Hugh,
This article is a good start to a problem solving dilemma. It definitely requires a mindset change, but that’s achievable for everyone. The best book I ever read, back in the late 80s, on this subject is Re/Uses: 2133 Ways to Recycle and Reuse the Things You Ordinarily Throw Away by Carolyn Jabs, published in 1985. – T.S.
o o o
Hugh,
When I have plenty of scraps, I do just as the author suggests (and as Julia Child had suggested in her book!) and make soup stock with them, canning them for later use. It makes for wonderful, flavorful soup stock! A lot of times, before I have filtered the scraps out, my husband eats the soup as is–and he has never complained. I gave up trying to tell him those were the junk ends and were supposed to be thrown out. Apparently, they still taste good, and he often has several bowls of this soup. After the scraps are filtered out, they go to the chickens for their third life. 🙂
As an example, right after Christmas, frozen turkeys were marked down to 49 cents a pound. I canned the meat from two of them and then took the carcasses and all of my freezer scraps and made stock. I canned 17 quarts of really flavorful stock that I am still enjoying!
As one more suggestion, there is a lot of talk these days about the health benefits of bone broth. With larger bones, you can cook them in a pressure cooker until the bones are easily breakable (or leave them in longer for the bones to dissolve) to get at the marrow, which can also flavor your soups and stocks. – L.B.