Rinse the chicken and neck well and place them in a very large pot or kettle. If you are using a frozen fowl, don’t bother defrosting it. Add the bouillon cubes and the cut-up vegetables, parsley, peppercorns, and garlic. Cover completely with cold water and bring to a simmer.

Cover the pot, leaving the lid off center so that some steam escapes. Cook for 2 hours over very low heat. The soup should be just barely simmering. Let the soup cool with the chicken in it for an additional half-hour at room temperature, and then strain off the liquid. You should have about 3 quarts liquid.

Refrigerate the soup until very cold and then scrape off the fat that has solidified on top and discard it. You can use the cooked chicken for chicken salad or add it back to the soup before serving. (It won’t have much taste.) Discard the cooked vegetables (or eat them out of the bottom of the pot the way I do).

Reheat the soup and taste before adding any additional vegetables or seasoning. If the soup is very undersalted, I like to add another bouillon cube rather than straight salt; try adding one-half a cube at a time to avoid oversalting. I like lots of pepper in my soup. Add the remaining vegetables and cook only until they are tender.