It’s after thanksgiving and you are going to be having a cold/cool weather tailgate on Saturday. Don’t go out and buy a lot of stuff. Use the Thanksgiving turkey to provide a warm and hearty tailgate treat with special noodles. Then serve the last of the pumpkin pie for desert.
Making Stock
1 Remove all the usable turkey meat (the dark is more flavorful) from the turkey carcass to save it for adding to the soup and for making sandwiches later.
2 Break up the larger leftover bones of the carcass enough, so they don’t take up as much room in the pot. Put the leftover bones and skin into a large stock pot and cover with cold water by an inch. Add drippings that weren’t used to make gravy, and non-liver giblets that haven’t been used. Add a yellow onion that has been quartered, some chopped carrots, parsley, thyme, a bay leaf, celery tops, and some peppercorns.
3 Bring this stock to a boil and immediately reduce heat so liquid to a barely simmers. Skim off any floaties as they rise to the surface of the stock.
4 Add salt and pepper, and about 1 tsp of salt, 1/2 tsp of pepper. It depends on how big your turkey is. You can always add salt to the soup later.
5 Cook for at least 4 hours, uncovered or partially uncovered, so the stock reduces, occasionally skim off any foam from the surface.
6 Remove the bones and veggies and strain the stock through a very fine mesh strainer.
Making the Turkey Soup
With your stock already made, add chopped carrots, onions, and celery in equal parts. Add some parsley, a couple cloves of garlic. Add seasoning – poultry seasoning, sage, thyme, marjoram and/or a chicken bouillon cube. Cook at a bare simmer until the vegetables are cooked through. Take plenty of the remaining turkey meat you reserved earlier, cube it into bite sized pieces and add to the soup Add salt and pepper to taste. Sometimes a dash or two of Frank’s Cayenne Pepper Sauce gives the soup a nice little kick. Cool this soup overnight in the fridge or in a pot outside if the temperature is cold enough.
Game Day
The morning of the game, you should spoon off any fat from the top of the soup pot before heating. Boil a large bag (16 oz.) of your team logo pasta from Pastashoppe.com. Heat the soup. After the soup is hot add the cooked (Al dente) noodles. Pack the soup pot in a cooler surrounded by towels and newspaper. This cooler will keep it warm traveling to the game, or you can heat it on your grill or stove in the parking lot. Serve in mugs with chunks from a long baguette for dipping.