Food: Leftovers

As much as I love Christmas dinner, I think I like the leftovers even more, most likely because the day after is less hectic, you don’t feel quite so stuffed, and the prospect of drawing out the festivities just a little bit longer is always appealing. Who can say no to a hot turkey sandwich piled with leftover stuffing and doused with gravy that’s been marinating all night? Even better than turkey sandwiches, however, is turkey soup. You just can’t make real turkey soup without a turkey carcass- and how often do you have a turkey carcass?

The very word – carcass – makes me feel a bit like a caveman, and in fact the ritual of the soup itself is a little caveman-ish. Stripping meat from bones, boiling them in a big vat, throwing in some rough cut herbs and vegetables. Grr.

Although, maybe cavemen didn’t have vats or herbs? Am I thinking of pioneers? Well, I’m sure cavemen had vegetables and animal carcasses that they stripped the meat from, probably using some sharp stick or rock or animal hoof, right? Whatever, turkey soup is rustic, that’s my point.

If you want to feel a little less caveman/pioneer/rustic about your soup, you can add parmesan cheese on top, like my family does (though, what don’t we add parmesan to?), or you can take a page from Thomas Keller’s Ad Hoc at Home cookbook.  His recipe for chicken soup uses a roux  and honey to thicken the stock, and includes dumplings made with butter, flour, mustard, chives, and eggs.

Now, I know cavemen didn’t know how to make roux.

DoSB's chicken soup