Cooking a whole turkey can be a daunting prospect for both the uninitiated and experienced turkey roasters among us. There are important decisions you need to make: What size turkey do I need? Should I roast, smoke or fry? Do I absolutely need to brine a turkey or can I skip this step?

But first things first: before any turkey cooking can take place, the turkey must be prepared (brine or no brine), and even if you don’t plan to worry much about the bird, you can’t skip the defrosting step. The frozen turkey you pick up at the grocery store should have enough time to move from the freezer to the refrigerator to thaw completely before you can put it in the oven, smoker, or deep fryer.

When should you put a frozen turkey in the refrigerator?

The general rule of thumb is to thaw a frozen turkey in the refrigerator for at least four days or up to one week before Thanksgiving.

Lindgren recommends following the following guidelines rule of six hours per pound. Lindgren says he uses the six-hour-per-pound rule and gives the following example: “If you have a 16-pound turkey, you should refrigerate it for 96 hours, or four days.” Lindgren adds that it is “always better to add some extra time just to be safe. You don’t want to cook a turkey that’s still frozen in the middle.”

How should a frozen turkey be stored in the refrigerator?

Store any frozen turkey you are trying to thaw in the refrigerator in its original packaging. Lindgren also recommends placing the turkey on the lowest possible shelf in the refrigerator.

Because the bird will release liquids as it thaws, you should also place it in a large mixing bowl or pot, not just directly on the shelf, says Lindgren. Liquid that leaks from the turkey during thawing can end up on other food and this is something you definitely want to avoid due to contamination.

“If you don’t have a large enough bowl or jar, you can place it in a clean garbage bag to catch any liquid that may leak out,” says Lindgren.

Can you put a frozen turkey in a cooler if you don’t have enough free space in the refrigerator?

If you’re running out of room in your refrigerator, a cooler isn’t a good backup plan for your frozen bird. Lindgren explains that it is much more difficult to measure the temperature in your cooler, when your refrigerator is typically between 38 and 40 degrees Fahrenheit. For this reason, “It’s difficult to use the same rules you would use in the refrigerator for defrosting if you’re not sure what the temperature is in the cooler,” Lindgren explains.

However, you can move a turkey that has had time to thaw in the refrigerator to a cooler filled with plenty of ice if you’re concerned about running out of room for other items in the run-up to the big turkey dinner.

Can you thaw a frozen turkey in the sink or in a large vat on the counter?

Technically, you can thaw a turkey on the counter or in the sink, says Lindgren, but the trick is to submerge the turkey in water and change the water for fresh water every 30 to 60 minutes. “If you do this, it will take 30 minutes per pound to thaw,” says Lindgren, noting that a 16-pound turkey will take eight hours to thaw — and that’s at least eight water changes and as many as 16.