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Homemade Turkey Stock

I can remember this was the first smell of Thanksgiving in my house when I was a kid. I remember my Mother and Grandmother cooking together every Thanksgiving.

Since most of us are dealing with frozen turkeys you'll need to make sure it's defrosted. My turkey was 20 lbs. I got it out of the freezer and put it into the refrigerator 4 days before Thanksgiving. The morning of the day before Thanksgiving I got the turkey out of the refrigerator and let it sit out for about 30 minutes. I unwrapped the turkey and removed the giblets. I re-covered it and put it back into the refrigerator.

Take the giblets and the neck out of the bag, cut the tail off the turkey and a bit of the turkey fat. Rinse them all well. Put into a pot of 1 1/2 quarts of boiling chicken stock into which you have 3/4 stick of butter, several stalks of celery and onions, (no need to chop the celery or onions as you'll be draining the broth.) salt and pepper. Let this simmer 45 min to 1 hour.

Drain the broth. Remove the celery and onions, giblets, neck and fat. Discard vegetables and neck/fat. Cut the giblets into small pieces and put them back into the broth. Taste for seasonings. This is the base for your stuffing and gravy.