Dealing with the turkey

There are lots of ways of dealing with the leftover turkey - I don't mean what recipes to use or what dinners to make, I mean what you actually do with that pile of skin, meat and bones.  Please, please, don't just throw it away.  That's a shocking waste of great food and, as Hugh Fearnley-Whatshisname sways, a turkey has died to give me that Christmas dinner and it is only respectful to its life to waste as little as possible.

This is what I do.

1.  Pull or slice as much meat off as you can

2.  Put the rest in a large saucepan, the bigger the better.  Put in everything - bones, skin, fatty bits and the stock and dripping that is left over from roasting, also things like onions, citrus, bay leaves and anything else that you used.  I also added a bit of gravy from a jar this time and threw in a couple more bay leaves (as I have a bay plant in the garden).

3.  Add water.  I almost cover everything but not quite as it all drops down after a while.  Bring to a simmer, covered, and let it simmer away for a good hour or so.  I don't season.

4.  Take off the heat and allow to cool a bit until it isn't too hot to handle.

5.  This is the messy part.  Place a sieve over a big bowl.  Have two more bowls, one for the bits and one for the meat.  Ladle some of the carcass and liquid into the sieve.  Using a fork and knife or even your (washed) hands, take off the meat and scrape the rest into the other bowl.  Repeat until it is all sorted.  You have three bowls.  One has meat, one has bits and one has a lovely stock.

6.  The bits still have a lot of stock/flavour clinging to them because as it cools, the stock jellifies so I put them back into the pan, add some more water and give them another good boiling up, covered.  This time strain it while it's still very hot.  What's left can go into the food recycling.

7.  Put the two stocks together, pour it all back into the pan and do one more simmer, this time with the lid off so that it condenses down into a wonderful, jelly-consistency, flavoursome stock.  Cool it thoroughly and skim off the dripping.


I know the above sounds a bit of a job but it isn't really and out of it you get lots of meat, a wonderful stock and dripping that you can use on toast or for cooking with.  As soon as you can, get it all into the fridge and use or freeze quickly.


Actually, the skin could have been used.  It is the style now to make turkey crackling by taking off the skin after roasting, popping it back in the oven and crisping it up.  I never have time or space to do that but, if you did, it would be even less waste.