Today is a rainy, damp day.  I'm at home alone.  I have a pot of soup simmering on the stove.  The smokey rich scent fills the kitchen.

Wait!  Smokey scent?  

Yes, let me explain.

Whenever my mother made a pot of soup, she bought a chicken and boiled it.  This made a lovely, clean, light soup, wonderful just as a broth with carrots and noodles, or cappelletti.  My grandmother often made soup differently.  She always roasted the chicken first.  One night she served it for dinner, the next day she made soup out of the carcass.  Her soup had a deeper color and flavor.

Using the carcass of an already cooked bird does the same thing for soup that browning the meat does for stew.  It adds a caramel richness and deep flavor.  The added bonus is that you actually want to eat the meat.  Frankly, soup meat is tasteless.  We never discard a carcass after a barbecue.  We pop them in the deep freeze for later.  Thanksgiving is like Carcass Christmas to me, and I've been know to sneak away from many a meal with turkey bones squirreled away in my trunk.  

When friends have a new baby, we always come visit with a meal.  Our favorite is to hot smoke a chicken.  Pull off the breast and make soup from the rest.  We bring a meal of chicken breast, and sides and soup for a future meal.

Making great soup isn't hard.  It just requires time and a few tips.  

What makes the best soup?  Any bird at all!  I've used chicken, turkey and duck.  I've used them separately and together.  After a barbecue, I sometimes can't identify which bones are which and just freeze them all together.  Chicken makes the lightest soup.  Turkey is my personal favorite.  Duck makes a strong broth which is better for cooking into risotto, couscous or gravy than as a broth.  No one has ever given me a pheasant, but I love their meat so I bet they make great soup!

Your Freezer is your Best Friend!  Most people barbecue in the hot months, not usually when you want soup.  Just pop all those bones in the freezer.  Remember to break them down first, or you'll have a huge frozen turkey that won't fit into the pot.  Remember to label the bags, too.

Be Patient.  Bones need to simmer for over 3 hours before the collagen begins to extract.  The collagen is what gives a great bowl of broth that silky, rich feeling in your mouth.  A good fowl soup should look like jelly when chilled, and that takes time.  By three hours of cooking you've gotten all the flavor, but not until four hours will you get that super richness that makes a great stock.

Careful with the Salt.  When using a pre-cooked carcass, don't salt until the end.  The bird was salted when cooked, maybe even brined or marinated so there's already salt there.  Wait until the end to salt the pot.

Here's my recipe:

Fowl Soup

Ingredients:
1 large (or 2 small) poultry carcass
1 large carrot, snapped into pieces
2 celery sticks, snapped into pieces
1 large onion, cut into quarters
12 cups of water
sage
black peppercorns
salt

Directions:
Break up the bones and place in a large stock pot, or crock pot.  Add the carrot, celery and onion.  It is not necessary to peal the onion.  The skins will give a great color to the soup.  Add about 3 quarts of water, sage (dried or fresh) and several whole peppercorns.  Using whole makes it easy to strain them out at the end.

Simmer for about 3 hours with the lid on.  Taste and salt as necessary.  The soup may still taste a little weak at this point.  Remove the lid and sinner another hour.  Strain the soup into another pot and discard all the solids.  You should be left with between 8 and 10 cups of soup.  Let cool.  

I measure my soup into freezer bags, placing 2 cups into each bag and freeze them flat on a cookie sheet.  Then the bags can be stored in the freezer stacked flat or upright.  I've found 2 cups is the amount I most often want for cooking, but you could freeze 4 cup quantities, too.

So this is the story as I remember it.  I was out for the day with some friends while my husband was at a bachelor party.  I get a call on my cell phone from him and our fellow back-yard bbq host, Kevin, saying we have a new member of the team.  Don't I get to meet him first?  I asked.  Well, no, we already asked him to join.  But he made these great things called strabeneros, and when you taste one, you'll understand why we didn't consult you.  I can't wait, I said.  Oh, well, they're all gone.  But he'll make them again!

Chuck’s Strawbaneros

Ingredients:
1 pint   Strawberries
1 or 2   Habaneros, finely minced, seeds removed
2 tbl     Balsamic vinegar
1 Tbsp  Butter
¼ cup  Sugar
2 oz      chocolate

Directions:

Hull the strawberries and set them upside down on paper towels to drain.

Cream the butter with the sugar.  Stir in the habaneros and vinegar.  Taste for flavor balance.

Fill each strawberry with a small amount of filling.

Dip the strawberry tips into melted chocolate.

Being from New England, Autumn means apple cider doughnuts.  This is Cris's take on a classic.  If you can get good quality apple cider from your local orchard, these will be better than if you use filtered cider from the grocery store, but either way, you'll get a better doughnut than any chain store can offer you.

Ingredients

Doughnuts
2                      Red Apples, like Cortland or McIntosh
1 ½ Cups       Apple Cider
3 ½ Cups       Flour
4 tsp                baking powder
¼ tsp              baking soda
1 ½ tsp           ground cinnamon
1 tsp                salt
¼ tsp              nutmeg
2/3 Cups        sugar
3 T                  vegetable shortening
1                      large egg, plus 1 egg yolk
¼ Cup            Buttermilk
1 tsp                vanilla
Vegetable oil for frying

Glaze
1 Cup              Apple Cider
¼ Cup            Confectioners Sugar

Topping
1 Cup              Sugar
2 tsp                Cinnamon

Directions

1.       Core and chop apples, do no peel.  Combine with 1 ½ Cups of cider in a medium pot over medium heat.  Cover and cook until soft, about 8 minutes.  Uncover and cook until the cider is almost completely reduced, about 5 minutes.  Puree with an immersion blender or food processor until smooth.  You should have about 1 cup.  If you have more, boil to reduce further.

2.      Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, 1 ½ tsp cinnamon, salt and nutmeg together in a bowl.

3.      Beat 2/3 cup sugar and shortening with a mixer until sandy.  Beat in the egg and egg yolk.  Mix in the apple mixture, scraping the bowl.  Beat in half the flour mixture, then the buttermilk and vanilla, then the remaining flour mixture.

4.      Scrape dough onto a floured piece of parchment paper and pat into a rectangle about ½ inch thick.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight.

5.      Make the glaze: Simmer the remaining 1 cup cider in a small saucepan until reduced to ¼ cup.  Whisk in the confectioners sugar until smooth and glossy.  Set aside.  Make the topping:  Mix the remaining 1 cup granulated sugar and 2 tsp cinnamon and set aside.

6.      Heat 2 inches of oil in a Dutch oven to 350 degrees F.  Line a baking sheet with paper towels.  Cut the chilled dough into rounds with a 2 ½ or 3 inch biscuit cutter, then cut out the middles with a 1-inch biscuit cutter.  You can also use a doughnut cutter, or cut the dough into rounds without the hole.  You can even just cut the dough into squares with a knife.  Any shape will taste good.  (We have a cookie cutter shaped like an apple!)

7.      Cook 2 or 3 doughnuts at a time, frying 1 or 2 minutes per side until golden brown.  Drain on paper towels.

8.     Dip one side of each doughnut into the glaze and dip the glazed side into the cinnamon sugar.  Serve warm.