Are you having a big family gathering and serving a turkey for the feast?
Don’t throw out the turkey bones/carcass when you are done eating.
The turkey bones are a great resource for making bone broth.
Cook your turkey as usual. Serve and eat the turkey as usual.
You are cooking the turkey for the meal. The bone broth is a bonus. A precious, nutrient-rich bonus.
For me, whatever doesn’t go into the gravy or onto the serving platter (or into the fridge as leftovers) goes into a pot for making the broth.
Plan Ahead
Get your cooking pot ready.
You need something large to cook the bones in, something large enough to cover the bones with water and have room for it to simmer.
What can you cook the bones in?
Crock pot
Stock pot
Pressure canner pot
Roaster
Instant Pot
Whatever you have, get it ready.
I prefer the Instant Pot because I’m impatient and don’t want to keep an eye on a pot for 24-48 hours. With the Instant Pot, I can set it for 2-3 hours and then strain it and store it. I can also fill the pot back up with water and run it for a second time, with the same bones. Nice.
After you are done cooking the broth, you will be preserving it:
freezing it, (freezer bags or containers)
pressure-canning it (pressure canner, canning jars)
freeze-drying it (freeze-dryer, storage bags or jars)
Whatever your method is, make sure you have all the tools ready for when the broth is ready.
Note: and before preserving, you will be skimming off the fat. Don’t throw that away, either. Save it and use it for cooking and frying!
Cooking the bones
I’ll let you find your own recipe for preparing the broth. Some people don’t add anything to the water and others add a number of vegetables and some apple cider vinegar.
The recipe is a personal preference and if you don’t have a preference yet - let the experimenting begin! Try more than one way and see what you prefer.
Note: Sometimes I cover up the turkey remains and store it in a cold location until morning. Other times, I pull off all the meat after the meal and put all the bones into the pot right then, getting things started.
Also, because I cook my turkey from frozen, I don’t get that gizzard bag out before hand, to add to the stuffing like I used to do. The contents, now, go into the pot for the broth along with all the bones.
Cook it Store it Use it
That last step is the most important. Don’t forget to use the broth - as a beverage, for soups, to cook vegetables and rice in, and ???
