Today’s the day to plan your cooking timeline for Wednesday/Thursday. There’s math involved, so you might want to grab a calculator.

The best way to go about this is to figure out what time you’d like to sit down to eat, and then work backward. Plan time for carving, letting the meat rest after cooking, and the cooking itself. Because I’m dry-brining my bird, my timeline actually starts this evening, when I salt and bag the turkey. I’ll unbag it Wednesday night to give the skin some drying time in the fridge (so the bird browns properly). Here’s how Thursday goes:

• 11:45 a.m. – Stuff and truss turkey
• 12:15 p.m. – Bird in the oven
• 4:15 p.m. – Bird finished and resting
• 4:45 p.m. – Carve
• 5 p.m. – Dinner!

Click here for cooking timetables from the USDA …

You can also call the USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline at 888-674-6854.

Another good thing to do to day is a tablewear check. Serving dishes and china you don’t use on a regular basis might have gotten dusty, and need a wash. An easy way to make sure everything is clean (and that you have enough salad plates, etc. for each guest) is to set the table just the way you will on Thursday.

Tomorrow we’ll talk about make-ahead side dishes.

In preparation for all that cooking you’re going to do Wednesday and Thursday, the USDA advises a thorough kitchen clean-up today. That means hit the refrigerator, counters, appliances, cutting boards, and everything else you’ll be using. They recommend sanitizing with 1 Tablespoon unscented chlorine bleach per gallon of water. I, however, think that’s a bit harsh – and a hassle. I’ll be using my favorite Earth-friendly cleaner (available locally at Trader Joe’s).

I recommend you use what you like. My only caution is to ditch your kitchen sponges in favor of either plain rags or paper towels. Wet sponges are the perfect little incubators for exactly the type of bacteria you’re trying to eradicate with all this cleaning!

Today I’m also headed out to purchase my fresh turkey. The USDA recommends waiting until Tuesday for this, but I need to start dry-brining my bird tomorrow and so need it ready and waiting.

I asked Russ Parsons, Food Editor of the Los Angeles Times, about this particular USDA edict, and he was kind enough to weigh in via e-mail. “The USDA does a lot of things well, but advising on turkey is not one of them,” he says. “First they insisted for years, against all scientific evidence, that the bird needed to be cooked to 180 degrees to be safe, something that guaranteed dry, flavorless meat. Their recommendation for one- to two-day storage for fresh turkey is similarly nonsensical. In the first place, most butchers only get a couple of deliveries a week. So are you counting one or two days since slaughter? One or two day since delivery? Or one or two days since purchase? Thanksgiving is the holiday when kitchens are most filled with beginning cooks who do sometimes need protecting from themselves. But there’s got to be a better way to do it than this.”

So there you have it, folks. This man has been putting safe and delicious turkey dinners on the table for decades. I, for one, am trusting his wisdom and experience and getting my bird today.

Tomorrow we’ll talk about Thursday’s cooking timetable.

If you’re going to buy a frozen bird and don’t already have it, now’s the time for a trip to the market. Buying your bird today means you’ll have time to defrost it in the least labor-intensive way, by leaving it in the fridge.

The USDA says to allow about 24 hours of thawing time for every four to five pounds your turkey weighs. That means a 16-pound bird needs about three to four days to thaw.

The agency also says to leave your turkey in its original wrapper, but I’ve got a better idea. Since your bird has to cool its heels (do turkeys have heels?) for a few days while it thaws, kill two birds with one stone and flavor the meat at the same time!

Russ Parsons described a great technique called dry-brining in Wednesday’s Los Angeles Times Food section. It’s like regular brining but without the bucket. You basically rub the meat with a mixture of salt and herbs, bag it and let it rest a few days while the flesh soaks in the flavor. Click here to read Russ’s article! 

Whether or not you dry-brine, as a health writer I feel compelled to remind you to take care when slinging that raw bird around the kitchen. Bag it up tight if you’re brining. And either way, keep it refrigerated and put it on a tray big enough to catch any juices that leak out. You don’t want that possibly-bacteria-laden poultry juice all over the rest of your food. It could bring you a nasty stomach bug otherwise known as “foodborne illness.” Remember to scrub down hands, counters, and anything else the raw meat touches.

Tomorrow we’ll talk about the Saturday kitchen scrubdown.