Today I canned the usable meat from a free frozen turkey. I got 8 pounds of meat for later, am making a huge batch of stock with the bones. That left two turkey legs.
I marinated them for an hour and baked for another hour. The results were meh. Maybe a longer and lower cook would have been better. Despite the appearance it was juicy.
The rice was from leftovers.
The effective cost per person was something like 70¢. And that’s about how it felt.
am making a huge batch of stock with the bones that left two turkey legs.
This is the way.
So much of the turkey is locked in its bones. I make food for a year off of stock from Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner.
I’ll get some tacos, burritos and turkey salad out of the meat. But the bones will make soups, chili, and all kinds of other things that will keep me going for a long time. I have two more turkeys in the chest freezer. More canning. More food.
Turkey is probably my favorite meat. I consider you an extremely fortunate individual.
For me it has its uses but it’s not a favorite. Probably not even in my top 10.
Normally the only time I’d eat it was because the morning after Thanksgiving or Christmas I’d hit up the store for that super cheap clearance turkey and can it up for almost nothing. Now I have a vegetarian friend that always gives me whatever he gets for free. So it’s even cheaper yet. But still a full day of work between meat and stock.
I’m at four hours of cook time on the stock right now. Not sure if I will let it start canning in three hours or let it ride for a two day bond broth. Given that I still have a few gallons of stock canned I’m probably just going to let this one go full flavor.
I’m of the opinion that freezing stock is superior to canning.
Hear me out.
Chest freezers are extremely cheap to operate, and if you have a bunch of ice cubes of stock j then they get even cheaper since there’s more thermal mass to stay frozen.
Anyways, that s what I do to my turkeys. Plus my dog loves a stock cube on a hot summer day.
I’ve had two refrigerators and one chest freezer fail in the last 8 years. I prefer the shelf stable canning option. If I have spare room in the chest feet I freeze jugs of water in it to keep that thermal mass battery operating at peak.
Why meh? What was your marinade?
I used this marinade. I was a little concerned about the rather high amount of paprika but decided to mix it as is.
I don’t really have much to say about the marinade other than the amount of balsamic might be a bit expensive and the same results could probably be had with some mirin and soy sauce.
It was more an issue with texture and inherent meat flavor. I like dark meat but this came off more as slightly underdone pork in both taste and texture. I’m wondering if a foil tent at a lower temperature and longer time with a crisp up near the end might help.
