How to make western stock with leftover poultry

Sorry, the lighting in my kitchen is still ugly.

Anyway, since it's holiday season, here's a basic and extremely flexible recipe for stock you can make with leftover poultry carcasses and maybe poultry meat. Instead of making it immediately after roasting the bird, you can do it once you know how much leftover meat you're going to finish from your roast(s) so you can throw meat scraps in too. I've also included added alt instructions for making stock with cheap fresh chicken meat if you don't have carcasses.

It's incredibly easy to make stock so this more serves as a reminder that you can and should. Once you make it you should reserve it for soups or stews that really benefit from homemade stock, like caldo verde or ribollita or whatever.

Ingredients

• One large turkey carcass or 1-2 smaller poultry carcasses + as much leftover meat as you have (for this stock, I used a small turkey + duck carcass plus some leftover turkey. Turkey makes a particularly good stock)

• Alternative fresh meat stock: 1-2lb chicken feet, scrubbed and nails cut off + a family pack of wings and/or drumsticks. You can forgo the feet if you're a pussey. If you only have the carcass of one chicken or duck and no leftover meat, you can use fresh wings/drumsticks in addition to that.

• 4 little, 2 medium, or 1 huge non-red onions

• 1 big carrot or 2 little carrots

• 1 little bulb of garlic or 1/2 large bulb of garlic

• 1-2 celery stalks

• fresh herbs -- parsley is a must, but you can add whatever else you need; if you know what you're going to use the stock for then check the ingredients for it and include you think might taste good (I added thyme and sage in addition to parsley this time)

• 1 large bay leaf

• a swig of acid (i used 2 leftover lemon wedges this time; apple cider vinegar or white vinegar are fine)

• a slice or two of fresh ginger

• a few peppercorns (optional)

• 1-2 dried shiitake mushrooms (can also sub with a smaller amount of dried bolete/porcini) (optional)

• water

Instructions

• chop the onions into halves or quarters; do the same to the carrots and celery and throw into pot

• if you're using a whole bulb of garlic, halve the whole bulb and throw it all into pot; if not, peel the garlic cloves, crush or halve, and throw into pot (if you see black mold on the garlic skins then use the latter instructions even if you're adding a whole bulb)

• dump your bones and scraps into the pot, along with all of the remaining dry ingredients

• add water until it covers the bones with a swig of the acid you're using

• simmer covered for ~6 hrs, stirring every so often. Adjust dry ingredients and acid to taste if the stock tastes too mild every few hours. after a while, the meat should be falling apart and the smaller bones should get weak; I like to break the bones for extra flavor when possible.

• you can uncover and boil down the liquid if you don't think it'll fit into a container you have; just stir more frequently to make sure that nothing's sitting unboiled on the surface for too long

• after a few hours, the stock should get sticky from collagen. if it's not then you either don't have enough meat or have too much water. In this case, uncover and boil it down (though you will end up with less stock)

• once you've reached the 6 hr mark, turn off the heat, let cool, then pour it into a container through a colander

• you need to chill it so the fat rises and solidifies. skim the fat off the top when you're ready to use it. a proper homemade stock will have a consistency ranging from half-cooled jello to a rigid gelatin mold. if it's the latter then you can usually add some water when you're using the stock and it'll still taste pretty strong; if it's the former then you're more likely to have to add more stock or a bullion cube when you're using it.

If you adulterate it with water or stock, it should be good for 2 different soup/stew recipes. It should also keep for a while, though the last stock I made with carcasses from the freezer spoiled quickly.