Revival of a Prodigy

Leftovers, for many, are some of the most treasured meals post-Thanksgiving. My refrigerator was stocked to the fullest for several days with tupperware, extra ingredients, etc. In normal circumstances, this would be a very welcome scenario. Unfortunately, my energy was entirely drained after hosting Thanksgiving for a sizable crowd. That being said, there was no way I wasn’t about to indulge in a leftover party with friends. Remarkably, there was hardly a shred of leftover turkey meat; yet I still had a huge turkey carcass to deal with…which of course led me to making a delicious, filling stock for leftover Turkey Soup.
As I mentioned, we had NO turkey meat left – you can certainly make turkey soup with nothing more than vegetables and noodles, but the thought of a meatless turkey soup seemed silly. If you also happen to find yourself in this predicament, there are a few options. The first is to go with the obvious substitute, chicken – though it won’t have (quite) the same taste as turkey, the broth will still be plenty flavorful. You can also buy cheap turkey parts – the day after Thanksgiving, stores are desperate to shed all those extra “turkey pounds,” and will have pretty good sales on wings, legs, etc. (just talk to your butcher). I went with the latter and bought turkey wings that I roasted for about 45 minutes at 375 degrees.
Turkey soup has the same basic principles as chicken soup – the only difference being that, while chicken soup can be prepared with a fresh or leftover chicken carcass, turkey soup is far more practical as a post-turkey meal option. You can certainly go purchase individual turkey parts to create your own stock, but it makes much more sense (and yields way more flavor) if you use an entire carcass. It’s also a lighter follow-up to all the indulgent Thanksgiving dishes you had two (or three) servings of the day before. To see how I made this delicious, heartwarming soup, click HERE.
For this musical pairing, I wanted to bring the attention back to my Mahler pairing from the Roast Turkey post. Mahler’s music was relatively obscure until the 20th century, and part of this revival was thanks to the conductor Leonard Bernstein. He recorded the first full cycle of Mahler’s nine symphonies, placing the music of Mahler back in the limelight. So with that, I thought it would be nice to showcase a piece by the conductor (also a composer) who helped “bring back” Mahler, and went with Bernstein’s Symphonic Suite from “On the Waterfront.” Composed in 1955, this suite is based on the film score for the Marlon Brando classic. Bernstein would commence a Mahler Festival with the New York Philharmonic 5 years later – enjoy!