One of the most important tasks I tackle each holiday comes after the meal has been eaten, the guests have gone home, and the dishes washed and put away. The health-promoting aspects of making mineral-rich stock with leftover bones from the holiday turkey cannot be overestimated!
So, I absolutely wanted to include it in the final Turkey Tips segment I filmed for Gayle Guyardo, anchor of the NBC News Channel 8 Today television show. Â This tip which aired yesterday was a challenge to film as I only had one minute to talk about the benefits of stock and also show how to make it!
I’ll leave it to you to be the judge as to whether I managed to do stock justice in the very limited time I had to talk about it!
Preparing the Bird
It’s a good idea to remove all the meat from your holiday bird and put the bones on to simmer right away as its use in soups and sauces in the days and weeks after the festivities end will help keep you and your family from succumbing to the usual post-holiday colds and flu that always come around.
Homemade stock offers three nutritional benefits that are difficult to obtain from any other source – certainly not in such deliciously digestible form:
- Plentiful and easily absorbed minerals and not just the macro minerals such as calcium, magnesium, silicon, sulfur, and phosphorus but also critical trace minerals.
- The broken down materials from cartilage and tendons like glucosamine and chondroitin sulfates which aid the healthy and pain-free maintenance of joints in the body.
- Natural, unadulterated gelatin is a health boon to many tissues of the body including the cartilage, bones, and joints and also the skin, digestive tract, and muscles – even the heart.  With the majority of our immune system located in our gut, gelatin also boosts immunity as it has been demonstrated to soothe and heal the intestinal mucosa.
My prediction is that making homemade bone broth will actually become fashionable when Hollywood adopts the practice as the plentiful collagen in stock acts as an internal facelift much more effectively than the scary results that can occur with collagen injections!
In this final Turkey Tip below, I demonstrate and talk you through how to make turkey stock in about 60 seconds!
To view all five Holiday Turkey Tips I filmed for the NBC News Channel 8 Today show, click here.
Source:Â Gelatin in Nutrition and Medicine by N.R. Gotthoffer
Mine is simmering as we speak
LOL – well, the DH says NO to overnight simmering on the gas stove. But… I just got a new John Grisham book, so I’m staying up late tonight to read so the broth will simmer about 18-20 hours. I’ll strain out the carcass and veggies and place the pot outside (we had some snow today) so it can cool in 35 degree temp. Final straining tomorrow. Not to worry, no animals can access it.
It does smell lovely!
And after the mad Black weekend shopping is done I’m getting a 12 quart pot. My 6 quart is too small 🙂 I’ve definitely caught the broth bug!!!!
Sarah, thank you for all the info you provide!
Gena, he’s right about that, but you could use an oven-proof pot and just move it into the oven overnight at a very low burble (around 200 degrees or so).
I made mine in the slow cooker. Just plop in turkey carcass, some veg scraps, pepper, water. I put it on high for about an hour and then turned it down to Low for the next 23 hours. My broth is so amazing….dark, roasted goodness!!
I have been making chicken stock for several months now but this will be my first time making turkey stock! I was planning on adding carrots, celery, onion, garlic and vinegar just like I do to my chicken stock but after watching your video I noticed you left out the veggies. Is there any benefit (other than flavor, perhaps?) to adding veggies?
I didn’t have time to add veggies! LOL I didn’t even have the time to put the stuff in the pot as this took precious seconds on air that I did not have.
You will love turkey stock. AFter duck stock (which is my fave), turkey is my next fave made from land animals (fish stock is my ultimate fave).
Too funny! Loved your video. . . You did a fabulous job!
so this is off topic.. but wondering, when did you give grains to your kids for first time. Also how about amerith (sp) and quinio(sp again) spell check never knows what I mean. talking the seeds here with protein in them? looking for answers from anyone who does baby lead, not Dr lead feeding!
With my first son, I did the rice cereal at 6 months baloney suggested by the pediatrician. No wonder he had eczema! He’s 14 now and no eczema at all since he was a baby eating that stupid rice cereal.
I wised up by the time my second was born and he and his younger sister never had any grains until well after the first birthday and even then they were soaked, sprouted or sour leavened.
so what about the amerith and quneo(sp again) . wehat do you think of them they are not grain but seeds? before 12 m at 12 m or with grains which I figure maybe about 18 months as I have read between 12 and 24m they can digest. long stretch there of if. so how about the seeds???
Do you ever get tired Sarah? Your ideas sound great, but I fear I’m not nearly so energetic as you.
I make wonderful stock all the time, and it always tastes phenomenal! But I’ve never used vinegar in it….what does it do to improve the stock?
It is supposed to pull the minerals from the bones more easily. But if you start with cold water, let it sit for a bit (30 min.) then heat slowly to a boil, turn it down and simmer for at least 24 hours, it will pull the minerals and gel nicely anyway. I don’t use vinegar and have never had any problems doing it this way.
Can we use the crock pot? Or must it come to a boil quickly to start?
You can, although I personally prefer not. You will need to watch it for the scum after an hour or so, not quite as quickly.
As an alternative to a crock pot, an electric roaster oven works nicely since it has a wider temp range and can be turned up to boil quickly, then reduced to a very low simmer (you want the simmer to be barely burbling, barely breaking the surface).
Mine has been cooking all night and my house smells so good! I’m so glad you are getting this information out by way of the news 🙂
Does the quality of the bird matter alot? Of course, no matter what bird, making your own stock is better than store bought… But do you still get the same amount of benefits if it’s not a pasture raised bird?
Make stock even if you are not able for whatever reason to source a pastured bird. You will get a lot of scum from a conventional bird so be sure to carefully skim it all off as the stock first comes to a boil.
I’ve begun to make stocks after finding your website. I love them, so versatile and they taste wonderful even plain in a mug!
I’ve been starting my stocks in the early AM right after breakfast and simmering until after dinner, so maybe 12-13 hours. That does leave me with the problem of getting the stock cooled quickly enough to refrigerate before going to bed, but it’s do-able. Simmering overnight sure would solve the cooling problem.
My husband is nervous about leaving the stove on overnight while we sleep. Any thoughts on this that might help him go along with the need to simmer 24 hours?
I have had trouble with letting the stock cook overnight; I have found the crockpot to be a much better–safer–option.
You can turn it off at night (leave on the burner) and then turn it back on in the morning. It will stay pretty hot all night on the stove which has been turned off and not cool down all that much if you leave the lid on. Turn it back on in the morning, bring back to boil, re-skim and turn down to simmer once again.
I just keep ours down fairly low. I like to start it several hours before bed so that I can get it to a controlled, low simmer before I go to bed. If you leave it too high OR too low (before it’s come to a boil) you will ruin it. I have had mine sit in the pot all night and not cook and end up ruined; I have also had it burn a few times. I am paranoid and often wake up thinking I smell burning but 90% of the time we have had no issues doing it. And we do it a lot.
A roaster oven is another option that is safer, and I have done this as well, especially with turkeys since they are so large they often don’t fit well in a stock pot until the bones have cooked down some.
Gena, after turning off the burner and cooling somewhat, you could plunge the pot into a sink of cold water or ice water to help cool it down faster. Alternatively, you could move the pot into the oven to continue on a very low simmer overnight (about 200F degrees or so, depending on your oven).
Thank you Sarah! As always, timely, important and usable information!
Happy Thanksgiving!