Culinary School without Culinary School – petrichor

Hello folks, here’s a quick recipe of Turkey Soup and leftover Italian Mac n Cheese or rather Formiadiooni ne a Quattro Formaghi (“It’s like Four Cheese but it’s just Swiss, Cheddar, and Cheese Water for flavor and texture..”) I set in a corningware pan for ~two days and took it out and baked it off.

Here’s the Final Looks:

Life has been troublesome and Turkey Soup is 8-10 hours of ‘Mental~Torture, notably I’ll digress – because you think it’ll be quicker and easier than roasting turkey until you get to the bones part. We’ll see about The Great Turkey Divide, later.

It’s my cat Hazel or rather Haze’s birthday today. Grrrlie is 6 years old. She enjoyed some fine hand double-strained turkey stock while Pippie or Pip my dog, had a lil shredded turkey with her stock. The girls enjoyed while I looked for Oz or Oswald at one point, I ended up finding him asleep in a laundry basket some hours later. I have not seen him since. The broth stays at the desk. I move forward to write as I’ve noticed I’ve become overly-attentive or to dismissive of cooking bc what really displays ‘Cooking with Intuition:’ if that’s all I really do is don’t follow recipes and certainly don’t follow “the” recipes..

We tither and hither from measuring spoons besides quart size glass measuring cups good reasons necessary, and proceed…

This was the first picture I had taken. After about 4 hours on the boil the turkey legs popped out the sockets and I had perfect legs. My Partner digressed he wanted a leg saved for him, I decided I did too. Now they sit to become Turkey Leg Confit or rather Tü4kèy Lēg Cønfï5 (whatever that is).

Now we flash-forward to the Future; we go Non-Linear Non-Chronological in the tale now 😎🫰🏼

The Confit settles and the Fat rises to the top. Pulled the Italian Mac Water to turn into Baked Italian Macaroni n Cheese.

Before the Confit Pic, we get to the aromatics stage of prep. I started with carrots and celery so they could dry up a little before I wanted to just toss them in stock..after “The Bones Part’ I decided to cook them in olive oil. The first carrot I picked out was a twin. “the fat one with no feet was the first / calachroichoto”

After straining, I got to separating the Turkey.

Turkey Stations:

Chicken Breasts (Big-Ass)

Double Strained Stock (Bowl)

Last Strain (in Big-Large Measuring Cup)

The Great Turkey Divide*

*a note on The Great Turkey Divide – I picked out the bones, cartilage, and any not-too-good to be edible bits (some people call em “sacrifice meat” others just say “I picked that out, it’s not that good” [I laid on my back like a dead beetle to re-nourish blood flow to my murmuring heart and that static is funny in my head because I’ve been working on resettling cartilage myself, I threw up bile, and I piss every 28 minutes fluid not pee; Mothers, don’t let your daughters grow up to be Incognito Bodybuilders] either way, if it looks grossi, it’s gross.

:the next example –

That shit on the spoon is called “Sludge Crap” or “Sludge Meat” when all the meat close to the Turkey carcasses is emassified with minerals and just doesn’t look right almost look smushy bone fragments?? One Great Dialect about Soup: are you really gonna ruin the whole pots to taste to save that…’ whether it be carrot top, potato eye, sludge meat, etc. ..don’t keep it. You’re saving a lot more in that soup and getting more out of that Turkey carcass making soup than roasting it or roasting it and making stock later. You can sacrifice the gross bits. I love nasty bits, and that’s just gross to me, folks!! [Sludge Meat]

Otherwise, your broth should look clean, even before it turns to stock.

Like presented here in my lil Cauldron Mug:

‘witch pls!! That’s not no hunk of Beef, that’s a Turkey dontcha know!!

Next, one thing I’d like to touch on: Stations

Aromatics in the pot: Carrots, Celery, Onion, 2 Cloves of Garlic (1lg, 1sm), Shredded Turkey (Sludge Meat left in Glass Pan), and remaining stock. {Stock is skimmed!!)

Besides the caption, I’ve got potatoes quartered and sliced in there. Olive Oil sitting there in case I need a swish. I got a heavy ceramic plate for my utensils not seen here. I’ve never been to Culinary School but have Catered and Cooked Professionally, not for some time but a lot of experiences and many Barbecue, Potlucks, and Family Dinners to know – there’s a system and it simply works.

–Mise en Place oin Stacion‘

I don’t care how big or small or gigantic your station is. Put your produce in a grocery bag, even if you don’t feel like composting the veg like I didn’t. It’s sitting on the counter and I’ll toss it later bc the garbage can is full. If the garbage can wasn’t full, it still would’ve been in the bag then tossed into there.

“I see my trash, I see my cash, I work on my ass, and it all seems to be working.” Wise words from a Chef I post-humously adore. +find the episode!!

I also had an extra soup bowl because that was the stock bowl I used to put the stock in after I was straining the stock with a slotted spoon over the glass measuring cup. It didn’t get used, but sits toppling on engineering-know-how-balance that is physics teacher worthy.

All-the-same what I’m saying is – stay tidy, don’t stay impeccable in your kitchen. The real art is when the kitchen is clean and you let dinner sit for 30 minutes because you’re exhausted you worked a shit and the daily-shit-talker-of-today doesn’t realize it took you 10 hours to cook dinner and one part was baked leftovers.

So what I’m actually saying is:

Cook with Intuition

Don’t put yourself in the weeds when you’re in your home kitchen!! You bought your own groceries, don’t cry about the meal!! I don’t wash dishes, why? I cook!

2 Final Notes:

Half-Brick Butter Basting; “washee-washee technique’ *look it up or figure it out by the picture!!*

every time I skim turkey stock or soup I look at his separation cloud and feel a little uneasy at people who drink skim milk – I drink whole, 2%, or plant-based but woof, that’s gnarly if that’s what you want to drink mixed with water (the Turkey/Meat equivalent of skim milk)