Turkey Soup Recipes are Treasured Heirlooms
My favorite turkey soup recipes came from my MomMom. She was my mother’s mother and was a wonderful cook. I have fond memories of her in the kitchen. She always wore an apron to protect her dress, and this was a time when women always wore dresses. (Gee, I’m aging myself!). Some of my favorite things my MomMom cooked were her soups. We used to say they were thick enough to walk across, especially her turkey noodle soup. My grandparents lived in West Virginia. My grandfather was a Methodist minister. My mother was born in 1929, the beginning of the Great Depression, a hard time in American history. Her older brother was 7. My grandparents, like a lot of other people had to learn to do without during those lean years and they had to learn to be more self sufficient. This was the time when my MomMom started really cooking soups of all kinds, especially turkey soup. Some of these turkey soup recipes came from her.
Turkey Soup Recipes Using all Fresh Ingredients
I was very surprised when my mother gave me my MomMom’s turkey soup recipes and I was anxious to try them. Of course, like a lot of older recipes that get passed down there weren’t any ingredient amounts. I wasn’t too surprised about this, but I knew that if I wanted to make delicious turkey noodle soup like my MomMom did I was going to have to do a bit of work. My Mom and I talked about MomMom’s soup. She remembered as a child that her parents raised all their own vegetables. Her mother had a particular fondness for herbs and she included herbs in a lot of her cooking. She also remembers most of the church members not having any money, so my grandfather was often paid for his services with food. There was always a supply of fresh vegetables. Neighboring farmers supplied them with meat from beef cattle and pigs. One neighbor raised chicken and turkeys. They had neighbor ladies who sometimes made pasta by hand. Hence MomMom’s turkey soup recipes were born.
Trying to Make Turkey Soup Recipes Today Taste as Good as MomMom’s
Of course the first thing I did was bake turkey! I knew that the turkey soup recipes needed flavorful stock. I didn’t bake a whole turkey, I decided to make it easy on myself and bake two turkey breasts. (Of course you can cook a whole turkey and add the giblets to the stock for even more flavor). The turkey breasts were simply, but amply, seasoned with salt and pepper. Once they were cooked I sliced them. We ate some of the meat for dinner, some of the meat I froze and some of the meat was saved to add to the soup. I always allow a bit of meat to remain on the bones while they cook to add flavor. I added carrots, a large yellow onion and celery to the stock, as well as a bay leaf, parsley pepper a bit of celery salt. I also add some of the chicken skin for added flavor. I did not let my stock come to a boil. MomMom’s turkey soup recipes say to not let the stock boil as it may turn it bitter. I let the stock simmer gently about 3 hours.
Delicious Turkey Soup Following MomMom’s Turkey Soup Recipes
I strained the stock through a fine strainer to remove all the bones and veggies. As I wanted to make these turkey soup recipes as authentic as I could I decided against using any frozen vegetables. I added cooked fresh green beans, cooked fresh carrots, cooked fresh peas and lima beans. I had blanched corn I had frozen during the summer, so I cooked that and remove the kernels. I cooked cubed white potatoes and added them. I made about 9 cups of soup. As it was it was a very thick soup. I thought of adding some chicken stock to thin it out so I could add some macaroni but decided against it. This turkey soup recipe was more like a thick stew, a thick delicious stew. I think MomMom would have been proud of my efforts. As I added the salt and pepper I kept track of how much I used. This was a very classic turkey soup recipe that didn’t call for any added herbs or spices. The next recipe I want to try time I cook one of her turkey soup recipes I’ll be sure to hold back on adding veggies so that I can add macaroni.