German-style Turkey Soup

So, it's the weekend after Thanksgiving, you've eaten all the turkey sandwiches and turkey leftovers that you can manage, but you still have a carcass with some meat and don't want to just throw it out. What to do? Take the dregs and make some turkey soup!

My German great-grandmother, Johanna (I took her name when I was confirmed -- she was very special to me), is the genius behind this recipe and method of not just making delicious soup, but cleaning out a lot of your leftovers at the same time!

In a large soup pot, place the following:

The remaining turkey and carcass, including the leftover skin, neck, and anything else remaining
Any leftover stuffing
Any leftover veggies that you would like in your soup, especially things like carrots
Any leftover gravy

If you are missing any of these ingredients, don't despair -- they are optional or you can put in substitutes.

To round out the pot, add the following:

1 large onion, cut into quarters (no need to peel or core it)
5 large garlic cloves, smashed (again, no need to peel)
5 stalks of celery, chopped into quarters (include the leaves on the celery -- they add flavor too!)
3 large carrots, cut in half length-wise, and then cut in half through the middle
2 tablespoons salt
1 tablespoon of whole black peppercorns

In a piece of cheesecloth, wrap the following:

If using dried herbs:

1 tablespoon rosemary
1 tablespoon thyme
1 tablespoon sage, preferably not ground for it will seep out and muddy your soup

If using fresh herbs:

1 sprig of rosemary
5-6 sprigs of thyme
1 sprig of sage

Pour COLD water over this until it just covers all the carcass and veggies. Turn the burner on medium, and let it go just until the water is thoroughly heated, but not boiling -- should take about 15-20 minutes. Once it's warn, turn it down to low and simmer for 2-3 hours.

Then place a large colander on top of a large bowl and drain out the liquid. Arrange all the meat, bones and veggies in the colander in a large cookie sheet and let it cool.

Let the liquid sit until the grease from the gravy and skin float to the top and skim it off with a large spoon. Then line a fine seive with cheesecloth and strain the broth one more time to get our remaining bits of fat, herbs, veggies, or anything else that mucks it up. NOTE: this broth will not be clear -- it's not intended to be.

Once the veggies and carcass are cool enough to handle, pull off all the edible meat from the bones, shred it into bite sized pieces and add to the soup. If the carrots still look cook, slice them into the broth -- otherwise, get some fresh carrots, peel, slice and add to the broth. You can also add any other veggies you'd like at this point.

Cook the whole thing until any new veggies are soft enough to eat, and serve the soup. I do NOT recommend adding noodles to this soup -- it's going to be very thick because of the stuffing and gravy, and really stands on its own --but if you're crazy about noodles, go ahead -- it's your soup after all!

This can also be frozen quite nicely in case you need a turkey moratorium.

Enjoy!