Pinch Your Pennies

“Bones from which roasting pieces have been cut, may be bought in the market for ten or twelve cents, from which a very rich soup may be made, besides skimming off fat for shortening.”  

– Lydia M. Child, The American Frugal Housewife (1832)

      The produce has been in from the garden for some time now, and the winter winds are officially upon us, but last week seems to be canning season all over again.  For anyone who wants to stretch a dollar, you’ll know Thanksgiving is one of the cheapest times of the year for good turkeys, and this year I roasted 28 lbs of two plump birds for the holiday.  Then came the picking clean of the birds, and who knows how many Thanksgiving leftovers before I was more than tired of seeing and smelling turkey.  The bird carcasses, however appetizing that may sound, were tossed into the freezer in a bag until a cold winter’s day.

Turkey Stock Cooling in the Kitchen

      We got that cold winter’s day two Thursdays ago.  The winter winds whipping across the open fields and snow blowing here and there, and out came the turkey carcasses, and whatever scraps of the birds had been left from Thanksgiving.  Three stock pots and four pressure canner loads later, we have more than enough turkey stock for the winter months and into next Thanksgiving (where we’ll substitute it for store-bought broth in our stuffing and make it into gravy) out of what would usually have been thrown away. 

Ingredients:

• Enough turkey bones, fat, drippings and “scraps” of turkey to fill a stockpot 1/3 of the way
• 2 gallons of water (32 cups)
• 2 medium onions, quartered
• 3 stalks of celery cut into 1” pieces
• 10 whole bay leaves 
• 20 whole black peppercorns

Directions:

Fill each stock pot approximately a third of the way with the pieces of the turkey that were picked clean from the bird.  Add the rest of the ingredients, bring to a boil and simmer for a few hours.  Stock should be a creamy color.  Double over a piece of cheese cloth in a colander, and strain out the stock from its ingredients into another pot or bowl. Strain fat from stock as it cools, and then reheat the strained stock.   

Prepare a weighted gauge pressure canner by utilizing its directions.  Ladle quickly into prepared jars, leaving a 1/2 inch of headspace on each jar.  Wipe rims clean and place lids and bands on tightly.  Process quart jars for 25 minutes or pint jars for 20 minutes at 10 pounds of pressure using pressure canner’s processing directions.  Place jars, upright, on cookie racks or clean dish towels to cool for at least 24 hours.  

Yields approximately 8 quart jars or 16 pint jars. 

And last, but not least – label the jars and load up the pantry!