Recipe: Pressure Cooker Turkey Stock
(Inspired by The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook
: Pressure Cooker Chicken Stock)
Cook time: 60 minutes
Equipment:
8 to 10 quart Pressure Cooker (I use this one:Fagor Duo 10-Quart Pressure Cooker/Canner
)
Ingredients:
- Carcass from one turkey, broken into pieces that will fit in your pressure cooker
- 1 large onion, trimmed and halved
- 1 celery rib, cut in half (optional)
- 1 large carrot, peeled and cut in half (optional)
- 3 cloves garlic, skin on, crushed (optional)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 sprig fresh thyme
- 1 half a bunch of parsley stems (optional - skipped, since I didn't have them)
- 3 quarts cold water (or more to cover)
Directions:
1. Put all ingredients in pressure cooker, and add the cold water - you want to cover the ingredients by 1"
2. Put on the lid, clamp it shut, and bring the PC up to high pressure, following your cooker's instructions. Cook at high pressure for 45 minutes.
3. Remove from the heat, and let rest until pressure releases naturally. (Or, let rest 15 minutes, then quick release pressure according to your PC's instructions)
4. Strain stock* into large pot, let rest until room temperature, cover, refrigerate overnight. The next day, remove the fat cap from the stock. The stock can be used immediately, refrigerated up to 4 days, or frozen for up to 6 months.
*See my stock straining setup here.
Notes:
* This recipe took about 2 hours, end to end. Five minutes to break up the carcass, five minutes to peel and chop the aromatics, fill the pot with water, and get it on the stove. 30 minutes to come up to pressure, 45 minutes under pressure, about 20 minutes natural pressure release, then about another 15 straining the broth. (See my follow-up post on the broth straining system).
*It produces a really, REALLY gel filled stock. I'm always amazed when I peel the fat cap off - it's like I have a pot full of Jell-o. Compare the two pictures below - the pressure cooker is on the left.
Look at the gelatin in the pressure cooker stock on the left.
*I was able to make two batches while I waited on the Ruhlman method - I could have fit three in if I was trying to be efficient about it. This is the strength of this method - the pressure cooker cuts the long simmering time out. I can start it with the remains of a couple of roasted chickens, and as long as I start it while we clean up the kitchen after dinner, I'll have it strained and ready for the fridge before I go to bed.
*The recipe won't scale much beyond this. The only larger pressure cooker than my Fagor is the (deep breath now):Kuhn Rikon Duromatic Family Style Pressure Cooker Stockpot 12 Quart
. Kuhn Rikon is the BMW of pressure cookers, and I'm sure it's wonderful...but. It would give you only two more quarts, and it costs $400 (!). I lust after that pot, but I really, really can't justify the price.*
*And trust me, when I want to justify a purchase, I can go a loooong way.
What do you think? Questions? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below.
Related posts:
Click here for my Pressure Cooker Turkey Stock, Revisited recipe
Click here for my Pressure Cooker Chicken Stock recipe
Click here for my Turkey Stock Shootout. This post is a part of that series.
Click here for Turkey Stock Done Right, if you don't have a pressure cooker.
What do you do with Turkey Stock? Click here for my Turkey Noodle Soup recipe.
Inspired by:
Fagor Duo 10-Quart Pressure Cooker/Canner
Cooking Under Pressure (20th Anniversary Edition)
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Mike V @ DadCooksDinner
I use my hands - a cooked carcass is pretty easy to pull apart. I grab the backbone near the tail with one hand, the cavity with the other, and pull the backbone away from the breast. That breaks it up enough for me to fit in my pressure cooker.
Chris Lukowski
Any advice on breaking down a turkey carcass? The last time I attempted it with a meat cleaver was...messy to say the least. Should I just go Jigsaw on it?
MikeV @ DadCooksDinner
@Nell:
Thanks for the suggestion!
Nell
A cooling method that's very fast:
Two stainless steel mixing bowls: one very large, one large. Strain the stock into the large one. Put a tray's worth of ice cubes into the very large one, run cold water and swish them around so they're mobile. Set the stock bowl into the ice-water bowl, and stir while letting the inner bowl rotate: the ice should begin to spin around in the outer bowl.
The movement of hot and cold over the surface of the metal bowls drops the temperature very quickly into the range where it's ready to refrigerate -- especially good for evening stock-making, but quicker is safer in general when cooling broth.
Anonymous
This is almost the same recipe that I learned from my Dad. The only difference is that we have always used a pair of pliers to crack the large bones (thigh, leg, drumette). This releases all of the flavor from the marrow more efficiently. It make the flavor much richer. I do the same with leftover chicken carcasses. My wife calls it "Liquid Gold!"