How To Use Those Turkey Bag Juices Properly

[Sqwertz]

The "juices" from the bag of turkey make the base of a fine gravy
if remove all the blood plasma proteins and coagulation factors
that will make your gravy sludgy.

Drain the juices from the bag into a big microwave-safe bowl by
just nicking a little hole in the bag between the legs.

https://i.postimg.cc/zv1b7hkn/Turkey-Bag-Juice.jpg

Looks like it would make a great gravy, right? NOT YET!

Heat that bowl in the microwave (NOT on the stove - you don't want
it to boil). I used 5 minutes for this approx quart of 'juice'.
Let it sit in there another 5 minutes.

Take it without barfing. It doesn't look so great now, does it?

https://i.postimg.cc/T2rWwkRQ/Tuirkey-Bag-Juice-Afetr-Coagulatiion.jpg

What you're seeing is the solid proteins in blood plasma from the
turkey, including those 'coagulation factors' that keep us (and
turkeys) from bleeding to death if we get cut and start to bleed.

Scoop those out into a strainer - it's a sponge-like material that
sticks together pretty well and scoops out in big globs.

https://i.postimg.cc/J0cy2hTS/Turkey-Bag-Juice-Coagulation-Straining.jpg

Now roll that around in the strainer just by using a circular
motion - Do Not Press it or shake too hard. The trapped broth in
the sponge will release itself leaving you with pure sludge and
clarified broth underneath.

https://i.postimg.cc/j5fnycyx/Turkey-Bag-Juice-Coagulated-and-Strained.jpg

Now you have a great start for you giblet, neck, heart, and wing
to gravy. If you also use the liver in your gravy, add it to the
broth before microwaving and separate it from the sludge
afterwards.

You really want all that grey sludgy stuff in your gravy? It's
tastes pretty bad. But if you're throwing all that bag juice away,
you're wasting good turkey broth/baste. You paid for that 2+
pounds of broth - Use it!

Frank The Turkey is stuffed and ready and is going in to the oven,
upside down, in a little bit.

https://i.postimg.cc/xTrsWj58/Frank-the-Turkey-Raw-2022.jpg

Needless to say, his glass-blowing days are over.

-sw

[Michael Trew]

On 11/24/2022 14:29, Sqwertz wrote:
> The "juices" from the bag of turkey make the base of a fine gravy
> if remove all the blood plasma proteins and coagulation factors
> that will make your gravy sludgy.

I like the concept of removing the solids; the same as you do when
simmering chuck or stew bones to make broth... even though I never have
blood-red turkey drippings like in your first picture.

You lost me at "turkey bag", however. I'll be damned if I'll buy into
the concept that you need a friggin' plastic bag to cook a turkey in.
Gross! I don't care if it's "oven safe", it's utterly unnecessary...
and I'd bet that some chemicals still leech in through that plastic.

[Thomas]

He is talking the original blood and juice in the bag when it is just defrosted.

[Cindy Hamilton]

I think he means the plastic bag that the turkey came in.

I was confused on that score myself, until I read the subsequent
paragraph carefully:

"Drain the juices from the bag into a big microwave-safe bowl by
just nicking a little hole in the bag between the legs."

If it were a turkey cooked in a bag, you wouldn't need to nick a little
hole in between the legs, and the juices would already be cooked.

I'm content to let those delicious juices flow right down the drain.

--
Cindy Hamilton

[Michael Trew]

Oh, my bad, I miss-read that. I know people who insist on cooking a
turkey in an oven bag, and it just ain't natural, man! :)

Yes, I also wash the blood in the package down the drain; I don't care
to mess with that -- although I suppose I could try to simmer it one
year (I won't get a microwave oven just to do so).

[Thomas]

You will never try to simmer it. Ever.
That is the oddest thing I ever heard.