Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Thanksgiving Soup

Did you have a good Thanksgiving? We did. Turkey and stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, Brussels sprouts with pancetta, cranberry sauce (plain or with habaneros); squash soup, fig-pancetta rolls, and shrimp cocktail for appetizers; pumpkin and pear-plum pies for dessert! We hosted this year so had lots of leftovers to eat. I love turkey sandwiches with stuffing! We are almost done with them all, except for the mashed potatoes - we always make lots more than we need...

Anyway, I've been trying to get the time to make turkey soup and stock. This morning I had a few hours so got to it - the turkey bones with some meat, and 12 pints of water, with salt, pepper, thyme and a bay leaf. Usually I skim off the stock before I make the soup, but I wasn't sure I was going to can any stock so I made the soup first, and then when it became clear I had too much liquid, I skimmed off 2 pints of stock while I was canning the soup. Here's the soup recipe:

Bones of a 15 pound turkey, with some meat
2 medium onions, diced
1 c. diced carrots
2 small sweet potatoes, diced
3 potatoes, diced
6 celery ribs, chopped
12 pints water
kosher salt and pepper
thyme
1 bay leaf

I ended up with 3 quarts of soup and 2 pints of stock in the pressure canner. Clearly, 12 pints of water was too much to add! I suppose I could have added more vegetables.... The amount I canned was actually limited by the number of empty jars I had at the moment. Had I simply looked on the drying rack, I would have found 2 more. Oh, well.

I put all 5 jars in the pressure canner and processed for 90 minutes at 10 pounds of pressure. I had to leave at a very specific time, and managed to get the canner going with exactly the right amount of time. Which meant I turned it off and walked out the door. 4.5 hours later, I returned and opened the canner and everything was just fine. That was reassuring! One of the first times I used the canner I left it to cool overnight and had to use a screwdriver to pry the lid off because I waited too long.

3 comments:

  1. I had a 20 lb turkey. Made 3 quarts of stock from the bones, made a crockpot full of turkey soup, a nice turkey casserole and who knows how many sandwiches plus added it to lunch noodles. Still have to can some leftover turkey tomorrow. I expect at least a couple pints.

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  2. Hi, Becky! Do you can the meat by itself? Then what? How do you use it, is it like tuna? Do tell!

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  3. Mmmm...ate the last of this batch of soup today.

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