Hang on to scraps from feast, make useful stock

Every year after our family’s Thanksgiving dinner, my mom loads up each of us kids with her home-cooked leftovers to take home.

One thing that is not forgotten is the turkey carcass: My brother always calls dibs on this often- overlooked source of cooking. He drops the turkey bones into a stockpot with vegetable scraps and water and makes an easy and delicious stock. My brother isn’t a fancy gourmet cook, but making a basic stock isn’t at all difficult.

A stock is a great way to use up bits and pieces and get something delicious from otherwise-discarded ingredients. Making stock allows you to cook frugally, putting every scrap of meat and vegetable to good use.

Vegetable ends and peels work well for the stockpot. Thanksgiving is a good opportunity to get vegetable remnants, but throughout the year, I like to keep a bag in the freezer with leftover bits and pieces of vegetables for making stock. By freezing, the veggies and herbs won’t go bad before they can be used. Since they will be boiled in a stock then discarded, you don’t have to worry about the vegetable’s texture after freezing.

Leftover rotisserie fat and chicken bones also can be used immediately or frozen to make stock. If freezing bones for later use, crush down to a small size and freeze in water, so there is less surface area where freezer burn can accumulate. Also, breaking some of the bones, even just the little ones, allows for the marrow to infuse the stock with great flavor.

When it is time to use the leftovers, just add the bones (or entire bone cube if frozen) and leftover vegetable peels and pieces to the pot with water to cover. Bring the pot to a boil, then simmer 3-5 hours, occasionally skimming the foam from the top. While this technique won’t result in a crystalclear consommé, it will still give you a fl avorful stock that is much better than what you can get in supermarkets or with bouillon cubes.

When your stock is complete, strain out the solids, and put the liquid into smaller containers for faster cooling. When cool, the stock can then be frozen in ice-cube trays or small freezer containers for later use.

Stock is most often thought of for making soup, and this is my brother’s preferred use, but I like to add a little stock to a roux for fast, easy and economical way to make creamy sauces for vegetables, meat stews, or pasta. For vegetables, I like to add a little Parmesan and pepper to the cream sauce.

A cream sauce with cubed or shredded poultry meat and frozen mixed veggies is an easy pot pielike stew. Complete the process by baking with a crescent roll or biscuit top, if desired. Mixing the cream sauce with peas and cooked bacon (the poor man’s pancetta) makes a wonderful pasta sauce.

Having a nice stock available for easy and inexpensive dinner options is a smart way to get maximum use of food ingredients, especially a Thanksgiving turkey.