I know, this is a little late as you all cooked your turkey already. But I didn't want to write about it before I tried it myself.

I can say now, with confidence, that the best way to cook a turkey is to BRINE it before cooking it.

What is "brining" anyway? it is an old technique used for curing and preserving meats. But it can be used very successfully for making poultry meats very tender, juicy and flavorful. The basics of the technique is to use lots of salt diluted in water and submerge the bird in the solution for an extended period of time. The salt basically changes the structure of the muscle tissue to increase its capacity to hold moisture.

So here is what to do:

• In a large container with about 2 gallons of water (more or less depending on the size of your turkey) dissolve about 2 full cups of Kosher salt (the very coarse type). And don't worry about the quantity - it will not make your turkey salty.
• Add other liquids and ingredients as you please. I added some honey and some soy sauce. I also added some herbs (rosemary, thyme, etc.) and some cut up garlic heads.
• Make sure everything dissolves and mixes real well in the liquid.
• Submerge the turkey completely in the resulting liquid.
• Refrigerate the container and let it rest for a day or so.

One main challenge to this process is to find a refrigerator large enough to fit the container. In my case I had no problem because I kept it in my walk-in refrigerator at Mezzanotte. But what to do if you don't own a restaurant? Hopefully you have an extra refrigerator in your garage that you use to store sodas, white wines, etc. But if you don't have an extra refrigerator there is still one last thing you can do: use a picnic cooler. Fill the picnic cooler with the brining liquid and submerge your turkey. Top it with a good quantity of ice and close. Check several hours later to see if you need to add more ice.

After a day or so of brining your turkey take it out and dry it thoroughly with paper towels. Throw away the brining solution. From here on just cook your turkey any way you want. I just added salt and pepper and roasted it in the oven. The result was an outstandingly juice and flavorful turkey.

I hope you enjoy this technique!