Carve Your Thanksgiving Turkey Like a Butcher
If the crown of family turkey-carver is weighing heavy on your head this Thanksgiving, the New York Times gets advice on how to carve the perfect turkey from New York butcher Ray Venezia. His trick: Take it off the table.

Instead of slicing the meat from the roast at the table, Mr. Venezia's carving protocol calls for the biggest pieces, the breasts and the thighs, to be removed whole, then boned and sliced on a cutting board. "Trying to carve from the carcass is like trying to cut it off a beach ball: it's all curved surfaces and it moves around under the knife," he said. "Give me a flat cutting board any time."

The article is also accompanied by both a step-by-step photo guide to turkey carving (above) as well as an excellent six and a half minute video. The carving goes in this order, cutting out pieces of meat in whole chunks:

  1. Start with the dark meat (legs and thighs).
  2. Move onto the wings.
  3. Remove the breast meat whole (this is some expert cutting—again, be sure to check the video for details).

Finally, carve up that breast meat against the grain. Whether or not you're already comfortable with your carving chops, the article's tips and the video are sure to make for an easier carve this holiday. If you consider yourself an artist in turkey sculpting, let's hear how you do it in the comments.