Time to prepare your Thanksgiving turkey! No one wants to eat raw turkey meat, so learn to cook your turkey the per-pound way!

First, select a turkey size depending on the number of guest you plan to serve the turkey to. Here’s a quick turkey to guest ratio:

• 8 guests – 12-pound turkey
• 10 guests – 15-pound turkey
• 12 guests – 18-pound turkey

How long does it take to cook a turkey the per pound way? Using the per-round, it’s 15 minutes per pound.

To get the best tasting and moist turkey meat, you’ll have to soak (or bathe) your turkey in turkey brine overnight. Here’s Chris Durr’s turkey brine recipe and instructions to get you started:

One gallon of vegetable or chicken broth (homemade ones taste better, but you’re probably out of time to make one).

One gallon of tap water.

One cup of sugar for the sweetening.

One cup of salt.

Four to five tablespoons of spices: (I like thyme a little pepper and cinnamon, and rosemary, personally).

Bring all these ingredients to a boil, and pop that bird into your turkey brine. You need to let him soak overnight in your refrigerator.

That turkey brine recipe will make your bird moist and delicious, but if for some reason you’re interested in a traditional roasting, you may want to just thaw it in water. Estimate that a frozen turkey needs to soak for about 30 minutes per pound.

Start the cooking in the morning and enjoy your turkey!