What went wrong?

[captain_slinky]

Turkey carcass, 3 days old, 80% of the roasted meat removed.

5 very large carrots, maybe a bit too old (taken out of the garden two weeks ago and had been growing there for some 8 months)

3 Onions, roughly chopped

Palm full of Celery Seed

a dozen peeled cloves of garlic

Sage, Thyme, Salt & Pepper

Gallon of water.

Simmering for the past 4 hours

Tastes like crap.

WHAT DID I DO WRONG?!?!?!

Comments

[dotgirl.livejournal.com]

You have to make the stock first so you can cool it and skim off the yuck.

Should be:
Turkey carcass, water, simmer for 4 hours ...
Pull out turkey nonsense, cool in a sink full of cold water/ice water, skim off fat/ick ..
*then* all the veggies, etc.

[captain-slinky.livejournal.com]

What?!?!? NOOOOOOOOO!!!!

I've done this so many times before like this, just boil it all to heck and then strain ut all the yuck/grease, be left with liquid gold that has all the flavors and whatnot from all the discarded yuck. About 1/3rd of the time it's successful, too... never thought to do JUST the carcass first :(

[pastilla.livejournal.com]

I have always thrown everything in together, too.

Here's Martha Stewart's recipe --

http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/turkey-stock-remains

Looks like the only thing major difference between yours and hers is the amount of water you added. For a 12 pound turkey carcass you only needed 8-10 cups.

[captain-slinky.livejournal.com]

Hmmmm... so maybe after it cooks dwn a bit more it'll get tastier...

[nani-ka.livejournal.com]

What's the crap taste? does it taste like burnt? dirt? chemicals? just boring?

I've screwed up stock before by letting it get too hot in the process...

Since I started using the crock pot to do small batches I've had nothing but success.

[captain-slinky.livejournal.com]

Hard to describe... it's just... it's not good. If i could put my finger on it I'd probably know what I did wrong this time :(

[greenpear.livejournal.com]

I don't use carcesses anymore. I create my stock from fresh chicken wings. After roasting all the good stuff has been cooked out of the bird.

Besides, wings is real cheap...

[captain-slinky.livejournal.com]

But WINGS is for BUFFALOING! Besides, aren't legs about half the price of wings any more? They are up in these party... makes me so sad :(

Also, the purpose here wasn't so much to Make A Stock as it was t Get Every Mile i Cna Out Of That Stupid Turkey :)

[lynna12000.livejournal.com]

Try removing some of the water, then let the reset simmer for another few hours. You have 2 or the 3 members of the trinity: Carrots and Onions, but you seem to be missing Celery. Celery seed isn't quite the same.

But other than that, it all sounds fine. Just let it cook longer.

[thecookielady.livejournal.com]

I say let it sit and "mingle" some. My stock always takes at least an hour sitting before it tastes like anything.

I always throw in an onion, a stock of celery, a carrot or two, all the spices and such, and the carcass. Boil the crap out of it for an hour, then drop the temp and let it simmer for a few hours. It helps to roast the carcass first.

[thecookielady.livejournal.com]

Oops... forgot to mention...

Once that's done, i strain off all the liquid to make soup and discard everything else. More veggies, meat and such are added to make soups.

[aurora77]

Celery? Bay leaf?

Not sure. I usually just start tossing in a bunch of stuff that sounds good and it turns out just fine.

[kanaetkassad.livejournal.com]

prolly too much thyme/sage and not enough celery. actual celery too.

... if not enough onion *or celery the stock ends up lacking... which results in adding more salt to make up for it.. or redoing to some degree.

i throw everything in together too. i add minimum salt/pepper during but don't finish with the flavoring till the very end. i always think adding garlic is unnecessary. if i add stock to a recipe that needs garlic i add it then and it's fresh tasting. waste of garlic in my opinion that gets boiled away and becomes homogenous with the stock:(.

a stock is always salvaged with some white wine. wine to stock is like butter to bread for me. ...i would feel confident getting some nice flavors in the stock if there was wine but no celery if you had to make do.