I had my sister save a Holdays turkey carcass (22lb bird) in her freezer until I could visti and make stock. (She’d have tossed it!) Now I’m looking at 4+ gallons of strained and mainly defatted stock. Did not gelatinize in the fridge over 20 hours, but perhaps another 24 would make some difference.
But it did make me wonder: is going for a gelatinizing reduction really what one would want from turkey soup? I know I’ll reserve some to reduce heavily to make something like a demi-glace in ice cubes to use for sauces. But I do wonder if a turkey soup can be, in effect, TOO unctuous?
Whether your stock gelatinized has less to do with level of reduction, and more with what you used to make the stock to begin with.
If you used simply bones, no matter how you reduce it, you’re not going to get jell-o.
But if you started off with things like neck, wings, back, feet – i.e., things with lots of cartilage – you’ll get good jiggly stock even without hours of reduction.
I don’t intentionally go for it, but I don’t remember making stock that didn’t gel at least somewhat, so maybe you did have too much water for the cartilage & skin used, and it would benefit from at least some reduction.
Maybe reduce a gallon or two by 25-30% and see what happens.
I’m not sure there is a “right” answer to this question. Does it taste good? If it tastes good, it will make good soup. It sounds, from your description, that maybe it will taste a little watery (or “thin”) but if not, no worries.
But if you made 4 gallons . . . I’d reduce it, maybe even by 1/2. 4 gallons from one carcass seems like a lot. I know you probably needed that much water to cover all the bones but that doesn’t mean it’s the right amount for the final stock.
Honestly, I would probably reduce it down even further because the amount of freezer space that will take up will be significant. You can always thin it back out with more water once you want to use it with no real issue at all. When I make a batch that big, I reduce it beyond what you’d think and then pour it into cookie sheets (pyrex pans, etc) and chill it. It turns into very stiff “jello” (anyone remember knox blox?). Cut it into squares, freeze on a separate cookie sheet, then freeze in a ziploc bag. Just pop out a square and dilute to desired consistency. (Many say they do this in ice cube trays, I just don’t have very many of those).
Also I have observed that I get more gelatinous, more deeply flavored stock when I use locally raised chicken or turkey as opposed to a bird bought at the supermarket. I was surprised at the difference. Sometimes no matter how long I simmer, I can’t get a good-tasting stock from a supermarket bird let alone one with some gelatin. So there’s that.
Too unctuous? Not sure about that. It is the taste you’re after, no?
What probably happened is that since you used a cooked carcass, it had already given up some of it’s good stuff to the roasting pan. And 4 gallons does seem like a lot.
If you do decide to reduce, try throwing a few raw chicken wings or backs into the pot when you do for more gelatin.
