Today, on an all-new Let’s Get Real…”I have a bone to pick with you”…Why would anyone throw away their turkey carcass? Bones are culinary gold, basically a free bonus with purchase, an extra hidden meal, inside the meal. Like a big, bony prize at the bottom of your crackerjacks box, but way better! Generally speaking, the bones and shells of animals have more flavor than the animals themselves! That’s why I have little crumpled bags and random containers of shrimp shells and chicken backs and duck necks crowding my freezer, that’s where the flavor its. I hoard them, because as a chef, that’s where the real value of a food comes from, the flavor and versatility of the bones and shells. That’s REAL. It doesn’t get any more real and anti-foodiness than cooking bones, does it? I mean, have you ever seen ANY Foodiness™ products based on the eating or cooking of bones? The only Foodiness™ bones I can think of are for pets, like bone-shaped doggie biscuits. But ask any dog what he’d prefer, and I’m sure a bloody, greasy steer tibia is WAY tastier than a green Milk-Bone. But as for Foodiness™ bone snacks for people? They’re coming, oh yes, I’m sure they’re coming.
I suppose some of those “calcium-added” products out there, have been pumped up with bone meal, or calcium extracted from bones, but I’ve yet to see anything like “New, One-a-Day Crunchy Bone Vita-Chips for Women! A fun, caveman-like way to get your calcium on, now in pumpkin-spice flavor” You can channel your inner Pebbles Flintstone! But I’m sure it’s coming too…maybe a variety pack with different little bone shapes, even, like little femurs and ribs and vertebrae? Like when I was little and took Flintstones chewable vitamins, I always wanted the Dino ones first, because they were purple and tasted the best. I never liked eating the Fred’s. Who wants to eat Fred?
So join me today, for a trip down the Foodiness™ rabbit-hole to the bone-yard, to talk turkey (carcasses) Paleo, and hipster broths.