Every year I order a wild / heritage turkey. They taste far better than anything you could get in a store, and they lived longer, happier, more environmentally sensitive, turkey lives. That said they are also a lot more expensive and so I like to use every last bit of turkey.
And so each year I make stock from what remains after the turkey is carved. Here is the process I use.
As the turkey is carved I have my largest stock pot standing by. We put the carcass, skin, wing tips and other bones into the stock pot. I also put in any pan drippings and then cover with water, Then I put it on a back burner, raise the heat to a boil and then loosely cover the pot reduce the heat to keep it gently boiling while we eat, have dessert, and clean up. It requires no real maintenance but it needs to boil for about four hours. The carcass will fall apart. When it does you can allow the liquid to begin boiling away because the amount of liquid needed to cover the carcass will be much less once the connective tissue holding it together falls apart.
After two hours you can decide how you want to handle the remains. You can strain the stock and toss the remains or, if you are as thrifty as I am, you can pick out the good meat and just toss the bones, the cartilage which will have turned clear, the skin, and any really unusable shreds of meat.
I use that remaining meat (I often have 4 cups or more) to make turkey chili or turkey noodle soup.
I also boil down my strained stock until I have what will, once chilled, become dense turkey consomme. I then freeze it to make turkey soup, turkey gravy and stuffing next Thanksgiving.
Hey, living gluten free is expensive enough, here is one way to save a few bucks.
