First timer’s guide to the perfect turkey

Several years ago, I co-hosted a Thanksgiving feast for a group of friends—a ragtag group of San Francisco transplants who for various reasons couldn’t make it home to celebrate with their families. My co-host and I, as small apartment dwellers, had never hosted a single dinner party between the two of us, much less did we have any command over the the primary responsibility of a Thanksgiving host—cooking the turkey. Stacks of step-by-step recipe printouts and numerous phone calls to our moms throughout the day still couldn’t save us: we wound up cooking the bird with a bag of giblets still inside. (It still tasted fine, thanks to the giblets’ cook-proof bag that we learned was oven-safe after the fact. Call it beginners’ luck.)

The one thing that could have helped us more than anything? These videos, from Sunset and several of our sister brands, that walk you through the most confusing parts of cooking a turkey, no help from Mom needed.

How to Prepare a Turkeyfrom RealSimple.com[youtube

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How to Make a Thanksgiving Turkey That Bastes Itselffrom FoodandWine.com[youtube

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How To Take a Turkey’s Temperaturefrom RealSimple.com[youtube

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How to Carve a Turkeyfrom CookingLight.com[youtube

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And, for you pros who are looking to step up your turkey game, here’s our tutorial on how to grill a turkey on a gas grill:[youtube

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Get more must-have Thanksgiving tips and delicious recipes at sunset.com/thanksgiving.