Hunter Angler Gardener Cook

Well, we finally did it: We got ourselves a wild turkey! Holly and I were invited out to a Napa County vineyard last weekend to help save the wines of tomorrow from the turkeys of today (thanks, Phillip, for that one!), and we wound up with a 12-pound jake – Holly shot it cleanly at 20 yards.

I had a chance at a jake as well, but it was on the wrong side of me and when I turned to try to get a shot, the bird lumbered away with surprising speed. Who knew a turkey could run so fast? No matter, I should get another chance this weekend.

This being our first wild turkey, we wanted to make full use of it. So after the ordeal of plucking — it took more than an hour to pluck the critter even with both of us working on the bird — I broke it down into yummy bits and made this broth, which I am submitting for this month’s Grow Your Own.

Even though a 12-pound turkey isn’t huge, we still got tons of meat from it: A package of thighs, a package of drumsticks, a package of wings; two packets of breast meat, plus one of the “tenders.” I also saved the heart, liver and the neck skin, which I will use as a sausage casing later.

As for the stock, in went the carcass, the neck, the cleaned gizzard and the feet, which I blanched and hacked up with a cleaver to allow the collagen in them to seep into the broth; this gives it more body and heft.

After I blanched everything, I changed the water and set the turkey stock to a simmer for 4 hours. I did not let it boil. With 90 minutes to go, I went to the garden and raided it for a fennel bulb, four leeks, four carrots, a sprig of thyme, a bunch of parsley, a green garlic and small bunch of kintsai, which is an Asian celery that looks more like a light-colored parsley. I chopped them all up and add them to the pot.

I always strain my stock twice. After the four hours was up, I removed all the chunky stuff and poured the broth through a sieve with cheesecloth set in it into another large pot. Then I set the strained broth to a boil — once it’s strained, you can boil your stock and not make it cloudy.

I only add maybe two teaspoons of salt; I don’t measure. But I let the broth boil down until that amount of salt makes everything taste just right. I strain it one more time as it goes into the Mason jars for cold storage.

I only got three quarts out of this one, but it’s way more of a rich broth than a base stock – golden, clear and oh-so full of turkey goodness.

UPDATE: Here is Andrea’s round-up of this month’s Grow Your Own. I especially like the artichoke soup from Finny Knits, the baked dolmades from Ivy at Kopiaste and Andrea’s own Italian herb bread, which looks quite professional.