Traveling for Thanksgiving means that there’s usually a little less prep and less cleanup (although we helped with both, of course), but it also means that you get home and don’t have the full complement of leftovers, unless you make a home turkey (which we didn’t). [Note: I feel that the “home turkey” should merit a future post of its own, or that it should at least be hyperlinked to another post. Alas, a quick search came up empty. Is there another term for this, when you cook a turkey at home when you’re visiting relatives for the holiday, just so you’ll have leftovers on your return? Is anyone else writing about this?] Today (Sunday) a bowl of stuffing with a fried egg for lunch would have hit the spot. I did manage to bring home a few turkey wings though, with several bones, some dark meat, and part of a carcass for stock. Thanks, Mom!
my JV picture of pressure cooked turkey stock
So I decided to do something different this year, and I made turkey stock in the pressure cooker, roughly using Alex and Aki’s recipe. Rather than scale down the traditional ingredients for stock to fit the cooker, I also followed their proportion of ingredients, although I didn’t have any kimchi. I didn’t have any apple cider either, so I cored an apple and put that in. And after adding ingredients to the pot I realize that I added Miso Tamari instead of dark miso. Rookie mistake, I know. So it’s not really Alex and Aki’s recipe after all. But I’m really happy with how it turned out. It’s a deep golden brown color, and it has a depth of flavor unlike any other stock I’ve made before. There’s also a sweetness from the apple that would be hard to place if you didn’t know it was in there. This is not a neutral tasting stock. I used it to reheat some pork dumplings for a quick soup, and that was terrific. I’ll be looking for different ways to use it, and I imagine that it will give body and depth to anything from chicken gravy to meatier braised dishes.
More info on the science of using a pressure cooker to make stock (including copious tasting notes, as usual) from last year’s post on the subject by Dave Arnold at Cooking Issues.
Smoke Cure Pickle Brew 