason jars work great.) Freeze.
Thaw and use all winter in soups, stews, gravies.....mmmmm.
It is all the flavours of thanksgiving reduced down and mellowed. It turns humble ground turkey meatballs into sublime little morsels of yum. Makes soups taste like they have been simmering for hours.
I do a small scale of this with every chicken I roast too. I keep a tub in the freezer and into it goes the all the vegetable scraps. Carrot peels from school lunches, apple cores, onion ends, whatever. After we have devoured a chicken I dump the contents into a pot with the carcass, simmer, strain and freeze. It is 100 times better than the store bought stuff.
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