If you've got a Thanksgiving turkey over 12 pounds, you should've started thawing before today. If you're behind schedule—or just want to know more about the ins and outs of thawing your bird—the folks from Butterball have some suggestions.


The video above comes from the official Butterball site (the woman in the video is awesome), courtesy of their classic Turkey Talk-Line (1-800-BUTTERBALL). In a nutshell, here's what you need to know:

Defrosting takes 24 hours for every four pounds of Turkey. After your turkey's thawed, it can be kept in the refrigerator for up to four days. If this is the first time you're hearing this, you may already be a touch behind schedule, since most turkeys are 12 pounds and over.


If you're in a pinch and don't have time for the long refrigerator thaw, you can submerge the whole turkey (still in the packaging) breast-side down in cold water. The submersion method will thaw your turkey at a rate of about 30 minutes per pound. (It'll go more quickly if you regularly change the water, since it'll cool very quickly with your frozen turkey.)

The video ends with a big Butterball plug, but you should be able to use these thawing techniques for pretty much any frozen poultry.

Thaw a Turkey [Butterball]