Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Hint of the Day: Cook Twice, Wash Once Revisited


Earlier this week I was making Pot-au-Feu from Second Thanksgiving's turkey carcass. Since I writing "Cook Twice, Wash Once," I had come across a tip from Amy Dacyczyn (The Frugal Zealot). Amy claims that adding 1 oz of vinegar for every 1 quart of water (up to 4 oz of vinegar) would draw more calcium from the bones, and that you can't taste the vinegar in the end result. So I threw in about 1/3 cup of white vinegar.

Now, I currently lack means of testing the calcium content of my soup, but the vinegar did something. A 12 lb bird's carcass, already carved pretty clean by my husband, produced 2.5 quarts of shredded meat- enough meat for three more meals, Turkey ala King, Turkey Tacos, and Turkey Chili. The vinegar may have also loosened the gelatin from the bones, because I ended up with only 2 cups of thick stock and was forced to bail on the pot-au-feu. But Church Ladies are masters of operating on the fly.

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