Getting the Most from Your Thanksgiving Turkey

Fortunately, this year appears to be a little better than some previous years and there seem to be many turkeys available for Thanksgiving dinners.  Not at the great prices of yesteryear, but at least they're in stores.   However, with rampant inflation, we still need to make our food dollars stretch as far as possible.  We'll need to get the most from Tom so that the leftovers aren’t wasted. 

Canning the Cooked Meat

If you are planning to pressure can leftover meat, here are a few tips for the best results:

• Brine the turkey to maintain moisture.  Otherwise, the meat may be very dry.  I’m not quite sure how this happens, when it is canned in broth, but somehow, that meat comes out very dry.  Brining will help prevent that.
• Rub butter under the skin.
• Don’t overcook the turkey.
• Set the dark meat aside for canning.  It holds moisture better.

Can the meat using instructions from an approved source like the Complete Guide to Home Canning.  There’s a link below if you need it.

Now, let’s move on to making stock from the bones.  I wrote about that a few years back.  A link to that article is below if you want more information on the differences between stock and broth.

Make Turkey Stock

Place the turkey carcass in a large stockpot.  Add in the following:

• Celery, including leaves
• Carrots, including leaves and root ends
• Onions, including ends and skins
• Thyme and oregano stems leftover after you've stripped the leaves (avoid strong herbs such as rosemary, sage, and cilantro, which can overpower the flavor of the other ingredients)
• 2-4 tablespoons vinegar

Add water to cover and simmer.  Do not allow to boil or the stock will be cloudy.  Reduce heat so that the stock just barely bubbles.  Top with boiling water as necessary to keep bones and vegetables covered.  Cook at least 6-8 hours.

Cool overnight in refrigerator.  In the morning, remove the solidified fat from the top.  (Save this fat and render it.  Instructions follow.)  Bring the stock to a boil.  Remove from heat, strain and pour stock into canning jars, leaving 1-inch head space.  Add salt if desired, about 1 teaspoon per quart, ½ teaspoon per pint.  Process per instructions in your canning book, usually 25 minutes at 10 pounds pressure for quarts, adjusted for altitude if necessary.

Notes.  The vinegar helps extract minerals from the bones, yielding a more nutritious stock.  The organs will make the stock bitter and should not be used. 

Render the Fat

Remove the congealed fat to a saucepan and melt it over medium heat.  Pour the liquefied fat through a coffee filter to remove all bits of food.  If the fat is not perfectly clear, pass it again through a clean filter.  All traces of other food must be removed, or your rendered fat will spoil quickly. 

After the fat is strained, you have two options for removing all the water.  Either place it in a clean saucepan and bring it to a boil, or put it in a slow cooker on high.  It can take several minutes to hours to remove all the water. 

Store the rendered schmaltz in airtight containers in the refrigerator for up to three months, or in the freezer for up to a year.  It can be used in recipes in place of butter or lard. 

Make Cat Food

Finally, if you have cats, you can take using every bit of the turkey a step further:  can the bones to make cat food.  Whenever I do this, I never use a new lid, especially now that lids are so hard to come by.  I do use one that isn’t obviously tweaked.  I want the lid to seal, but if it doesn’t, that’s ok.  I can just put it in the fridge and feed it to the cats sometime in the next two weeks.  Basically, I just shove as many bones as possible into the canning jar and then add boiling water.  The complete directions are at the link below. 

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Links to related posts:

Turkey Bone Stock  

Turkey Bones to Make Cat Food 

Complete Guide to Home Canning